Even during his growing-up years, President Howard W. Hunter showed traits that would prepare him for professional and LDS Church leadership.
Those traits included an early commitment to the church, dedication to Scouting, being the first to commit to a pledge for a stake tabernacle, his closeness with his sister, Dorothy, and good manners.President Hunter's mother, Nellie Marie Rasmussen Hunter, was an active member of the Boise Branch, which was then a part of the Northwestern States Mission. She made certain her children attended church regularly and received religious instruction both at church and at home.
His father, John William Hunter, was not an LDS Church member at that time, but he did not stand in the way of his family's participation. Occasionally, when his work schedule allowed, he would attend the Sunday evening sacrament meetings with his family.
At the time of President Hunter's birth, the church had very little presence in western Idaho. The branch was organized with eight members in 1903. In 1913, the Boise Branch became the Boise Ward when the Boise Stake was created.
The Catholic Church was dominant in Boise at that time, and there were just a few hundred Latter-day Saints. Although President Hunter and his sister, Dorothy, were part of an LDS minority at school, he still had a testimony, the result of his mother's teachings.
Neither President Hunter nor his sister, Dorothy, were baptized at age 8 because their father wanted them to make their own decisions about religious affiliations. But when President Hunter turned 12, he was able to join the Boy Scout troop, and he longed to pass the sacrament with the deacons. He implored his father to change his mind.
Finally, his father gave in. He and Dorothy were baptized on April 4, 1920, at the Natatorium in Boise. On June 21, President Hunter was ordained a deacon and was able to pass the sacrament as well as perform other services in the ward.
He qualified as a Tenderfoot that December and by spring had completed requirements for Second Class Scout. At camp the following summer, he became a First Class Scout and also received his first merit badge.
By September 1922, he had qualified for 15 merit badges and the Star and Life awards, needing only six more for the rank of Eagle. When the next court of honor was held, he and another Scout had earned 21 merit badges each, but the other Scout, Edwin Phipps, had completed all the required ones while President Hunter still lacked three of the required badges. Thus, Phipps became the first Boise-area Scout to receive his Eagle. Two months later, President Hunter received the second Eagle award.
The following year, the Boise Ward was divided at stake conference, and the Hunters became members of the new Boise 2nd Ward. Soon after, the Saints in Boise were discussing a proposal to build a tabernacle. When an appeal for pledges was made, President Hunter raised his hand and made the first one - $25. "I worked and saved until I was able to pay my commitment in full," he remembered.
President Hunter was born in a small house on the northeast corner of 11th Avenue and Sherman Street in Boise. When he was nearly 2, the family moved to another home around the corner on Sherman. In the fall of 1910, the family moved again, this time to a new subdivision just outside Boise's west city limits on Vine Street.
His chores included going over the stove with stove blacking and polishing the nickel letters that spelled out the brand name. He also brought in coal from an adjoining shed and chopped kindling wood. President Hunter and his sister also helped their mother during the busy summer and fall canning season.
He scattered grain for the chickens each morning and evening and changed the water in their pens.
He loved animals and had a pet dog as well as some stray cats and some rabbits.
With many children in the area, there were always friends for President Hunter and his sister. They played around the ditches, canals and river and skated during the winter after the swimming holes froze over.
Another enjoyable activity was riding the streetcar with their motorman father on the Boise Valley Traction Co. loop that ran from downtown Boise west through Eagle, Star, Middleton and Caldwell, then back through Nampa and Meridian. They boarded and exited at the Old Soldiers Home station, about a quarter mile west of the Hunter home.
Both parents read to the children, and the children's cards from the downtown Carnegie Library were well-used. The Hunters also found room for a piano in their home so both children could take lessons.
In another activity, they took imaginary trips to faraway places. Lying on his stomach on the living room floor at his father's feet, President Hunter would listen as his father would ask: "Where shall we travel today?" Then, armed with an atlas and encyclopedias, they would "explore" exotic places. Those trips whetted his appetite to see the world.
In high school, he also excelled in his woodworking classes and, through home-improvement projects later in life, he was able to put these skills into practice.
Despite differences in looks, temperament and interests, President Hunter and his sister had a close relationship and were fiercely protective of each other.
For example, he treated Dorothy with the same respect as other girls. But their mother used to tell of the time Dorothy came home in a rage, saying she had gone down to the river with President Hunter and one of their school friends, Beatrice, and he had held the barbed wire up longer for Beatrice than for Dorothy.
His sister also remembered that President Hunter would tip his hat to people on the street and give up his seat on the streetcar to anyone who was standing.
For a time, some of the older boys, knowing that President Hunter wouldn't fight back, used to grab his cap and put it on railroad tracks. After Nellie Hunter became tired of buying replacement caps for her son, Dorothy told the bullies, "If you don't lay off, I'll beat you up."
The closeness between President Hunter and his sister was lifelong. During the illness of his first wife, Claire, and the years after Claire's death, Dorothy often accompanied President Hunter on over-seas trips.
And his extensive traveling also brought to life the places where he, as a youngster, had taken imaginary trips with his father.