Life History of Serge J. Lauper
The pregnancy of my wife, who was travelling with me in the Oregon territory, caused me to request a transfer, and the company sent me to Oakland in 1930.
I had first come to California in 1921. I was there when the first stake of the Church in California was created. Los Angeles Stake, the 88th stake, was organized on January 21, 1923. Later on, the San Francisco Stake, which was headquartered in Oakland, was number 99. In 1934 when San Francisco was divided from Oakland, the Oakland Stake, which retained the name, was number 109.
When I first came to Oakland, the San Francisco Stake had six wards on the Oakland side and four wards on the San Francisco side. The Oakland wards covered the East Bay area. I'm not sure just how far out the wards extended, but everything else was in the Mission. Now we have so many other wards and stakes on that side that they have swallowed up the mission area. Church families need to buy homes which are far out because of the cost of building in the cities.
I had been ordained a Seventy on October 24, 1931 by Melvin J. Ballard. I was serving as a Sunday School Superintendent when I was called as the bishop of Dimond Ward and set apart July 24, 1932, by W. Aird McDonald. I was ordained a High Priest by Rudger Clawson at the same time.
I had attended a stake conference with my mother-in-law Margaret Gordon. My wife Jean was sick at home. Just a few minutes before the afternoon meeting I was called in to the office and the members of the Stake Presidency and Elder Stephen L. Richards asked me to be bishop. I gulped and said that I guessed that such a call would please my mother. A few minutes later I was sustained. When I got home, my mother-in-law told my wife that we had a new bishop. Well, she wondered who it was. "Him," said Mother Gordon, pointing to me. This is another example of the ways things are no longer done. I served as bishop there for five years.
One of the rather exclusive things about the Dimond Ward was that the beautiful little chapel had been built by the members in four months and twenty-nine days and was dedicated by Heber J. Grant, President of the Church. Unfortunately, I later discovered that some of the requirements of proper building had not been observed. We had to replace the flooring because of termite damage. Some other areas of construction were also faulty and had to be done over.
In those days a bishop had to fill out all the receipt forms, different ones for each fund, which were in bound books. The bishop had to handle and count all the money and account for it, a very tedious undertaking. My business was in selling accounting systems, and I could see that loose-leaf forms would simplify the procedure and make it much easier to keep track of the funds. I went to W. Aird MacDonald, the stake president, and proposed my ideas. He suggested that I write to Salt Lake and give them the benefit of my thoughts. Some time later, I received an answer which said how much they appreciated my ideas, but that they had decided to continue with their standard forms. One of the reasons they noted was that they had another two or three hundred books on hand. MacDonald supported me in using the revised forms in our ward anyway, and I was interested to note that the church adopted a similar system several years later--probably when they had used up their backlog of old books.
Times were very hard during those Oakland years. The whole country was locked in a major depression. At one period I remember a full half of the members of the ward were unemployed. I asked those who were still earning money to share with those who had nothing. This was long before we had a welfare plan. I remember my admiration and even surprise at the generosity of individuals and families as they shared their goods with each other.
My company transferred me to San Francisco, a territory which offered greater opportunity, in 1936. I was somewhat relieved to be released as bishop of the Dimond Ward after five years, but I had been in San Francisco only a very short time when I was called to take over the Sunday School. And then, in a very, very few weeks, the San Francisco Stake Presidency, which included President Stephen H. Winter, Ray T. Lindsay as the First Counselor, and Howard McDonald as the Second Counselor came to visit me. (The similar names of W. Aird MacDonald and Howard McDonald were often confusing. W. Aird MacDonald was the Stake President in Oakland and the original Stake President for the San Francisco Stake. When we moved to San Francisco, one of the counselors in the Stake Presidency was Howard McDonald. Howard McDonald worked in the school department and later became San Francisco's superintendent of schools as well as the president of the stake succeeding Stephen H. Winter. After that he was transferred to Salt Lake, then made president of Brigham Young University, and finally president of the Salt Lake Temple.)
