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Ottleys "Leave Part of Their Hearts" at BYUH

Jerold and Jo Ann Ottley are outstanding examples of the BYU-Hawaii professors who willingly shared their time and talents, and extended their love to the students for the last three years.

Before coming to Laie, the Ottleys were world renowned for their success with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir: He served as the Choir's director for 25 years and she was the voice coach. At the beginning of their marriage, however, they had no idea their union would so strongly influence the world.

"Neither one of us had very huge ambitions. When I finished college and began teaching junior high school, I thought I had the world by the tail! Jo Ann didn't have any big plans, except to be a mother and to teach a few lessons but we've been literally dragged by the Lord from one thing to another," said Jerold [pictured at upper left].

With faith, they closely followed the path that the Lord mapped out for them. "Doors just opened. We didn't push them open, and sometimes we were pushed through them. Life just kept multiplying that way until the choir call came. Then the whole world opened up to us. We lived a bigger life than either of us really anticipated or wanted. There have been great blessings that have gone with it," he said.

Due to their unmatchable experience, when the announcement was made in 2005 that they were to come to BYU-Hawaii to teach, a noticeable excitement arose among the campus community. "I couldn't believe the Ottleys were coming to direct a choir. I was so thrilled! What an amazing opportunity for me to be able to work with such experienced people," said Voloy Horsford, a BYUH alum from New Zealand.

Even though Jerold and Jo Ann Ottley were still assisting the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at the time of the call, they were both more than willing to make the journey across the Pacific Ocean to teach introductory choir on our small campus, they said. When they finally arrived, they already had an idea of what they were getting into.

"We were here in Laie with the tabernacle choir on tour in 1988 and sang in the Cannon Center. We didn't have some of the misconceptions that some people have about this place. We were looking forward to what experiences we would enjoy here," he said.

"I recall many a class period with both Brother and Sister Ottley when I would be in shock that I was learning from two world-class musicians who have met presidents of many countries, who have traveled the world and sung for so many important people and events. And yet, here they are, teaching in a little island out in Hawaii. I am humbled and honored every time I think that I not only can claim Jerold and Jo Ann Ottley as two of my instructors, but most importantly that I can regard them as friends," said BYUH vocal student Joseph Moore.

Being at BYU-Hawaii was not only a special experience for the students, however; it has also been an extraordinary one for the Ottleys."In some ways it has been a healing experience. In other ways it has been a capstone experience, it has been the cap to this whole career that we have had because it's allowed us to bring everything that we've learned and everything that we've done to a circumstance and try to help mold it's future," Jerold said.

"I love the whole setting of this university. Having it be an international school, it is a gathering place and it's a blessed place. We feel that. We feel that very much," she added. "It contains the combination of the temple, the Polynesian Cultural Center and the BYU-Hawaii campus. It contains the students from all over the world. It contains those beautiful flags, it contains prophetic statements; BYU-Hawaii encompasses all of those elements."

"Watching these things work together as a whole is what this place is. If there is a spiritual equivalent of magic that is what this place is. That's the ideal. It has provided unique and very beautiful experiences for us," Jo Ann said.

When the Ottleys finally fly home to Utah, they will leave a hole in the hearts of the many people whose lives they have touched on the BYU-Hawaii campus. Kai Sanders, for example, said, "The fact the Ottleys have recognized talents in me and have sought, trained and inspired them out of me, is humbling. I have a heart full of gratitude for the Ottleys because they have truly stretched me. I am truly going to miss them!"

As this exceptional couple leaves Hawaii for yet another life adventure, they will take with them the spirit of aloha, which has immersed them with love throughout their time here.

"As for now, we need to get back to our children and get reacquainted with our grandchildren, and take part in whatever Heavenly Father has planned for us," he said. "We owe a lot to a lot of people who have made this a very wonderful experience for us. We will leave great chunks of our heart here when we go. We have truly loved it."