Loraine Tolman Pace writes, “William gave hundreds (perhaps thousands) of talks in his life time and rarely wrote the complete text. He could speak for an hour with no more than five or six notes on the back of a program or envelope.” William followed promptings during his life that lead him to be a masterful teacher and make a positive impact on countless people both young and old. William O. Tolman served for several years on the LDS Church’s Genealogy Committee and traveled throughout the Church with General Authorities and leaders from the General Church Auxiliaries to speak at Stake Conferences. He spoke with Marion G. Romney, Spencer W. Kimball, Howard W. Hunter, Joseph Fielding Smith, Harold B. Lee, LeGrand Richards, N. Eldon Tanner, Theodore M. Burton, Ezra Taft Benson, Eldred G. Smith, Franklin D. Richards, and Thomas S. Monson. The following are some excerpts on teaching from his history.
1930: Wrote on the inside cover of my 1930 diary: My life work if God wills – Scouting – helping boys, helping girls, helping others, those who need help. Wm. o. Tolman.
26 May 1955: The doctor released me from the hospital today. While I was in the hospital I had time to think seriously about life and contemplate about many things. One day while I was thus thinking, I was lying in bed and had my eyes shut, but I was not asleep. A vision came to me that had a great lesson for me. Thousands of parents, mostly mothers with boys and girls, stood before me beginning at the foot of my bed and stretching in a great fan as far as my vision could reach. My first impression was that they are hungry, but I said, “That can’t be, because they are all so healthy and well dressed.” Yet I could see a yearning, hungry look in the eyes of all the parents. Then the thought came to me that these parents wanted someone to give knowledge to their children and watch over them. They wanted an expert teacher to care for the souls of their children like the expert physician had cared for my suffering physical body, and the thought rings in my mind even from then until now that we need men of greater ability as teachers than in any other profession because teachers have the responsibility to shape the soul of a boy or girl. The vision was still before me and I looked to my…
27 Sept 1955: I received my student teacher assignment from the Department of Secondary Education. My supervising teacher is Leland E. Anderson in New Testament from 8:50 to 9:45 in room 250A. (Note: Leland Anderson became one of William’s dearest friends through the rest of his life. Brother Anderson had William substitute for him at BY High while he observed and supervised other prospective seminary teachers. One of Brother Anderson’s daughters was in that class and told her father he didn’t need to come back – they were doing just fine with Brother Tolman as their teacher. William described Leland Anderson as a “great man.”)
April 1959: From the class in Ephraim, Utah I received many special comments that were sent to BYU in the evaluations: “I don’t know where a person could have received as much spiritual inspiration as we have received in this class. Brother Tolman has given us so many faith promoting incidents along with so much good information on making out our genealogy sheets.” “Brother Tolman is an excellent teacher and storyteller, pleasing personality, well informed and filled with the spirit of Elijah.” “This class has been something I have wanted to do for many years. Brother Tolman is a wonderful teacher-his enthusiasm and testimony for genealogy work is most stimulating. I hope he can teach more classes here in Ephraim in the future.” “Brother Tolman has been an excellent, faith promoting teacher in our classes. Would be happy to take another class from him.” “Brother Tolman has been the most inspiring genealogical teacher I have ever listened to.” “Send Brother Tolman to teach an advanced class.” “Brother Tolman has inspired me with his faith, his kindness, his considerations for others, and all of his classes have caught the spirit of genealogy through his warm inspiration, faith and enthusiasm in his class; we all love him and his wife very much.” “We have appreciated Brother Tolman and would enjoy having him return to teach us. His wife has been a real help to us also.”
22 Jun – 2 Jul 1959: BYU course in St. Johns and Eagar, Arizona – two beginning courses. A sample of the comments: “As a professional teacher, I would like to highly commend Brother Tolman for his concise and clear presentation of the lesson material.”
Sunday, 22 May 1960: I attended eleven meetings today and spoke at six of them. 8:00 a.m. welfare meeting, 19th Ward, all present; 8:30 a.m. priesthood meeting, 19th Ward; 9:30 a.m. ward teachers report meeting; 10:00 a.m. Sunday School, 19th Ward; BYU 11th Ward, genealogy ward committee and history and beginning of genealogy in our church at 1:30 p.m; sacrament meeting and bishopric meeting 7:00 p.m. with 19th Ward bishopric.
20 Aug 1960: As we finished the class in Ashland tonight the people were very gracious in expressing appreciation for the class. Comments included in their evaluations were: “Please send Brother Tolman as often as possible.” “Brother Tolman is an inspired man.” “I wish the course could have been longer.” “I have never attended a more inspiring course, nor heard a more interesting speaker than Brother Tolman.” “He not only taught genealogy, but also missionary work, proper teaching methods, and every phase of this wonderful Gospel of Jesus Christ. I’d pay three times the cost to do it again.” “Please send Brother William 0. Tolman back again next year to give us more of the same.”
2 May 1980: I spent two and a half hours with one of my old seminary students from Provo Seminary and her husband this evening. They are having a very successful marriage. It was a lovely experience. She said to me, “Brother Tolman, you are really the only teacher I remember. You didn’t just give a lesson. You inspired your students.”
(Contributed by the Thomas Tolman Family Organization. Excerpts from William Odell Tolman: Patriarch, Genealogist, Teacher compiled by Loraine Tolman Pace, First Edition, 2009, pages 47, 122, 124, 206, 211, 243, 254, 510).
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