I recall that I had real concern about stepping into a bishopric so soon after having been released, and I mentioned to my wife Jean that I hoped the stake presidency was coming for a church contribution. But I had the premonition that they were coming to make me bishop, and so it proved to be. The Stake Presidency came as a group, the three of them, and said that they wanted me to be the new bishop of the Sunset Ward in the San Francisco Stake. When the change came, on November 8, 1937, I was set apart as the bishop of the Sunset Ward by Stephen L. Richards, the same man who had set me apart in Oakland. In those days it was customary that the bishop be set apart by one of the General Authorities, whereas now the stake president can do it.
The widespread San Francisco Stake included Novato and San Rafael on the Marin County side as branches and then extended down as far as San Jose. San Francisco proper consisted of four city wards and three "down the peninsula." At that time, San Francisco had only one meeting house, an old remodeled building on Hayes Street for the San Francisco Ward. The building has now been sold and is the chapel for a Black congregation.
Sunset was one of the older groups meeting in San Francisco. The Sunset Branch had been organized on January 30, 1927, joining the already existing San Francisco and Mission Branches in the city. The Sunset Branch met at The Parnassus Masonic Hall at Ninth and Judah Streets with branch boundaries of Oak Street, Golden Gate park, west of market, Diamond Street and Allemany Boulevard. Sunset Branch became a ward on July 27, 1927 when the San Francisco Stake was organized. Carl Kjar was sustained as Bishop of the ward which then numbered 282 members. Four bishops served while the branch met at that location: Carl Kjar, Stephen H. Winter, Charles White, and myself.
The presidency told me that one of my first assignments would be to build a building, a Sunset Ward and San Francisco Stake building in the area. The Church already owned the lot for the new building.
There was no church building committee then, and the presiding bishopric ran the building program. A ward would apply for permission to build a new chapel, and a representative of the presiding bishopric's office would come out, look around, and approve the construction. The local bishop was in charge of the entire operation and wrote checks personally for every item and service.
President Stephen H. Winter and Sister Jacquetta Quealey, a wealthy and generous member, envisioned a landmark chapel which would be suitable headquarters for the church on the west coast. They called in a non-church architect, Walter Clifford, outlined their ideas, and asked for a plan for the extravagant building they had in mind. The first two plans cost so much that they were abandoned. The third plan was to their liking. Their ideas, at this depressed period, were extremely ambitious. The land at 22nd Avenue and Lawton Street had been purchased with this ambitious plan in mind.
Jacquetta Quealey was a Salt Lake McCune. Her mother was an ardent church worker, her father a successful mining engineer. Married to Jay Quealey who had coal mining interests in Wyoming, she was devoted to the Church and socially prominent in the city. Sister Quealey considered a beautiful Latter-day Saint chapel essential for San Francisco.
I agreed to be bishop on the condition that Claude T. Lindsay be called as my first counselor. I had known him in the mission field, and he was already a prominent builder in the San Francisco area. Lindsay took the assignment and served as a no-fee contractor for the building. His work made a big difference in the quality of the building, and I don't know how we could have managed without him.
Construction began in 1938. The original plan was that the building would be constructed at night and on Saturdays with the members doing the work. Some local members were very capable carpenters and construction workers. Lindsay met with various skilled labor unions and obtained their permission. But the second night of work, members of the labor council representing various non-skilled unions appeared and picketed. They demanded that the work be shut down. Actually one of our ward members, a strong member of the railroad union, objected to the idea that the chapel should be built as a non-union job. He was the one who reported the bad situation to the union and made it impossible for the members, who were quite capable of putting up the building, to participate. The job was done almost entirely by union labor.
At that time the church paid 60% on a stake building. The other 40% was divided over the other wards of the stake with the home ward paying 60% of the 40%. Even this fraction was very hard to come by. People were contributing fifty cents or so at a time as they could spare it. The Great Depression was still not over, and no one had any money. For long stretches only one union worker was at the building site as there was no money to pay more. Sister Quealey had told me to come to her whenever money was really needed, and we were very grateful for her generosity. She bailed out the building a number of times and ended up paying in actual cash more than all the rest of the stake put together. The building eventually cost about $100,000.
Construction was already underway when I sent my first request for funds to Salt Lake City. I received back the shocking word that the building had never been approved. Somewhat after the fact, the paper work was done, the calls were made, and the Presiding Bishopric's Office accepted the fact that this renegade bunch in San Francisco was moving ahead. The plan was approved.
