On Establishing
Permanent Goals

Stephen Kent Woodhouse was named as President of LDS Business College on December 12, 1991 to begin his tour of duty on January 2, 1992. He was ordained as Bishop of the Dimple Dell Heights Ward, Granite View Stake, of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on May 12, 1991, at the age of 50. He is currently serving as first counselor in the Stake Presidency.

Born in Payson, Utah on June 17, 1940, President Woodhouse is the son of William Howard and Marie Cloward Woodhouse. His father passed away on New Year's Eve of 1946 when he was only six years old. He and his younger brother, Blaine, were then raised and nurtured in Salt Lake City, Utah by their widowed mother. He attended Salt Lake City public schools and graduated from South High School in 1958. He was awarded a four-year full tuition scholarship to the University of Utah. He attended the University of Utah where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree with a mathematics major and a physics and German minor, graduating in 1965. He received a Masters in Business Administration degree in 1966 from the University of Utah. While attending college, he was active in the Delta Phi Kappa fraternity, was president of Motivators, Inc., an Investment Club, sang in the men's chorus, and participated in golf, tennis, and basketball intramurals. He was a teaching assistant in mathematics and statistics while receiving his MBA degree.

In June of 1966, he was married to Sytske Saskia VanZyverden in the Salt Lake Temple by Elder Marion D. Hanks. During what he considers one of the most eventful weeks of his life in June of 1966, he received his MBA degree, was married on his birthday, and went to work for the IBM Corporation.

President Woodhouse served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the West German Mission where he was a district leader, traveling elder, and branch president of the Pirmasens, Germany Branch. Since that time he has held various LDS Church positions including bishopric counselor, member of the high council, a member of the Young Men's presidency, Scout Master, and Blazer Scout leader. He was awarded the Boy Scouts of America Lone Peak District Award of Merit on November 7, 1986 for outstanding service to youth of the community through idealism and citizenship. He was a staff member on the Scouting National jamboree committee at Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia, in 1985 and was appointed Scouting District Commissioner of the Lone Peak District in 1990.

In his professional life, he was a systems engineer for IBM Corporation from 1966 to 1969 and a marketing representative from 1969 to 1972. Using this training, he co-founded Telesystems Corporation in 1972, a data processing services company specializing in stock brokerage, construction, accounting, and wholesale distribution. At the same time he was a founder and Vice President of Finance of a regional stock brokerage firm. Telesystems Corporation grew until it had offices in Salt Lake City, Denver, and San Diego. In order to expand the Denver market place, the company consolidated with Jeremiah Corporation, a Denver mini-conglomerate. He moved with his family to Evergreen, Colorado, a suburb of Denver to become Executive Vice President of this company. In 1981, he formed a new company called Eagle Systems Corporation which was created from the business services division of Jeremiah Corporation. As President he was successful in selling the company to an East Coast firm in October of 1983. He retained the Salt Lake City branch office so that he could return to his native home with his family.

While continuing as President of Eagle Information Systems Corporation, he became an instructor at LDS Business College in 1989 in the Computer Information Systems Department. This decision to become an instructor was instrumental in his appointment as President of the College.

He has been involved in many community services by becoming a member of the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce, the Salt Lake Oratorio Society, the Utah State Office of Rehabilitation Independent Living Council, the Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Rotary Club of Salt Lake City, and the Utah State Council on Vocational and Applied Technology Education (SCATE). He has been recently appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Utah Partnership for Educational and Economic Development.

He and his wife, Sytske, have six children: Stephen Troy, Christiaan Cory, Cameron Tyler, Jayme Parker, Sytske Sjoukje, and Kirsten Helena who was stillborn in 1982. In considering all of life's choices, President Woodhouse is confident that all of the training and guidance he has received both spiritually and temporally, has led him step-by-step to this current assignment.