St. George BYU Management Society Hosts President Bruce C. Hafen

The October 24, 2013 luncheon of the St. George BYU Management Society Hosted President Bruce C. Hafen and his wife Marie. His tenure as President of the St. George LDS Temple comes to a close at the end of this month. Before he returns home to Orem, Utah we wanted to hear from him and his wisdom from years of service. His stories about holding to ones principals were engaging and powerful. 

Bruce Clark Hafen (born October 30, 1940, St. George, Utah) is an American attorney, academic and religious leader currently serving as the president of the St. George LDS Temple. He served a mission for the LDS Church in the West German Mission. He was a mission companion with Marlin K. Jensen, who he later served with as a general authority. In 1964, he married Marie Kartchner and they are the parents of seven children.

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Hafen received a bachelor's degree in political science and humanities from Brigham Young University (BYU) and a juris doctorate from the University of Utah.

Hafen then began his career at the law firm of Strong, Poelman and Fox. From 1971 to 1976, Hafen worked as an assistant to the president of BYU. While in this role, he started as a professor at BYU's J. Reuben Clark Law School in 1973. A sample of his scholarly articles includes publications in the Harvard Law Review, Harvard International Law Journal, Michigan Law Review, Duke Law Journal, Ohio State Law Journal, and the American Bar Association Journal. Two of his articles were cited in opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court. From 1976 to 1978, he worked for the LDS Church's correlation department.

Hafen served as president of Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho from 1978 to 1985. From 1985 to 1989 he served as the dean of the J. Reuben Clark Law School at BYU. From 1989 to 1996, he was the Provost of BYU.

While in this position he was noted as an advocate of religion in higher education, and specifically for his strong belief that it was the duty of BYU to have faculty who strongly supported its religious principles.

After his appointment as an LDS general authority to the First Quorum of the Seventy in 1996, he served in a variety of assignments. This included serving as president of both the church's Australia/New Zealand and Europe Central areas.

On October 2, 2010, Hafen was released from the First Quorum of the Seventy and designated an emeritus general authority at the LDS Church's semi-annual general conference. He became president of the St. George Utah Temple in November 2010.

Hafen has written a biography of Neal A. Maxwell, a former member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the LDS Church. Hafen has also written insightful pieces on Latter-day Saint doctrine.

The Scholarship Banquet sponsored by Advanced Commercial Credit will be held Thursday, November 21 at 6:30PM at the Dixie State Gardner Ballroom and will feature Hall of Fame and former Cougar football coach Lavell Edwards. Table and ticket sales are ongoing now. Please see Paul Clove or myself. Tickets are $40 each and a Table of 8 is $300.  Proceeds to benefit the St. George Chapter BYU Management Society Scholarship Fund. Scholarships are available for students who attend DSU, SUU, or any BYU LDS church owned schools.

Please note our next luncheon will be held on Thursday, January 23, 2014. Our speaker will be filmmakers TC Christensen & Ron Tanner who created 17 Miracles and Ephriam’s Rescue.