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Welcome to the Recent Speeches podcast presented by BYU Speeches, featuring inspiring new devotionals and forums given each week on BYU Campus. Be sure to check out our other podcasts by searching BYU Speeches wherever you get your podcasts or by visiting Speeches BYU. Edu Podcasts.
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This commencement address, entitled A Question of.
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Priorities, was given on April 24th of 2025 by J. Clifford Wallace, then Senior.
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Judge and Chief Judge Emeritus of the United States Court of Appeals President Allen Oaks. My colleagues here at the university, graduates and friends, I must first apologize to those of you who receive your doctorate through much work here in the university. But I'm not going to turn it down. I have a great love for this university. I've taught here. I've been involved in programs for Brigham Young University. I think it is the. The university in the United States. In fact, in the world, you can never get the education that we serve here. It's been my experience to be able to talk the Chief justice of Pakistan into sending his son here. He agreed to send him here because he came to byu and he asked me, what are they? Where's the trash? And I said, well, here at byu, we teach them not to throw the tash. Oh, so later on, how do you teach them to dress up? And he says, well, that's what we do here. Hmm. He says, I think I'm gonna send my son here. I said, now wait a minute, Chief justice. He's gonna have 25,000 people trying to baptize him if you send him here. And he said, I know, I know, but I think he will be safe here. He stayed here. He graduated in business. He returned to Pakistan. He's doing very well, and his father is still very proud of him and still my close friend. I'm very grateful to receive this honorary degree from Brigham Young University. My life didn't have a promising beginning. My father was an immigrant with a third grade education and an abusive alcoholic. Although my high school grades were in the C D area, my life changed because four LDS high school students befriended me, which led to my baptism. I was fortunate to serve my country, and as a veteran of World War II, I had the educational assistance of the GI Bill. I went to. Yes, we still are a patriotic people. I did well in school and began my career as a civil trial lawyer in the largest firm in the United States. In the church, I was called to serve the youth. However, when the stake was divided and I was called to have with the little church experience to be a counselor in the new Stake Presidency, that was a little bit much at the end of that Stake conference, I was standing alone in one of the rooms in the Stake center when Elder, the Grand Richards of the Quorum of the twelve Apostles, who was presiding at the conference, noticed me. He came in and said something to the effect, you look bewildered. I was not surprised. I was bewildered. He says, what is the problem? And I said. I told him that I was just beginning my practice as a trial lawyer, which is very time consuming. My wife was pregnant with our first child, and I was concerned about how I could fulfill the responsibilities of my new calling. He studied me briefly, and these are his words, which I ask you to remember as you go out and face the world and the challenges and the temptations. These were his words. They are indelibly written on my mind, and I have followed them since. He said, well, Brother Wallace, your responsibility, your first responsibility is to your family. The second is to the church. And if you have any time left over, you can earn a living now. He expected me to be successful, but it was a question of priorities. Now you're leaving. Now, in a life that's been pretty well set for you, you had your goals, you're moving them, you're moving out into the world where they'll be challenged. And you're smart people, you can succeed. But the end of life, what do you want to have done? What is going to be really important? And I decided that I would follow what he said there was. I rarely stayed late at the office. I never went out with friends afterwards for a soda pop or whatever they were drinking. I drank a lot of Tab in those days, and I always arranged to be on time with my family, where we sat around the table each evening and talked about our challenges and what were the interests they had on that day. It is sometime later that I built a small office in our home. And truly, after I had taken care of my family, my children, read the stories, etc. I would then go out to my little office and get ready for tomorrow, sometimes working well into the night, preparing for cross examination this next morning. My legal commitment was to never fail a client, and I never did. I was never unprepared. And I can tell you a little bit about how well that worked out for me. But you'd think I was bragging, and I would be. It's also true that I never became a golfer. Too much time. I was a jogger. I could work that in. I found that if I carefully and prayerfully made the most important parts of my life consistent with their eternal worth, I accomplished much more of real value in my life's endeavor. As you graduate from this institution, you're smart people. You're going to be successful. I understand that. But I suggest how you do it and how you equate your time and what are the most important things that you have to do that you follow, what a wonderful member of the quorum of the 12 suggested I do and what I have followed and what success I've had has been the important words of Elder Legrand Richards My most important responsibility was to my family. My next was to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I never refused a call. I have always done everything I could that I am asked to do, and I did become a successful judge. God bless you as you go out. You're not just going out as graduates. I was fortunate that somebody came along and made sure that I could be baptized into the church. My experiences are all measured by how well I have kept those covenants along with becoming successful in my profession. God bless you that at the end of your life's work, you can look back and say, I got it right. I got it right. I put my family first. I put the church second. I called, responded to calls because God knows that it's consistent with what I want to do. He's helping me along. But the family came first. The Lord bless you to have a wonderful life. And maybe, maybe in the next life we could have a meeting of this graduate class and we can talk to each other and see how we solved the problem of the challenges of life by gaining a process by which we could be successful not only in this life, but in the life to come. I ask my Heavenly Father in humility to bless each one of you that you too, at the end of your life can say it was well done. And you can have a head standing tall as you witness your own opportunity to embrace our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
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You've been listening to the recent Speeches podcast presented by BYU Speeches. Please check out our other podcasts, including classic speeches taken from our vast audio library, as well as other BYU Speeches compilations on love and marriage overcoming adversity by study and by faith. Come follow me the Prophet Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ our Savior and Redeemer. Go to Speeches byu Edu and click on Podcasts for more information. You can also find all BYU Speeches podcasts at your preferred podcast provider.