Details TBA

Details TBA

WHERE:  Washington Rec Center, 350 Community Center Drive, Washington UT

WHEN:  Tuesday, May 15th, 5:30pm mixer, 6:00 dinner meeting

COST: $14 for dinner.  Pay at the event, or in advance

Our speakers for the May 15 dinner meeting will be Mark and Scott Gubler, who will be discussing the fascinating search for Nephi’s Bountiful as recorded in the Book of Mormon. They and a cadre of 23 scientists, archaeologists, and other inter-disciplinary researchers have made several visits to what many agree is the best candidate for the city Bountiful in Oman at Khor Kharfot. 

The Gubler's have two major hypotheses:

1. Khor Kharfot is Nephi’s Bountiful and
2. There is an Israelite sanctuary there built with the sacred geometry found in Solomon’s Temple. The search area is a one mile stretch of beach littered with archeological relics.

They are trying to reconstruct how this land may have looked 2600 years ago and what relics might still be left. The project is being financed by private contributions.  For more information on this amazing project, go to http://www.discovernephisbountifulblog.com

• 5:30 pm Social Mixer
• 6:00 pm Dinner & Scholarship presentations

Note: Sunday dress is appropriate for this event.

Our annual presentation of scholarships to high school seniors will take place on April 17  when students, parents, and counselors join us at our dinner meeting. One of two meetings each year where we dress in "Sunday best ', this is the culmination of our fund-raising efforts for the year. Individual donations from a number of chapter members along with money raised through the Fall dinner at Hyrum and Gail Smith’s Gunlock ranch are combined to provide up to nine scholarships. 

Scholarship winners from Pine View, Dixie, Desert Hills, Snow Canyon, Enterprise, Millcreek, and the Success Academy will each give a short statement prior to receiving their award along with a specially prepared medallion.

Many thanks to Cheryl Ann and Roy Taylor, who head up the scholarship essay program and awards ceremony. Thanks as well to Dean Terry, Hyrum Smith, Charlie Clayton, and Sid Atkin on the Fundraising committee and the many generous donors.

Lynne Clark Brunson will speak at our February 20 dinner meeting. She will address the topic of “The Contributions of Pioneer Women.”

A native of Farmington, New Mexico, she graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in music and art.  She moved to Southern Utah in the 1960's and raised five children while operating the Lynne Clark Photography Studio.  Lynne also has a Master's Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy and has had a private practice since 1990.

Lynne has also been a high school choral music teacher, has taught art and photography at Dixie College, taught Gospel Doctrine, and is a past member of both the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Southern Utah Heritage Choir.  

Lynne is also the author of Images of Faith, a 400-page pictorial history covering 150 years of St. George, Utah. It includes 1200 photographs from the Lynne Clark Historical Photograph Collection - which contains over 20,000 images. 

All dinner meetings at the Washington Community Center. Meet and Great 5:30 pm - Dinner6:00 pm $14 per person.

Music by "Bar None".  Sunday Dress.  Watch this space for more information.

All dinner meetings at the Washington Community Center.  Meet and Great 5:30 pm, Dinner6:00 pm $14 per person

Dr. Richard G Whitehead was born and raised in St. George, Utah, and was a graduate of Dixie High School, Dixie College and Brigham Young University. In 1970, he graduated from Creighton University School of Dentistry in Omaha, Nebraska and then completed an oral surgery internship at Mercy Hospital in Baltimore, MD. He then returned to St. George where he practiced dentistry and oral surgery for 26 years. Dr. Whitehead, a fellow of the International Congress of Oral Implantology, was one of the pioneers in the field of dental implants and transplants in Southwestern Utah and is credited to have placed some of the first dental implants in the state. In 2001, the Utah Dental Association presented him with their Distinguished Service Award.

He has been active in community affairs in St. George serving on the City Council, as president of the Rotary Club and as a board member of the Chamber of Commerce. In 1995, the St. George Area Chamber of Commerce recognized him as Man of the Year. He was a found­ing member of the board of directors of Strata Corporation and the Heritage Arts Foundation (Tuacahn) and a member of Zions Bank Southern Utah Region Advisory Board. A strong believer in education, Dr. Whitehead is an emeritus member of the Creighton University School of Dentistry Advisory Board. He is past president of the Dixie College Foundation, the Alumni Association, co-founder and member of the Dixie College National Advisory Council and former member of the Dixie College Board of Trustees. In 1971, he became actively involved in raising funds for Dixie College. Until 1988, he volunteered his time and then was hired on a part time basis to chair the Dixie College Capital Campaign.

