BYU’s Founding Mothers played large role in university’s emergence

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Women played a large part in BYU becoming a school unlike any other, the university’s first lady said at this week’s campus devotional.

Sister Wendy Reese shared brief notes about women past and present who have made an impact on BYU, including Martha Jane Knowlton Coray, who joined the Brigham Young Academy’s first board of trustees 150 years ago in 1875.

“That was an unusual position for a woman in that day,” Sister Reese said.

Today, BYU’s board includes two women, Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson and Young Women General President Emily Belle Freeman.

Sister Reese said they help guide the priorities of the university.

“I’ve pe