The President's Transcriptionist

In the spring of 1972, Linda Lee-Wurdemann’s first encounter with Brigham Young University’s long-serving and recently retired president Ernest L. Wilkinson convinced her she wanted nothing to do with the former president.

Born and raised in Fort Mill, South Carolina, Linda moved to Provo, Utah with her first husband, Jerry and one child, just three years after her baptism into the Church. Jerry was starting a master’s program, and she was seeking employment.

“I went to the BYU campus, and they had only one opening and it was with someone by the name of Ernest Wilkinson. I didn’t even know who he was,” Linda remembered.

As best Linda could figure, she had little chance for the job as an assistant to Wilkinson since he was looking for someone older who could give full-time attention to his new project. The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had asked the former president to write the centennial history of BYU. To make matters worse Linda thought, “he was rough, gruff, and very attorney-like during my interview and I said to myself ‘I don’t know what I’m doing here. I don’t like your attitude and I don’t even like you.’ After the interview I returned home and told my husband we could forget about that job.”

Wilkinson’s tenure as BYU’s 7th president began in 1951 and during the next two decades, he raised the university from its backwater environment to an institution with dozens of buildings, a broad academic offering, and a world-wide reputation. Soon after Church President David O. McKay’s passing in early 1970, Wilkinson submitted a letter of resignation. Before the ink cooled on his letter, Church leaders asked him to tackle the huge centennial history project with a deadline less than four years away.

“The day after my interview with the president (Wilkinson) I received a phone call from his office asking me to come in for a second interview. I had since learned who this person really was, and I was stunned he wanted to see me again,” Linda said.

“So, I went in and he was a completely different man. He was warm, gracious, and kind. I said to myself, ‘You look like the same man, but you don’t act like the same man. Are you the same man?’ And he said, ‘I want you to come work for me starting tomorrow. I chose you because I talked to every one of your previous employers and decided to offer you the job. Also, you didn’t try to sell me on your ancestors in the church.’ And I said, ‘well, president I’m the first generation in the church and I don’t have any.’

“I went to work for the president in March 1972 and I labored with him for nearly four years transcribing every single word in his four-volume history,” Linda said.

She was all but adopted into the Wilkinson household, enjoying many evening meals with them, attending family gatherings, accepting invitations to public events, and watching BYU football games from the president’s box at the BYU Stadium. She became acquainted with the man who succeeded Wilkinson, Dallin H. Oaks, had contact with the then-Dean of the College of Religion, Jeffrey R. Holland, and knew many of the general authorities of that day as they stopped by Wilkinson’s office.

She returned to Rock Hill, South Carolina in late 1977 and within a year Wilkinson was dead of a heart attack.

In the 42 years since she returned to the Carolinas, Linda and her first husband divorced following which she served a full-time mission in the Puerto Rico San Juan West Mission. Linda later married Ken Wurdemann and they served two missions for the Church. Today, they live near the Catawba Indian Reservation in South Carolina ministering to family, friends, and to individuals incarcerated in South Carolina prisons. Linda’s family includes six children and 16 grandchildren.

Four Volumes of BYU's History, Transcribed by Linda.