As an LDS apostle, he was overtly public yet strikingly personal in his sermons, both spoken and lived.
Yet one of his greatest legacies will be the storehouse of memories Elder Neal A. Maxwell and his wife, Colleen, created for their children and grandchildren — many crafted as they were able to say a long goodbye.
"He had such an amazing relationship with his grandchildren," his daughter, Jane Sanders, told the Deseret Morning News. "He would tell them 'friends of the forest' stories, where he would lie down on the living room floor and tell these stories he would make up as he went along with the sounds, actions and everything. They often had a moral inside them."
Funeral services for Elder Maxwell, who died Wednesday after a long bout with leukemia, will be held today in the Tabernacle on Temple Square.
Daughter Nancy Anderson was touched by her father's desire to give each of the grandchildren a personal blessing. "It's something they will always treasure. I think he had a very unusually close relationship with them," even when it came to personal choices or actions their parents may have winced at.
"He was very tolerant, and not one that wanted to make them fit into some set pattern or mold," she said. "He was willing to allow great individual differences in their styles. The little things that might have bothered some" or seemed to "put other people on edge" just "didn't seem to bother him."
In fact, his parents both delighted in "talking to us about some little thing our children had said or done recently that might be funny," said Cory Maxwell, the couple's only son.
Daughter Becky Ahlander said her parents loved to sit down around the table with their children and get an update on the grandchildren's activities. "They wanted to be in on the details."
Their father's penchant for promptness was another trait that underscored many family memories, they said.
"One of the things he always said about himself was that he started out with a little bit of impatience," Anderson said. "He had a quick wit, a quick mind and he liked to do things quickly. He believed there was so much to be done and he wasn't one to waste time."
"When we traveled, we traveled hard. It was part of his personality. There was no relaxing vacation."
Ahlander said he was "great at mapping out itineraries" to get the most out of every trip. "He wanted to have quality moments together. We used to joke that if he was coming at 3, you better get ready by 2."
Individual letters written to his children over the years will provide a lasting pool of wisdom for each, they said, remembering his penchant for knowing just when to send a thoughtful note or give a word of encouragement to friends and strangers alike.
They watched him reach out to people everywhere, whether he knew them or not, and he took a genuine interest in his children's friends and the happenings in their lives. He championed the underdog, they agreed.
People often commented that he "was so good at drawing others out" said Sanders. "If he saw someone struggling socially, he always had a set of great questions to draw them into the conversation so they felt valued and that their ideas were equally important."
The siblings agreed their father had put so much emphasis on family life, they didn't feel slighted at having to share him with more than 11 million members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during his time as a general authority. "It was hard to go out in public" with his parents, Cory Maxwell acknowledged.
"We tried to find places that were a little more private. As far as I could tell, having people recognize him never bothered him. I think he realized in a very important sense that he kind of belonged to the church. He never resented the interruptions in a restaurant."
Their father would allow his children to be a part of dinners he and his wife gave for visiting church leaders, and they traveled with him occasionally, Anderson said. "I think when we got a sense of the important work they were doing, you recognize how needed it was and their desire to do what they were doing."
He expressed gratitude for medical professionals and the prayers of church members until he passed away. "We feel fortunate to have had those prayers in his behalf," Cory Maxwell said.
E-mail: carrie@desnews.com