The building continued to be changed even as the building was going up. Claude Lindsay pointed out that the plans held no provision for a scout room. The building backed up to a sand dune, and Claude noted that this large pile of sand could be moved out more inexpensively than contouring the footings to the hillside. He proposed excavation of that area and he also suggested bringing in many board feet of knotty pine lumber, which he was just going to burn up in his mill, to panel the walls. This fortuitous suggestion resulted in the large paneled scout room, perfect for the many small social gatherings and scouting activities of all kinds which took place there. The room, which was like a great big family room, never existed on any plans.
Local members were very much involved in contributing to the building. Anna Musser Stevenson, a talented ward member, was commissioned to design a bas relief to be placed over the front door. Of her several designs, the one depicting Joseph Smith in prayer was chosen. Her model was adapted to a semi-sphere about four feet high, of the kneeling figure of Joseph Smith. The cast-stone contours were tinted in pastel colors, and the scripture, "If any of ye lack wisdom, let him ask of God" added. She also designed a decorative device with deseret beehive and seagull. This motif, about two feet high, was also tinted and set on an outside wall.
The baptismal font benefited from J. Cyril Johnson who heard that some valuable tile was available from the William Randolph Hearst estate, San Simeon. He procured it for the church and installed it in the beautiful little room. That room also contained a stained, leaded glass window, the gift of Mrs. Quealey in honor of her mother. The window, a classical design of a nymph standing on a globe, was originally commissioned in Italy, and had been installed in the McCune house in Salt Lake City. Mrs. Quealey particularly requested that one of her mother's possessions be placed in the building. Many of the things were very grand and not too suitable, and I chose the window from the group of beautiful things available. Mrs. Quealey also contributed the grand piano in the chapel and many of the beautiful chairs used in the Relief Society Room.
Ernest Semereau, a German immigrant convert, offered to do a charcoal drawing in lieu of a contribution. He wanted to repay kindness extended to him, and he offered a picture done in a craft he had learned as a child. This process consists of filling the surface of the canvas with charcoal and selectively erasing small areas. After much deliberation, we chose Kaufman's picture of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane as the picture Semereau should copy. The picture, about six by seven feet, was completed in 1943 and then framed and hung in the front of the chapel, behind the pulpit.
This picture has had an interesting history. The Church has regulations against religious pictures in the LDS chapels, and many people thought that the picture should be taken down. I fought many a pitched battle against its removal. Once I had the opportunity and occasion to ask President McKay what he thought of the picture. When he said he loved it, I had good justification to keep the picture hung for many years. But I wasn't always in a position to control policy.
Later, when the picture was taken down and would have been disposed of, I rescued it and moved it to my basement. Then it was taken over to the Oakland Temple with the hope that it would be hung there. Temple authorities put it in storage instead and planned to throw it out. At that point it was carried away by Leon Collett, a temple worker and former member of the Sunset Ward who took it to his house. When Robert Larsen, who had been around a long time, was made Sunset Ward Bishop, he retrieved the picture and hung it once again in Sunset Ward. Now that the building has been remodeled, it is one of the few original furnishings remaining. Of course it is now hanging in the front lobby, rather than the chapel, but it is still very much part of the building.
The Sunset Ward has a wonderful pipe organ which represents an impressive achievement. While the chapel plans were being made, President Winter went to the three Thatcher sisters, Josephine Danford, Harriet Poland, and Luna Hansen, and suggested that they donate a pipe organ as a memorial to their mother Hannah Morrison Thatcher. Porter Danford, a non-member businessman in town, managed the fund-raising campaign, writing and phoning friends world-wide in search of funds. The family raised the money and bought the organ. A small bronze plaque still testifies to their contribution.
Due to the poor economic situation of the members, the building was moving very slowly. We badly needed $5,000 to keep the work going. The organ was delivered long before the building was ready for it and had to sit in its packing boxes on the site. One night it was vandalized. One of the cases was broken open, and some of the pipes were smashed. I was very discouraged by this development.
The next morning I called my office and and told them I would be away for a few days on a personal matter. I boarded a train for Salt Lake City, arrived at 6 am, after sitting up all night, and went immediately to the Presiding Bishoprics' Office, which was then located in a small building just north of the Hotel Utah. I didn't have an appointment, but when the office opened, I went in and demanded to see Bishop LeGrand Richards.
