Jamaican's dream soon to come true at BYU

OREM — In 1974, Victor and Verna Nugent became the first Jamaicans on the island to join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The church brought them to Utah a year later for general conference and a tour of church properties, including Brigham Young University.

Struck by what he saw, Victor set a goal that along with their conversion would alter his family's path forever.

"I had been to many other campuses, but I was totally impressed by the way the students looked, the facilities and the spirit we felt on the campus," he said. "We had two children, one 8 and one 5. I prayed that if it was possible, that all my children would be able to come to this university. I promised to do my best to obey the commandments to receive that blessing."

Against long odds, the fifth of the five Nugent children will graduate from BYU next month, 32 years after his father's prayer. And Spencer Nugent will do so after recently winning a prestigious national award for industrial design.

"Four have graduated," Victor said this week. "Spencer is the youngest. That is a great blessing realized. It's just been awesome to me."

Victor's goal was more audacious than he possibly could have known in 1975, even for a well-educated Jamaican who fully understood when he joined the church that he could not hold the priesthood because his skin was black — a ban that would be lifted two years after his conversion when the church announced a revelation.

BYU had undergone explosive growth for two decades, a dramatic trend that would not end until church leadership capped its enrollment at 27,000 and now at about 30,000. Tens of thousands of LDS college-age students who previously would have been admitted to the university no longer qualify.

Additionally, the Nugents were poor Jamaicans. Even though they had a better income than the average Jamaican family, the country's economy was in shambles, making BYU tuition a difficult expense even for a man who himself had majored in chemistry, zoology and botany in college. He once was a budding artist like Spencer. Young Victor Nugent was the first Jamaican to win first prize in the national art competition in both drawing and painting.

"My parents told me they knew too many starving artists, that I couldn't make a living by drawing or painting," Victor said.