Professorial Relations

Interesting Relations: The Winter 2011 issue of “BYU Religious Education Review” magazine featured the life and legacy of Bryan West Belnap (who went by “West”), former professor and dean of Religious Instruction at Brigham Young University from the early 1950s until his untimely death from cancer at age 45 on 13 Jan 1967. West was born 14 Mar 1921–99 years ago this month–in Ogden, Weber, Utah, the second of four sons born to Volney (“Von”) Bryan Belnap and Rose Marie West. (Von was the third child born to Hyrum Belnap and Anna Constantia Bluth. Hyrum Belnap was the son of Gilbert Belnap and Adaline Knight.) West and his wife, Darlene Howard, had seven children, the youngest not quite 7 months old at the time of West’s passing. West’s reputation as a life-changing instructor continues among the many thousands of students he influenced for the better. West is believed to be the first of a number of descendants of Gilbert Belnap who have taught or are teaching at one of the BYU institutions. They include: Parley L Belnap (BYU Music; organist); Dennis L. Largey (BYU Ancient Scripture; son-in-law of West Belnap); Zachary L. Largey (BYU Humanities; son of Dennis Largey and Kristene Belnap–daughter of West); Daniel L. Belnap (BYU Ancient Scripture); Brent J. Schmidt (BYU-Idaho Religious Education); Michael Keith Belnap (BYU-Hawaii Music; professional tenor); Kent Gee (BYU Physics); Heather Belnap (BYU Art History); R. Kirk Belnap (BYU Arabic; current Belnap Family Organization President); Wes Belnap (BYU-Idaho Religious Education; past Belnap Family Organization President); Kristin Belnap Ballou (BYU-Idaho Developmental Mathematics)–and perhaps others. The full article on West’s influence, entitled “Teaching Legacy: B. West Belnap–‘Charity Endureth’,” can be accessed through the link below. The magazine is published by the Religious Studies Center, the research and publishing arm of Religious Education at BYU.

https://rsc.byu.edu/winter-2011/teaching-legacy-b-west-belnap?fbclid=IwAR1uC4G_OQnZkBWKnLl1oo7zK0YqKJuA7H-qeDN-WrwpduUJQgJW50VppH4

Categorised in: Gilbert Descendants

This post was written by Brent J. Belnap