As a missionary in New Jersey, S. Paul Victor (’23) was known for putting his own spin on proselyting. Walking along he would balance a copy of the Book of Mormon atop his right index finger, twirling it round and round, street after street.
“Not a lot of people can do this skill, so they’re intrigued and stop to talk,” Victor says.
The same strategy works back at BYU. On campus you might spot Victor—elected BYUSA president in March—deftly spinning a laptop or iPad on his way to class, sometimes while skating on heelies, delighted to chat with curious passersby. “Making connections is everything for me,” he says.
Victor learned how to spin from a fellow missionary, starting with cereal boxes and moving up to electronics. Despite occasional setbacks—dropped books and cracked screens—he recently took his spinning game to world-record status. This July, after two and a half years of “prayer and practice,” he broke the Guinness World Record for the longest time spinning a plate on one finger, clocking in at 2:17:24.
“I felt it after about 20 minutes,” he says, “but you have to keep pushing on.”
Victor, a strategic-management major, is now eyeing a few more spinning records: a pillow, a smartphone, and the Guinness World Record book itself. “I’ll be spinning until I die, probably,” he says. “I’ll be spinning in my grave.”
