The following remarks are excerpted from an address Michael Wood delivered at the Family, Home, and Social Sciences Fall meeting on August 28, 2024.
Stanley Jay Knapp passed away on June 26, 2024, at the age of 60, after 15 months of battling a glioblastoma brain tumor. He was a beloved colleague, mentor, and friend who served in the Sociology Department for 29 years. His loss is incalculable.
Stan was not content with teaching only the sociological theory canon. Stan aimed much higher, pushing students to interrogate their taken-for-granted ways of thinking about all the relationships that comprise the social world, ranging from dyads and familial relations to covenant relations between God and His people. His teaching had a profound impact on his students.
Here’s a personal example. On September 16, 2010, two days after my 23rd birthday, I attended Stan’s lecture on James Faulconer’s work contrasting Greek and Hebrew thinking.1 The lecture opened my mind to a new way of thinking about the concept of Truth: not as a static thing one can possess, but as a way of being—being True.
This insight shook me, took root, and transformed my religious imagination, eventually leading to new ways of understanding God, discipleship, and testimony. Regarding testimony, I came to see it not just as the capacity to say “I know that the word is true” but as the awareness of the joy of “being true,” of making the word of God effective in your life, of “nourish[ing] the word.”2
I remember this lecture so clearly because it made me feel like the ground beneath me had vanished, leaving me suspended in the air. But instead of falling, I was soaring, seeing the world as if for the first time. After leaving that evening class, I rode my bike around campus in the dark for several hours, trying to understand what I had just learned.
For many years to come, I’ll be where Stan left me that night in 2010, metaphorically and perhaps literally riding my bike around campus, reflecting on the profound legacy of his life and teachings.
Notes
1. See James E. Faulconer, Scripture Study: Tools and Suggestions (The Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1999), appendix 2.
2. See Alma 32:41.
George Ryskamp: Whole-Hearted
George Richard Ryskamp passed away on July 1, 2022, at the age of 72, on the first day of his retirement after working as a professor in the History Department for nearly 30 years.
“[He] gave his whole heart to the family history program at BYU, and the students felt his commitment to them,” says Jill Crandell, former director of the Center for Family History and Genealogy and Ryskamp’s colleague. “His work in Spanish genealogy is well-known in the profession, and he left a legacy with many students who served internships in Spain under his tutelage.”
Ryskamp’s lifelong passion for family history was sparked by a series of genealogy classes he attended as a 12-year-old. He later studied history at BYU in hopes of helping others discover their own histories.
Though Ryskamp also earned a degree at BYU Law and worked as an attorney for many years, his love for family history persisted. Notably, in 1984, he self-published Tracing Your Hispanic Heritage, which became a definitive guide for connecting Latin American ancestry to Spain.
Eventually the Spirit and his passion led him back to BYU as a family history professor. In this position, Ryskamp took student interns with him on research trips to Spain, France, and Italy. While director of CFHG from 2003 to 2013, he spearheaded the Immigrant Ancestors Project, which allows researchers to locate information about immigrants that is unavailable in their destination countries. He additionally led the development of the Script Tutorial website, which aids in deciphering archaic handwriting styles or alphabets.
“He was instrumental in bringing me and several other faculty members to the university, and we all feel his loss,” says Crandell.
Memorials
Allen Bergin
(1934-2024)
Allen Eric Bergin passed away February 15, 2024. Bergin was known for his research on integrating spirituality and psychotherapy. He was president of the Society for Psychotherapy Research and of the Association of Mormon Counselors and Psychotherapists. He earned many awards, including the Distinguished Professional Contributions to Knowledge award from the American Psychological Association.
Catherine Burnham
(1950-2024)
Catherine Ann Burnham passed away November 20, 2024. Burnham taught clothing and textiles courses for many years and received the prestigious Karl G. Maeser Teaching Award for her excellence. She enjoyed taking students on trips to New York, Texas, and California to learn about fashion.
Bruce Chadwick (1940-2022)
Bruce Albert Chadwick passed away October 18, 2022. During his 35-year BYU tenure as a sociology professor, he was often recognized for his teaching ability and published many materials on both sociology and family relations. Chadwick also enjoyed teaching Old and New Testament religion courses at the BYU Jerusalem Center.
