The Presiding Bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has received a prestigious award from Salt Lake City’s business community. (Watch video from the event on YouTube.)
Bishop H. David Burton was honored by Salt Lake Chamber with the “Giant in Our City” award on 16 March 2011.
“Bishop Burton lives to serve, to uplift and to build,” Chamber CEO and president Lane Beattie said. “He has administered programs that provide care for those in need. As a passionate supporter of the arts community he has helped enrich the lives of thousands of Utahns. And as a businessman he has overseen the unprecedented investment in our capital city.”
The Presiding Bishopric oversees the Church’s temporal affairs, including distribution of tithing, humanitarian efforts and building construction. Since becoming the Presiding Bishop in 1995, Bishop Burton has overseen the construction of over 100 temples, 6,000 meetinghouses, the Conference Center, and the City Creek project in downtown Salt Lake City. The mixed-use City Creek development, which is the one of the largest construction projects in the country, will open on March 22, 2012.
| Temple Square is always beautiful in the springtime. Gardeners work to prepare the ground for General Conference. © 2012 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. | 1 / 2 |
“Being the birth parents of this community has given us a special interest in and some responsibility for the future of this wonderful city,” said Bishop Burton. “Our commitment to this city is broad and deep. Ever since Brigham Young said, ‘This is the right place. Drive on!’ we’ve been striving to do our part to make this city, in a mountain valley, a beautiful, vibrant place.”
Bishop Burton’s enthusiasm, vision and attention to detail have helped drive the “renaissance” of Utah’s capital city, according to William Taubman, chief operating officer for Taubman Centers, Inc., the Church’s partner in the 23-acre City Creek project.
“City Creek is a reality because of Bishop Burton. It is a reflection of his extraordinary leadership,” Taubman said. “He is not afraid of big ideas and ambitious goals.”
“I am both honored and humbled by this recognition,” said Bishop Burton. “We can find common ground. We can help each other. We can 'drive on' together. No matter our differences, we can reach across them and build our city. Together we can continue to make this a great place, a beautiful place, a caring place, a place to worship according to the dictates of our own conscience, a place of mutual respect and, indeed, the right place!”
The event was attended by 1,400 people, including the Church’s First Presidency, members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and other Church, community and religious leaders.
“The thing about him that strikes me most is a personal characteristic of being able to take a group of people with diverse interests and bring them together to make things happen,” President Henry B. Eyring, First Counselor in the Church’s First Presidency, said in a video tribute to Bishop Burton.
Bishop Burton is the 31st person to be honored with the Giant in Our City award. Two other General Authorities have received the award: N. Eldon Tanner in 1978 and Gordon B. Hinckley in 2003.