The secretary tried to put me off, but my voice was loud enough that the presiding bishop soon came into the hall to see what was going on. He ushered me into his office and listened patiently to my grievances and complaints, which were many, about the building system. I told him that any significant business enterprise would have provided engineers, architects, and services of every kind, rather than dumping the project on the local manager. I told him there should be some centralized committee overseeing the program and some help with the finances which were causing the project to drag on forever.
After this tirade, Bishops Richards, in a kindly manner, with great patience, suggested that we take a walk. We walked over to Temple Square and stopped on the eastern side of the temple. Bishop Richards pointed to the Salt Lake Temple and to the little log house nearby. He asked whether I knew how long it had taken to build the temple and where the Saints had lived while building it. I had to admit I knew that the building had taken forty years to complete, and that many people had lived in shacks during that period.
"Everything you have said about the building is true," Richards said. "We could build chapels faster, and we could build them better. But we're not building chapels, we're building men. You go back and work with your people. If it takes longer to finish the building than you have planned, that's all right. We won't complain. Your people will love the building, and you will love it." These were prophetic words. I was sorry I never took the chance to remind Bishop Richards of them later.
Back in the office, Richards called for the plans and looked them over. He said that his office would continue to cooperate in every way, but he volunteered no additional funds. I was afraid I would have to go back home empty handed.
Before I left the office, I talked to Brother Price, the head Church architect, and asked his advice about getting some additional money. He told me to come back the next day, after he had had time to review the plans. The next day he suggested that we add requests for landscaping and for an another entrance and stairway. The additional requests added up to almost the necessary $5,000. When Bishop Richards considered the request, he gave his approval to the additions, and I was able to go home with a check.
By November 1940, the building had progressed far enough that meetings could be held there, although the walls were as yet unfinished. We moved in early so that we could save rent on the other facility. There was a tax saving as well: taxes were charged on the unfinished building, but once the church building was occupied, the taxes ceased. We continued to work on the building even as we were meeting there. The cultural hall was not completed at all, and work on that was far down the line.
One evening at a bishopric meeting the MIA (Mutual Improvement Association) leaders, who organized social events for the young people, told us to hurry up and get the cultural hall finished for a New Year's dance to be held in three weeks. This would be a very important occasion, the biggest of the social year. The MIA had already gone ahead and contracted with the orchestra.
I was just furious about this impossible request. The ward was short of time and had no money to do the flooring. I sent the leaders on their way, and they were somewhat chastened. Claude Lindsay quietly came forward after the meeting saying that perhaps he could do something, and he miraculously did. He arranged for the many hundreds of square feet of hardwood, and he brought in crews from several jobs, totaling thirty-one men, to lay the flooring, which was completed in a single day and a half. No bill for this labor was ever forwarded. The first dance, on beautiful hardwood flooring, used to this day, proceeded as scheduled.
The chapel had plush theatre seats, of the sort that fold up when not sat on. Seats like these had never before been seen in an LDS church, although they are now used in the temples. The seats came from a theatre at the World's Fair at Treasure Island which had been in operation for only thirty days before it went bankrupt. Maynard Peterson, a ward member, heard of these seats and let the ward know they were available. The ward purchased them for a quarter on the dollar. The seats were never approved nor approved of by the Church Building Committee, but they gave faithful and comfortable service for over forty years.
Stephen H. Winter, the Stake president, had had early training as a cabinetmaker, and he built a unique pulpit. The top surface had recessed provisions for housing the four standard works. An electric clock to keep speakers on time was also recessed in the pulpit surface. All visiting speakers remarked on the unusual arrangement of the clock and scriptures. Many years later, when those scriptures wore out and could not be replaced with any of the same size, Bishop Robert Larsen built a new pulpit top with recessed boxes for the current-sized scriptures.
Some ambitious aspects of the plans were not realized. The bells for the tower were never installed, and the elevator, which had been part of the original plan, was sacrificed to growing costs. Otherwise, the imaginative aspects of the plan were completed, and even extras, such as the scout room, were included.
