"Enter to Learn, Go Forth to Serve"

BYU has used this phrase "for generations", and a fitting slogan it is. It embodies so much of what a BYU education should be, should do. It embodies what should be a part of every educational institutions' credo. In fact, it is the credo of another educational institution, and was before BYU used it.

A small but prestigious and established private school in Michigan, Cranbrook Kingswood, was established in 1922 by George Booth, a publisher and philanthropist. Booth himself coined the school's motto, "Enter to Learn, Go Forth to Serve".
[See the last paragraph of Grace Fry's Cranbrook Biography]

So how did it make it's way to BYU and acclaim amongst the Mormon educated?

According to a Spring 1997 article in BYU Magazine by Daniel K. Judd, a faculty member named Stewart L. Grow suggested it to Ernest L. Wilkinson [See Refernce 1 from the article].

Grow was a political science professor, and had years of experience in public service. Though I have yet to prove it, there is little doubt in my mind that he was acquinted with George Romney, Michigan state public servant, businessman, Latter-day Saint, and father to now presidential hopeful Mitt Romney. Both Grow and Romney were actively involved in various government boards and committees during World War II, both of them focused on production during wartime. It's not unthinkable that Romney, who sent his children, including Mitt, to Cranbrook for schooling, may have mentioned the Kingsbrook slogan in passing to Grow, maybe even failing to cite his source for such inspiring words.

Many institutions have used the phrase since. To my knowledge, BYU is the most well known example.

Sadly, I'm not the first one to make this observation.