His name is probably unfamiliar to most younger Church members, but if you’re 50 or older and grew up as a member of the Church, especially in Utah, his name would probably ring a bell. Bro. Wheelwright was prominent in Church music from the ’40s to the ’70s. He was the longtime head of music education for the Salt Lake public schools, where in the ‘60s we still had regular classroom singing, instrumental lessons, and organized bands even in the elementary schools.

Bro. Wheelwright was born in Ogden, Utah in 1909. He learned to play the piano as a child, well enough that he was his ward’s choir accompanist when he was a teen. He studied with Tabernacle organists Edward P. Kimball and Alexander Schreiner, then attended the University of Chicago (M.A.), Columbia (Ph.D.), and Juilliard.

He helped to edit The Instructor, was a longtime member of the Sunday School General Board, and taught at BYU. I met him several times as a child (which is probably why I can’t bring myself to refer to him by his first name, my normal practice in these posts), when my father did the photography for his publishing company.

He was a hymn writer, responsible for both words and music to several hymns in our hymnal:

Oh, May My Soul Commune with Thee

Oh, may my soul commune with thee
And find thy holy peace;
From worldly care and pain of fear,
Please bring me sweet release.

Oh, bless me when I worship thee
To keep my heart in tune,
That I may hear thy still, small voice,
And, Lord, with thee commune.

Enfold me in thy quiet hour
And gently guide my mind
To seek thy will, to know thy ways,
And thy sweet Spirit find.

Lord, grant me thy abiding love
And make my turmoil cease.
Oh, may my soul commune with thee
And find thy holy peace.

Help Me Teach with Inspiration

Help me teach with inspiration;
Grant this blessing, Lord, I pray.
Help me lift a soul’s ambition
To a higher, nobler way.

Help me reach a friend in darkness;
Help me guide him thru the night.
Help me show thy path to glory
By the Spirit’s holy light.

Fill my mind with understanding;
Tune my voice to echo thine.
Touch my hand with gentle friendship;
Warm my heart with love divine.

Help me find thy lambs who wander;
Help me bring them to thy keep.
Teach me, Lord, to be a shepherd;
Father, help me feed thy sheep.

So, are you convinced that he made a contribution to the world, and that we would be the poorer without his life? Then think of this: We almost lost him when he was a 14-year-old Boy Scout.

My column in today’s Salt Lake Tribune tells about nine Boy Scouts caught in a 1923 flash flood that drowned eleven people and destroyed many, many homes. Take a look at the accompanying picture – Lorin Wheelwright is the boy squatting in the front row, the one with all the merit badges on his sash. Then, if you don’t mind, come back here to leave a comment.