When the building was completed, Sister Quealey and the new Stake President Howard McDonald were anxious for an event suitable in every way to this grand building. A letter was written to Salt Lake requesting a date and the best speaker among the brethren. Rudger Clawson, the President of the Quorum of the Twelve, and a very sweet, mild-mannered man, noted this request and said that as the ward had asked for the best man available, he would go himself. The building was dedicated on June 15, 1941 as part of Stake Conference, by Brother Clawson who gave a very extensive and complete address. In his dedicatory talk, he prayed that faith would be renewed, and saddened hearts would be blessed. He hoped that the building would be a haven for those who were discouraged.
The building has seen a lot since that day. Forty-three members of the General Authorities have spoken from that pulpit. Among them were the last six Presidents of the Church: George Albert Smith, David O. McKay, Joseph Fielding Smith, Harold B. Lee, Spencer W. Kimball, and Ezra Taft Benson. Seven of the Council of the Twelve and many Assistants, Seventies, and members of the Presiding Bishopric have stood at that pulpit.
It is a handsome building, unlike any other ever built in the Church, a three-story, white stucco building with Spanish accents. The roof is of red tile, and a square bell tower rises above the entrance. The round arch above the front door is echoed in the tower above and in fan lights above the tall chapel windows. Not everyone loves Sunset Ward. One General Authority said it looked like a big white barn to him. But many people, and particularly those who contributed to it, think otherwise.
As with all metropolitan areas, San Francisco has been a transitory stake. Many people come as students or in the military and leave after a short time. This has not been a place where families move in and stay. Housing is too expensive to encourage long stays for young families. But people who have lived in Sunset Ward can be found in every place in the world. At one time a General Authority was sent to San Francisco to see why there had been nine changes in the High Council in thirteen months. The visitor was told that the leaders had learned to use people in flight to take advantage of their skills.
As the fortieth anniversary of the building got closer, I got the idea that we should have a major commemoration. I called Elder David B. Haight, a member of the Council of the Twelve Apostles who had once been a member of the Stake, and suggested the idea to him and that he come to speak for a service on that occasion. He reacted very positively to the suggestion, and we began to put some plans together.
On June 14, 1981, all former members of the Sunset Ward were invited to come to a 40th anniversary commemorative service for the building. Elder Haight came to preside over the festival rites. Members former and present attended the event, remembering how the building came to be and the events that took place there.
Soon after, the ward was informed that the Church Building Committee would be moving in and bringing the building up to date. The Committee had come into being as the result of the frustrations of inexperienced bishops like myself, left to construct chapels on their own. The Church Building Committee had expanded its responsibility past construction to the remodeling and maintenance of all Church buildings.
An architect surveyed the existing building and drew up new plans. For a year the members of the ward met in another place while extensive changes took place in the building. When the chapel was completed, some things had not changed. The outside looked very much the same. Because there is no parking lot, zoning restrictions forbid extensive exterior changes.
Although the beehive and the seagull are still on the wall, Joseph Smith has been removed from the building. That sort of thing is not done anymore, the building superintendent told the members. Instead the semi-sphere has been replaced with glass and sits above heavy glass doors which bring light to the interior. The Joseph Smith sculpture has now found its way to the Church Museum.
Four items remain of the original building: the hardwood floor in the recreation hall, the chandelier in the foyer, the organ, and the Garden of Gethsemane picture. There was talk about replacing the pipe organ with a new electronic model, but the older voices prevailed. The lobby, which does have the veteran Semereau drawing of Christ, now also has an elevator which allows the many senior citizens of the ward to ascend to the chapel without climbing steps.
Now on Sundays, two full wards, one Chinese-speaking, meet there at the same time. The two wards require many more classrooms within the existing structure. As a result, the larger rooms, such as the scout room, have been divided. Many other large spaces have been cut in two for some very little class rooms. The baptismal font, which never actually got a lot of use, has been redone as a ward library. The renovations were completed at a cost of about $1,330,000. On March 26, 1988, the renewed Sunset Ward was rededicated by Stake President Jeremiah I. Alip.
The Sunset Ward was one of the major centers of my life. So much time, concern, and trouble went into getting it built, that I have felt very protective of the building. The idea of remodeling the structure was very painful to me, and I would have prevented it if I could. Still, now that it has been redone, I agree with my daughter Claudia: "They have taken a veteran and given it a new life.