BRIDGES - Kennedy Center - Brigham Young University

Center for International
and Area Studies
Spencer's Vision of the David M. Kennedy Center of
International Studies
We thank Sister Shirley Palmer, widow of Spencer, who provided
this historical sketch in his behalf.
The inaugural ceremony of the David M. Kennedy Center
for International Studies represented, for Brigham Young
University, a greater opportunity for both faculty and students
to participate in international studies, and it was formulated
to assist students who desired to be involved in government
and Church affairs on an international level. Its mission
was to meet the needs of numerous returned missionaries
who, after teaching the gospel, came to the university
with language skills, cultural awareness,
and a real hope of serving mankind in
specific ways. The center was designed to
be a resource for these students to
increase their knowledge and bolster
their preparation for their life's work. The
opening of the center was the culmination
of years of preparation and hundreds
of hours of work on the part of
Spencer and other Asian Studies faculty
members. It was their desire to assist the
university in taking a leading roll in the
development of classes that met the need
of an ever-increasing international student
body.
The need for such a center grew in part from Spencer's
experience while serving as a chaplain in South Korea in the
wake of the Korean War. After living in the small provincial
community of Thatcher, Arizona, he was thrilled to learn that
the world at large was filled with wonderful people. He came
to the knowledge that the millions who populate the nations
of the earth were each and every one in the image of God and
each has an eternal destiny. He desired to educate himself in
order to serve wherever the Lord had need. Upon returning
Arab Council visited Church headquarters and Kennedy Center
Ray C. Hillam appointed IR undergraduate and graduate
studies coordinator
Berkeley Spencer replaced Howard Quackenbush as LAS coordinator
Larry Shumway replaced Gary Williams as Asian Studies coordinator
Near East Studies MA approved
Mexican–American Studies canceled
Center for International and Area Studies was housed
in what is now the Faculty Office Building
to the United States, he enrolled at the University of
California at Berkeley taking respectively a master’s and PhD
in Asian history and world religion.
On the invitation of Ernest Wilkinson, he joined the religion
faculty at Brigham Young University in the winter of
1962. His assignment was to teach students world religion.
Foreign students were at home in his classes, where he
described the major religions in an open and tolerant way.
His first campus publication as a faculty member was
Mormonism—AMessage For All Nations (June 1965). That same
year, Spencer returned to Korea where he served as mission
president. In 1968, David M. Kennedy, then-Secretary of the
Treasury, came to Korea to meet with Pak Chung Hee.
In 1983, the David M. Kennedy Center for
International Studies was moved to the
Herald R. Clark Building
He also called at the mission home and introduced himself.
This was the beginning of what became a lifelong friendship.
Returning to BYU in the fall of 1968, Spencer became
Coordinator of Asian Studies, participated with other faculty
in the Religious Studies Center, which published in the ensuing
years more than twenty volumes of research by BYU
faculty and scholars from other universities. In 1983, the
Religious Studies Center published Mormons and Muslims,
bringing Muslim scholars on campus. Spencer felt he was
Symposium:
“Canada–U.S. Trade
Relations”
Lectures:
His Excellency Muhamed Ramal,
Jordanian Ambassador to the U.S.
His Excellency Nizar Hamdoon, Iraqi
Ambassador to the U.S.
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