Eyring found that the Henry Eyring was "an old shoe kind of guy, who impressed both Nobel scientists and gas station attendants. He was clear in his mind that he could be fearless, aspire to solve problems, yet be happy enough to laugh at himself when he couldn't solve a problem. He treated everyone as if they were his brothers and sisters."

Eyring was also surprised to learn how much his grandfather's faith in science rested on LDS Church founder Joseph Smith. "He saw Smith as an eager seeker of truth, not himself perfect, and he said he didn't even understand the science himself."

The author sees his famous relative as a man of humility: "The more he studied, the more humble it made him. Einstein died looking for a unified field theory explaining gravity — and it hasn't been done yet. It's an intellectual playground, but omnipotence is a long way off. Most of us feel learned when we know more than the next guy. That didn't happen to Grandpa because he always measured his knowledge against God's. There would always be things between science and religion that couldn't be reconciled."

In the book, "Mormon Scientist: The Life and Faith of Henry Eyring," Eyring writes about LDS apostle and later President Joseph Fielding Smith's interesting discussions with the senior Eyring about science and religion. They disagreed on some things, but Henry Eyring felt no rancor. "He had disagreements in his laboratory, too. I think President Smith knew who he was working with, too, or he wouldn't have invited him to his office. It was a productive time for both."

In the younger Eyring's opinion, the absolute rate theory is his grandfather's major scientific accomplishment. "If he had stayed at Princeton University, he would have been nominated for a Nobel Prize. By going to Utah to teach at the U., he had more graduate students and influenced a lot more people. As dean of the graduate school, he also worked with a lot of new Ph.D.s."

The senior Eyring was especially well-known for his wry sense of humor. "He was really good at making fun of himself through foot races with his students and desk jumping. He could disarm you, and he always did it at his own expense."

The structure of the book came to Eyring quickly, so he created 14 linear files of materials, "but I was on overload. There was too much good stuff. Then I went to Japan for three years. Elder Maxwell died midway through our mission."

When Eyring returned home, he spent the first seven weeks in a rented home in Rexburg, Idaho, "banging out the book. It was cathartic. I did it for Elder Maxwell. I felt I'd made good."

Illustrating his own humility, the author tried unsuccessfully to persuade Deseret Book to publish the book anonymously. He asked an English editing class at BYU-Idaho to edit the manuscript.

"They improved the manuscript immeasurably," he said.

---

E-mail: dennis@desnews.com