American River Institute 40th Anniversary

So way back when, in 1980, Owen was the President of the ARC Institute. This was before Student Wards so everything happened at the Institute. He loved his time there! So all four of us went to the celebration. It was very fun and touching to see the directors from the 1960's to today.

David Whitmer was the director when Owen first went to ARC and Dean Thompson was the advisor to the council. They had wonderful stories to tell. Bro. Thompson told the story of when a White Supremest Group started on campus and targeted the African Americans on campus. The LDSSA wrote up a resolution to be adopted on campus that there can be no group and/or charter that targeted, discriminated or had any hate language of another group. Owen was the person who wrote the resolution and read it to the Student Council on campus that was adopted. Barrett and Gregory were very impressed that their father would do that. I think the boys were really surprised with their dad....generally they are really surprised that we were ever under the age of 40!

Bro. Mike Howell, who is the current Director of the Institute, put together a nice program. All the directors spoke about how they saw the Savior touch the lives of students at the Institute. Then they had students from each decade bear their testimonies. We saw Dean Thompson as we entered the building and he jokingly told Owen that he was on the program to speak. They got a good laugh out of it, but once Bro. Howell realized that he was from the 80's he asked him to speak. Prior to this he had found someone to speak from every other decade but could not located an 80's person. Worked out. He shared a nice testimony of the Change of Heart he saw happen over and over at the Institute. Discovering or building testimonies. It was really a nice evening.

Here is Owen with Bro. David Whitmer. After Owen and I were married and moved down here. Bro. Whitmer was the director of the Sac State Institute. He gave us wise counsel.

Owen with Bro. Dean Thompson. He is enthusiastic. Always has been. Owen worked cleaning the ARC Institute when we returned to Sacramento while Owen was finishing as Sac State. That is were I got to know him. Presently Owen is a temple patron and Bro. Thompson is a worker during the scheduled time Owen goes, so they see each other every week. Cool.