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PROVO — Brigham Young University on Thursday honored Major Brent Taylor and his family in a ceremony that added the fallen soldier’s name to the school’s memorial wall.
Taylor, 39, was on leave as mayor of North Ogden when he was killed in the line of duty last November while serving with Utah’s Army National Guard in Afghanistan. He left behind his wife, Jennie, and the couple’s seven children.
“I am grateful for my husband. I hope my children are grateful for their father. I know it hurts to have him gone,” Jennie Taylor said during the ceremony at BYU. “There’s no harder task that I’ve had than to be there when they were informed that their father was not coming back from this deployment.”
A few of the Taylor children assisted in removing the curtain covering on the updated War on Terror plaque on the memorial wall — revealing the name of their dad on the list of BYU students and alumni who died serving their country.
Taylor is a BYU Army ROTC alumnus who graduated from the university in 2006. During the ceremony, Jennie Taylor announced the formation of a scholarship in her husband’s memory that will be awarded each year to an undergraduate political science student at BYU.
“Perhaps they’ll be inspired by the life that he led and the mission that he felt so compelled to fulfill—even at the cost of his life,” Jennie Taylor said. “And then perhaps we will see the rising generation of statesmen, not necessarily politicians, but statesmen.”
The family is encouraging donations to the scholarship fund, which can be done through LDS Philanthropies or directly to the family. You can find more information here.
“Nearly two decades ago, Brent and I entered this campus with a determination to learn, and we have since gone forth with a lifelong commitment to serve,” Jennie Taylor said in a prepared statement. “Please join me, my seven young children, and the rest of our family in helping future students of political science carry on Brent’s legacy of sacrifice, statesmanship and service-centered leadership.”
The memorial wall can be found in the Reflection Room inside BYU’s Wilkinson Student Center.
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