Memory
The Larson Stories
In the 1950 school year I made an appointment with Dean Eyring to ask his approval for an adjustment of credits, to let some better grades outside of my minor be counted instead of ‘C’ grades I had received in Biochemistry (a “forced” minor). When I told him of my greater interest in dyes and physics, Dr. Eyring questioned my motives for preferring these more commercially applicable fields. He asked, “Where would you sell your information?”
In 1964, while I was head of the Chemistry Department at Westminster College, I often attended University of Utah Chemistry seminars. One presentation, by Edward Eyring (Dr. Eyring’s son and a member of the faculty) was on Ted’s specialty of “ultra-fast reactions.” As he was describing some recent success, I heard his father call out: “Have you published on this?” When Ted answered, “Not yet,” Henry almost seemed to scold him for the delay.
When Henry went to attend a meeting in Stockholm in early summer, 1953, he also found the LDS chapel to a sacrament meeting. He didn’t introduce himself (as a General Sunday School Board member) and took a seat at the rear of the chapel. Mission President Clarence Johnson was away, and since the local leaders did not know Henry, he wasn’t recognized. A Utah-based businessman was also present at that meeting, and his wife became upset with the branch leader’s “oversight”. Later that same summer I met this offended wife in the lounge of a small hotel in London, where she told me of the “affront” to Brother Eyring. She wouldn’t listen to an explanation of his unassuming style.