In 1913 Kirkham was appointed the traveling secretary of the LDS Church's Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association (YMMIA) to oversee recreational activities.[1] He later served for many years as the executive secretary of the YMMIA. Kirkham was involved with Scouting at a high level, serving as a regional scout executive and on the U.S. national staff at the 1929 International Jamboree at Arrowe Park in Birkenhead, England, where he was in charge of the religious exercises of the American scouts.
Heber J. Grant installed Kirkham as one of the seven presidents of the Seventy on October 5, 1941. Marion D. Hanks had Kirkham's personal notes published as a book, Say the Good Word, to which Hanks wrote the foreword.
After having taught music at Ricks Academy early in his career, Kirkham was later honored with a building named after him on the campus of Ricks College.
References
^Richard I. Kimball, Sports in Zion: Mormon Recreation, 1890-1940 (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2003) p. 39
