50 years ago today - Feb 4, 1975-Tuesday

[Leonard Arrington]

At the meeting with the [Historical Department] advisors, Brother Hunter and Brother McConkie, I took occasion to mention the difficult position we are in having in mind two goals which are sometimes incompatible: (a) Writing informative and inspiring history for members of the Church; (b) writing sound books and articles for professional and university use. I mentioned the importance of the latter by indicating what sources on the Mormons are presently being used in university classes. I mentioned examples of articles in Encyclopedia Britannica and other such basic reference works. I pointed out that we are often criticized both by the scholarly world for being too pro church and by the Church people for bending over too far to get the support of the scholarly community.

Brother McConkie said, "Don't worry, we are not criticizing you; we're not being critical of what you do."

After the meeting Sister Florence Jacobsen was asked by us to tell us what the basis was for the release of Brother Jay Welch as director of the Tabernacle Choir. She said that several years ago [Jay Welsh began receiving a $12,000 salary for some of the tedious work he had been asked to do]. ...

After discontinuance of the MIA, the Mormon Youth Symphony was made an independent agency not part of the MIA which was now being dropped, so it was placed in the hands of Brother Welch.

After Brother Welch was appointed director of the Tabernacle Choir, they went through an auditing of his accounts-that is, the accounts of the Mormon Youth Symphony. This was done under the direction of Elder Boyd Packer. Elder Packer discovered through the auditing that Brother Welch had received something in the neighborhood of $12,000 a year at the time when he was administrator of the funds of the Mormon Youth Symphony. Without giving him or Sister Jacobson or Brother [Carlos] Smith the opportunity of defending or explaining this policy and action, Brother Packer went to the president of the Church and demanded Brother Welch resign, which was done. Apparently the First Presidency did not investigate this matter and simply accepted the recommendation of Elder Packer. Florence now indicates that she may go to President Kimball to explain to him just what happened so that they would be more forgiving and more understanding of Brother Welch. She said it was her belief
and the belief of many people who were connoisseurs of music that he was head and shoulders above any other person in the Church as director of the Tabernacle Choir and far more devoted to the Church and his calling than many others. And anyway, now that Brother Welch is not available to do these arrangements, they are having to pay others to do them. She thinks Brother Welch will be reappointed director of the Choir at April conference. ...

Sister Jacobsen said Elder Packer was very millennialistic in his thinking-very idealistic and severe in his standards of theology and deportment. This sometimes made him seem harsh, judgmental, and impractical in dealing with real people and real problems. Perhaps also (I add) he feels a little insecurity in dealing with people and problems.

[Confessions of a Mormon historian : the diaries of Leonard J. Arrington, 1971-1997, Gary James Bergera, editor, Signature Books, 2018]

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