David Crandall (1960-2024)
David Peter Crandall passed away December 11, 2024. As a sociocultural anthropologist, Crandall developed lifelong friendships with and became the leading expert on the Himba people of Namibia. After joining the Anthropology Department in 1993, Crandall quickly organized a study abroad program to take students to Namibia and continued his studies of the Himba people. He retired in 2020.
Carol Ellsworth (1929-2024)
Carol Annabell Ellsworth passed away March 26, 2024. In 1969, Ellsworth accepted an offer to teach at BYU in the College of Family Living, where she taught future home economics teachers. She served as chair of the Department of Home Economics Education for nine years and later established a Phi Kappa Phi scholarship.
Gene Gibbons (1935-2023)
Willard Eugene Gibbons passed away November 30, 2023. Gibbons was a catalyst in the creation of the School of Social Work at BYU and sought to serve disadvantaged communities. He and his wife Evelyn were honored by lighting the Y prior to the BYU–Utah football game in 2019 due to his status as a season ticket holder for 58 years.
Bob Goss (1943-2022)
Robert Pike Goss, Jr. passed away March 8, 2022. He served for a time as an assistant dean in the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences and as the director for BYU’s Washington Seminar. Goss worked in governmental positions in New York, Illinois, and Washington, DC, throughout his career.
Fred Gowans (1936-2023)
Frederick Ross Gowans passed away December 7, 2023. Gowans taught history at BYU for more than 30 years. He was a member of the Utah Westerners and served as a consultant on numerous films and documentaries about the West, for which he received many prestigious awards. From 1973 to 2001, Gowans was the Native American Studies coordinator at BYU.
Anne Horton (1938-2024)
Anne Lamkin Horton passed away July 5, 2024. Horton’s experiences as a social worker inspired her to combat domestic and child abuse. As a professor of social work, Horton received the Susa Young Gates Award and the Virginia R. Cutler Outstanding Scholar and Lecture Award. Horton was named Child Advocate of the Year in 2000 by Prevent Child Abuse Utah for her life’s work in abuse prevention.
Jeff Larson
(1949-2024)
Jeffry Hale Larson passed away September 30, 2024. Larson blessed the lives of many students as a professor of marriage and family therapy, and he also served as the director of the marriage and family therapy graduate program.
Gene Mead
(1934-2025)
Donald Eugene Mead passed away February 14, 2025. After receiving a doctorate in counseling psychology, Mead taught at BYU for 40 years. He also was key in the development of the marriage and family therapy program.
Gene Shumway
(1925-2023)
E. Gene Shumway passed away July 7, 2023. During his career as a social worker, Shumway contributed in a variety of ways to organizations across Utah. Shumway was a founding faculty member of the BYU School of Social Work and worked closely with Gene Gibbons and Barbara Wheeler to gain the school’s initial accreditation from the Council on Social Work Education.
John Sorenson
(1924-2021)
John Leon Sorenson passed away December 8, 2021. Sorenson was the epitome of BYU’s dual heritage—proving that productive thinkers can be both scientific and religious. He worked as an archaeologist in southern Mexico with the New World Archaeological Foundation before joining the BYU Anthropology Department, where he served as chair. He was well-known for his study of Book of Mormon historicity.
Wanda Spaid
(1946-2022)
Wanda Marie Spaid passed away October 18, 2022. Spaid worked as a social work professor at BYU, where her students described her as “challenging and fair.” She was hired by Eugene Gibbons, who described her as “a woman of complete integrity” and “a perfect fit for the university.”
Stan Taylor (1934-2022)
Stan A. Taylor passed away January 15, 2022. Taylor taught political science and international relations at BYU for nearly 40 years, with particular expertise in national security. He was chair of the Political Science Department for six years and was the founding director of the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies. He received every award offered by BYU to its faculty members and was beloved by his students. A scholarship fund was set up in Taylor’s name.
Barbara Wheeler
(1935-2022)
Barbara Lee (Roberts) Wheeler passed away July 1, 2022. Wheeler spent much of her career in psychotherapy at a private practice. From 1990 to 1995, she served as the director of the BYU School of Social Work, where she helped develop the graduate program. She received multiple accolades during her career and served on several community service boards.
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