Everybody Wang Chung wrote:Also, why in the hell did the Church give a man $5,000.00 for a "revelation that could improve space travel"? $5,000.00 was a lot of money back in the 1960's. Strange.
There are lots of intriguing entries in the index.
Here are a some others I find interesting:
Homosexuality: ELW fires Carl Fuerstner (Music) for homosexuality. Hires Reid Nibley
Reed Benson: “Is very immature, rash in his judgment” and can’t hold down a job.
Black Faculty: ELW didn’t want to hire black. Students might think “mingling” OK
Blacks at BYU: HBL: If granddaughter was engaged to a black, ELW w/b held responsible.
Brown, Hugh B.: ETB very concerned about his “socialistic tendencies.”
BYU Assets: ELW puts Idaho farm in separate corp. to hide assets from Y tax return.
Income Church: Church overspent its income in 1959 and 1960 ($85M in 1960)
Sacrament Cups: Company which sells them to Church is owned by “one of the Brethren”
Salaries at BYU: ELW based salary increases on percentage of tithing faculty members paid.
Skousen, Cleon: ELW: although he’s entertaining, he speculates too much (vivid imag.)
There are also some entries relating to the hiring of Richard Vetterli which caught my eye. The first two are from the 60's before Vetterli was being considered for a job (from what I can tell), the second two are several years later when Wilkinson was trying to get Vetterli hired as there were not enough conservatives in the Political Science dept. for his liking.
I have no idea what "plagiarism" is alluded to in that first entry. Richard Poll, as most of you remember, was the author of the famous Iron Rod vs. Liahona metaphor. Poll considered himself a liberal Mormon, Vetterli was an extreme conservative. So I have no idea what that is about. But I do think it interesting that Wilkinson thinks little of Vetterli's scholarship ("redundant") yet works hard advocating his hiring:
Vetterli, Rich.: Tries to explain his plagerism of Richard Poll’s thesis to ELW
Vetterli, Rich.: ELW: His book is faith-prom., large but not exhaus. research, redundant.
Vetterli, Rich.: ELW would like to get rid of some faculty to make room for Vetterli
Vetterli, Rich.: ELW speaks w/Cleon Skousen and DO trying to get Vetterli hired at BYU
From the Ernest L. Wilkinson Diaries: "ELW dreams he's spattered w/ grease. Hundreds steal his greasy pants."