LDS Hymns

-History: (Source: Wikipedia)

Written By: Gordon B. Hinkley

Music By: G. Homer Durham

George Homer Durham (4 February 1911 – 10 January 1985) was an American academic administrator and was a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1977 until his death.

After he retired, Durham was asked to become a general authority of the LDS Church. He had previously served in the church as a stake president, as a member of the general board of the Sunday School, and as a Regional Representative of the Twelve Apostles. Durham became a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy in April 1977. Shortly afterward, he was made managing director of the LDS Church Historical Department over Church Historian Leonard J. Arrington.^[1] In October 1981, Durham became a member of the Presidency of the Seventy and would remain in that position until his death. From 1982 to his death Durham was the church’s seventeenth Church Historian and Recorder. He was succeeded in this position by Dean L. Larson.

Durham was a frequent contributor to the magazine Improvement Era and was the author or editor of a number of books, including compilations of the religious teachings of LDS church presidents John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, Heber J. Grant, and David O. McKay.

Durham came from a musical family and he wrote the music to Gordon B. Hinckley’s poem “My Redeemer Lives”, which is now included as hymn #135 in the current hymnal of the LDS Church.

Durham and his wife were the parents of three children.

In 1994, Arizona State University renamed their Languages & Literatures Building the G. Homer Durham Languages & Literatures Building in Durham’s honor.

Durham died in Salt Lake City. His personal and professional papers were donated to the University of Utah’s J. Willard Marriott Library.

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