David H. Jeppson remembers clearly the day he decided what he wanted to do with the rest of his life.
"I had been working on the farm with my dad," he remembered. "It was hard work and it was hot. We'd been working all day and I was tired. My dad asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up. I knew that I didn't want to be a farmer."After thinking about it and talking things over with his dad, Jeppson decided he wanted to go into medicine. "But I didn't want to be a doctor. I didn't know if there was anything like that available, but that's what I wanted," he remembered.
Jeppson was 14 years old at the time and had never heard of a hospital administrator. But 38 years later, that's what he is - in addition to being chairman of the American College of Healthcare Executives, bishop, high councilor, husband and father.
"I do keep busy," Jeppson said. "There are a lot of things I'm doing and a lot of things I'm involved in, but it's just a matter of trying to organize your life and maintaining a balanced outlook. My deepest commitment is to the Church and my family; they are first and foremost. Then, I try to balance that with the things I feel are important relating to work and the community."
Jeppson has devoted much of his time to those last two: career and community. After working in several hospitals, in 1975 he joined Intermountain Health Care, Inc., a group of not-for-profit hospitals, clinics, and other health care facilities. He currently serves as executive vice president. His primary responsibilities include overseeing the people and facilities that provide direct patient care.
In August of this year, Jeppson also began serving as chairman of the American College of Healthcare Executives, an organization of more than 21,000 health care executives.
"It's quite an honor," explained Stewart Kirkpatrick, IHC vice president over public affairs. "What it essentially means is that Dave's peers, who know him and respect him, have elected him as their leader."
Jeppson is the first Church member to be elected to the position and that is one of the reasons he accepted.
"Even though I am busy, I really felt like this was important," Jeppson explained. "I just felt I shouldn't say no.
"Gospel standards really stick out in this business," Jeppson said. "Everyone knows what I stand for and what I believe. It comes up all the time."
Although Jeppson's job has been time-consuming, he has made extraordinary efforts to spend time with his wife and eight children (seven sons, one daughter).
"I threw footballs with them and tried to go to games and performances. I just tried to support them in what they wanted to do."
Jeppson and his wife also taught their children how to work and handle responsibility. Although Jeppson decided not to be a farmer, he realized that he had learned the importance of work while growing up on the 600-acre family dry farm in southeastern Idaho. He wanted his children to have a similar experience. Thirteen years ago, the family invested in a 15-acre farm in Farmington, Utah, where Jeppson now serves as bishop of the Farmington 16th Ward.
"I've tried to teach the kids to work hard," he said. "Our small acreage includes a garden big enough to feed a ward, some orchard trees and some livestock." In addition, the Jeppsons live in a home they built themselves in the evenings and on the weekends.
As his children have grown up, the investment has paid off. Each of Jeppson's sons has served a mission; his youngest son, John, left for the North Carolina Charlotte Mission in July 1988 and his only daughter, Jill, is serving in the Montreal Quebec French-speaking mission. All of the boys are Eagle Scouts and Jill was a Relief Society president at Ricks College.
Now Jeppson and a hired hand run the farm and Jeppson finds farming relaxing. "My joy in life is to leave a frustrating, hectic day at the office and go home and change a line of sprinkler pipe," Jeppson said. "It restores peace and sanity."
Jeppson and his wife are also planning to follow in their children's footsteps by serving a full-time mission. "My plan is to be in a position where I can retire early and serve as many missions as my wife and I are able to serve," he said. "We've both been promised that opportunity in our patriarchal blessings and we're looking forward to it. I don't care where we go, I just want to be useful."