The people in President Howard W. Hunter's life thought of him as a private, unassuming and spiritual man who had compassion for all and an ability to get the job done.
President Hunter's sister, Dorothy Hunter Rasmussen, said her brother didn't like to call attention to himself but just went about in his own quiet way doing things he felt were important."I can truthfully say I have never known my brother to do a wrong thing in his life," she said.
This perception of President Hunter wasn't just limited to family members. Those who associated or worked with him said he had a tremendous knack for getting things accomplished, while avoiding the spotlight.
"He liked to see things go well," recalled Daken Broadhead, who was called as first counselor when President Hunter was called as president of the Pasadena Stake in 1950. "There was never anything shoddy about what he did. And he was always cheerful and optimistic and very, very spiritual."
High council meetings often turned into endurance tests, because President Hunter wanted to make sure he heard from everyone who wanted to speak on an issue.
"His modus operandi was to listen to those who counseled, then make a decision and move ahead," said Talmage Jones, who served as both first and second counselor to President Hunter in the stake presidency.
Jones said President Hunter never dominated situations but was always very firm in his leadership. "He was respected by the people of the stake for that quality."
President Hunter has a remarkably serene pulpit presence and a natural dignity, Elder James E. Faust of the Council of the Twelve wrote in "The Way of an Eagle" in the August 1994 Ensign magazine. "His messages are always thoughtful and profound, sensitive and comforting. For instance, in a talk given in October 1983, President Hunter gave comfort to struggling parents:
" `A successful parent is one who has loved, one who has sacrificed, and one who has cared for, taught, and ministered to the needs of a child. If you have done all of these and your child is still wayward or troublesome or worldly, it could well be that you are, nevertheless, a successful parent.' "
Other traits mentioned by associates in the Twelve through the years:
- "When you travel with him, he's always watching to be sure that everybody is taken care of and that nobody is being inconvenienced or put out."
- "He is tough when he needs to be tough and gracious when he needs to be gracious and forgiving when he needs to be forgiving."
- "We have never seen him distraught or excited or unhappy with anything. He has a way of seeing that everything is done in the right way, according to the scriptures, according to church tradition and policy. He is concerned with and sensitive to others. He has charity and a forgiving heart. He is loyal to those over him. He is a student of the gospel, of mankind, of human nature. He has all of the qualities needed to be a leader of mankind and to represent the Lord's work."
- "He has extraordinary patience that comes from great inner peace."
In the last devotional on a Brigham Young University International Folk Dancer tour of China in 1975, for instance, he told the students that he would be glad to relay messages to their mothers if they would give him the telephone numbers. Over the next few weeks, back in his Salt Lake office, he fulfilled the promise and made every call.
President Hunter's son, Richard, said his father possessed an extraordinary ability to remember people and their circumstances. Both friends and family often commented on how he remembered people he had met years earlier and the things they had talked about.
Richard also credited his father with being a great teacher by example. "What I know about honesty and integrity has come in large measure by what people have told me about my father," he said.
The call to be an apostle brought a busy lifestyle for President Hunter until he and Sister Hunter moved into their Salt Lake home in 1961. Often President Hunter, in winding down his law practice, would board a train in Los Angeles on Wednesday after a day at the office, attend the weekly temple meeting of the First Presidency and Council of the Twelve on Thursday and take an overnight train back to Los Angeles for another day's work on Friday.
Sometimes he would leave California on Tuesday evening, and occasionally he would take late-night flights one or both ways.
Stake conference assignments meant weekend trips to the conference sites.