In 1993, he became a full time employee of Dixie College still practicing dentistry one day a week. In 1997, he left dentistry to devote his total attention to Dixie College where he served as the executive director of institutional advancement. During his tenure at Dixie, he headed efforts that raised in excess of $30 million. On May 5, 2000, at Dixie College’s commencement exercises the Utah State Board of Regents awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Humanities degree. He, his wife Launa and their six children are all graduates of Dixie State College. Richard currently serves as interim president at Southern Virginia University.

Local author, historian, and former Dixie College President Doug Alder will be our speaker at the Cotton Mission Chapter dinner meeting on Tuesday, October 17 at 5:30pm. Dinner is $14 per person.

Alder was president of Dixie College in its pre-university days from 1986-1993 and is a past president of the Mormon History Association. He co-authored “A History of Washington County” with former St. George Mayor Karl Brooks in the 1990s and recently compiled a number of addresses from the lecture series named for Brooks’ historian mother, Juanita Brooks, in a book called “Honoring Juanita Brooks.” He is also the author of “A Century of Dixie State College of Utah” and the co-author of “All That Was Promised: The History of the St. George Temple.

His new book “Dixie Saints”  deals with social history of southern Utah and is gleaned from 425 interviews with common southern Utah people, instead of historical figures. Rather thanfollowing the political perspective, the narrative in this book focuses on the everyday lives, interests, and activities of farmers, ranchers, teachers and otherswho built up our community in its early years.  

The book draws from 425 interviews, recorded on about 650 audio tapes, beginning in 1968. The interviews focused on the “third generation” of Dixie Saints, mostly born in years between 1890 and 1910. The interviewer, Fielding Harris conducted the interviews, financed by Melvin Blomquist. Transcribing of the tapes was not finished until many years later in 2013. That is when Alder began delving into ways to make the stories into a book.

Our dinner meeting on September 19 will be our annual fundraiser for the scholarship awards. Once again it will be held at the beautiful Eagle Mountain Ranch in Gunlock, which is owned by Gail and Hyrum Smith. After the dinner, colorful St. George resident and prominent doctor, Dr. Craig Booth will speak to us. 

Our August 15th Dinner Meeting features guest speaker Dennis Holland, older brother to Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. 

Dennis was born and raised in St. George, Utah. His great great grandparents were among the first wagons into the Valley of the Great Salt Lake with Brigham Young and were called by Brigham Young to settle St. George and what is now Carson City, Nevada. Growing up in St George and having this ancestral heritage has given him his love of LDS pioneer history.

An alumnus of Dixie College, he enjoyed a successful career as a pharmacist before retiring and beginning many years of service to the church and western history. He has served as LDS director of Public Affairs, and as mission president of the California Living History Church Service Mission. 

He is author of the book, “Sierra Saints” A Brief history of the Mormons in Western El Dorado County from 1847 to 1997, and was involved in the production of the video produced by the LDS  church, “More Precious Than Gold, Contributions of the Mormon Battalion,” which was a gift from the LDS Church to the State of California for the Commemoration of the Sesquicentennial of the Discovery of Gold in California. He was part of the delegation that presented it to then Governor Pete Wilson. 

Dennis was also a driving force for the building of the popular interactive Mormon Battalion Historic Site Visitor’s Center in Old Town San Diego. 

REMEMBER:  You can now pay for our Dinner Meetings online!

The June dinner meeting coincides with our annual Chapter membership drive - SO INVITE A FRIEND!

We are pleased to have David T. Hinton speak to us at our monthly dinner meeting June 20. Meet and greet is at 5:30pm with dinner starting at 6pm.

David has served on the board of the Hurricane Valley chapter Sons of Utah Pioneers for the past 21 years with two of those years as the chapter president. David is currently serving a second term as the National Area Vice President for the far southern region of Utah, serving the Hurricane Valley, Cotton Mission, Dixie Encampment and Red Rock Chapters of the SUP.

David served a mission to Scotland in the mid-1960’s. He graduated from Hurricane High School, and continued his studies at Dixie Junior College where he received an Associates Degree. He went on to earn a Bachelors Degree from Southern Utah State University in Cedar City. 

After graduation from SUSC he went to work with Skagg’s Drug Center in St. George, moving with them to Las Vegas and then returning to school in Cedar at SUU to obtain his Elementary Certification.

He has served on the Hurricane Utah Stake High Council, and on the Hurricane Utah North Stake High Council and then 5 years as a bishop. He and his wife are the parents of 7. 

The Chapter will be awarding its annual scholarships to high school seniors.  Dinner will be served.  Semi-formal attire.  Cost is $14 per person.