Howard W. Hunter
Howard W. Hunter served as the 14th President of the Church for nine months between 1994 and his death in 1995. He was born in 1907 in Boise, Idaho, to Nellie and Will Hunter, the first of two children. At the time of Nellie and Will’s marriage, Will had not affiliated with any church despite being raised Episcopalian. During Howard’s childhood, Will did not oppose the rest of the family attending church meetings but insisted his children reach maturity before being baptized. At 12 years of age, Howard pressed his father for permission to be baptized and succeeded. He began serving in his deacons quorum while also taking several jobs in various industries, from golf to stores.
Howard’s most enjoyable activity during high school was leading his own musical group, Hunter’s Croonaders, which played for dances throughout the Boise region. He mastered several instruments, including the drums, saxophone, and clarinet, and after high school, secured a contract to play on a passenger ship. After returning home, Howard hitchhiked to California to visit a friend and former band member and decided to remain there permanently. He soon met Clara May Jeffs (who went by Claire), and the two dated for three years before getting married in 1931. Four days before their wedding, Howard decided to give up professional music. Their first child, Howard William Hunter Jr., was born in 1934 but died tragically in infancy, leaving the couple “grief-stricken and numb.”1 The next year, Howard entered Southwestern Law School to pursue a career in business law. After graduating in 1939, he practiced law and eventually served on the boards of two dozen companies.
Howard W. Hunter, center, holding a saxophone with his band, Hunter’s Croonaders.
In 1940, at age 32, Howard was called as the bishop of the newly formed El Sereno Ward, a responsibility Howard said was “all new to me” and possibly a kind of mission he had imagined serving one day with Claire.2 In his six years as bishop, Howard endeavored to build camaraderie across the ward, which members remembered with fondness years later. In 1950, he was called as president of the Pasadena California Stake, an area on the cusp of a major population boom in Los Angeles County. Within the decade, the county’s population more than doubled, bringing many Latter-day Saints to the area.3 In 1959, he was stunned when President David O. McKay extended the calling for him to serve as an Apostle. He accepted the call, left his law practice, and dedicated himself to full-time service in the Church.
Throughout his apostolic ministry, Elder Hunter traveled extensively to oversee several of the Church’s international efforts. He presided over the Genealogical Society (later the Family History Department of the Church) and suggested adjustments to sealing standards, particularly in how Church members could perform sealings for deceased relatives. On Elder Hunter’s recommendation, President David O. McKay approved a policy change that allowed members to seal deceased female relatives to all the husbands they had been married to during their lives.4 Elder Hunter also carried out assignments to preside over the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii and later over the Church History Department as the Church Historian and Recorder. One of his notable achievements was securing land on the Mount of Olives in Israel for the construction of the Brigham Young University Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies and the Orson Hyde Memorial Garden. His close friendship with Jerusalem’s mayor Teddy Kollek proved significant in gathering support for the projects.5
Elder Howard W. Hunter at the dedication of the Orson Hyde Memorial Garden in Jerusalem, 1979, with Mayor Teddy Kollek.
From 1972 onward, Claire Hunter suffered from a persistent neurological illness that often left her immobilized. After a cerebral attack in 1982, Claire showed signs of permanent brain damage and passed away 18 months later. During this time, Elder Hunter experienced health challenges that included an ulcer, a heart attack, and acute spinal pain. Multiple surgeries and physical therapy through the 1980s returned him to better health, though he continued to battle intermittent challenges for the rest of his life. In 1990, he and Inis Stanton, a previous acquaintance from California, were married. Inis frequently accompanied President Hunter during the rest of his ministry as President of the Quorum of the Twelve and later as President of the Church.6
Six days after President Ezra Taft Benson’s passing in May 1994, President Howard W. Hunter was set apart as President of the Church. During his brief presidency, President Hunter called upon members of the Church to engage more fully in temple worship and center their lives on Jesus Christ. He emphasized family togetherness and directed the Church not to schedule any meetings or programs on Monday nights to allow for family home evening observance.7 He called for family history and temple work to accelerate.
President Hunter passed away in March 1995. Despite his relatively short tenure as President of the Church, his gentle demeanor and unwavering testimony endeared him to the Saints. His successor, President Gordon B. Hinckley, paid tribute to President Hunter’s legacy, emphasizing his dedication to the gospel and the compassion he showed to others. “When he spoke, we all listened,” President Hinckley said at his funeral. “He voiced with great conviction his witness of the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ.”8
For more information about the life of Howard W. Hunter, see the Prophets of the Restoration videos on history.ChurchofJesusChrist.org or in the Gospel Library app.
Related Topics: Family Home Evening, Temple Building, Family History and Genealogy