Milton R. Hunter
Born: 25 October 1902
Called to First Council of Seventy: 6 April 1945
Died: 27 June 1975
Called to First Council of Seventy: 6 April 1945
Died: 27 June 1975
Talks on Church WebsiteApr 1971 - "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery"
Oct 1971 - The Vitality of Love Apr 1972 - The Miracle of Missionary Work Image source: Improvement Era, May 1945
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Image source: Improvement Era, November 1967
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Biographical Articles
Improvement Era, May 1945, Milton R. Hunter
Relief Society Magazine, June 1945, Milton R. Hunter
Improvement Era, November 1967, Milton R. Hunter of the First Council of the Seventy
Ensign, August 1975, Elder Milton R. Hunter Dies
Relief Society Magazine, June 1945, Milton R. Hunter
Improvement Era, November 1967, Milton R. Hunter of the First Council of the Seventy
Ensign, August 1975, Elder Milton R. Hunter Dies
Durham, G. Homer. "Milton R. Hunter." Improvement Era. May 1945. pg. 241, 287.
MILTON R. HUNTER of the First Council of the Seventy By G. HOMER DURHAM, PH.D. ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH IT is June 1936, the scene, the office of Dr. Herbert E. Bolton, director of the Bancroft Library and ranking member of the department of history, University of California, Berkeley. It is commencement time. The hard-earned Ph.D. was won the preceding September 1935. And now the young man from central Utah has come to attend the ceremonies and receive the coveted degree. He has called to pay his respects to the senior scholar in charge of his dissertation. Hunter, I won't let you throw your career away on some little Mormon seminary in Utah. You have the makings of one of America's great historians. I haven't spent these past years in order for you to expend this training fruitlessly. If you will change your mind we will secure for you a proper place in a great university where expectations, and the training you have received, may be realized. Such was the gist of the remarks made by a world-renowned educator when President Milton R. Hunter, forty-third Latter-day Saint to be sustained as a member of the First Council of the Seventy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, announced that he was returning to Utah to take a position in the L.D.S. Institute, Logan, Utah. Returning thus, to what most academicians would call "obscurity," President Hunter began at once the continuous and tedious task of devoting scholarly effort towards further illumination of the pages of Mormon history, a task which today marks him as the peer of the younger historians of the Mormon epic, through the publication of Brigham Young the Colonizer. Further fulfilling his obligations to scholarship, President Hunter published in 1 940, the same year as Brigham Young The Colonizer, another significant work, The Mormons and The American Frontier, to which he has since added Utah In Her Western Setting (1943), and prepared the text ( from manuscript materials gathered by the Weber County Chapter of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers) of a definitive history of Weber County, Beneath Ben Lomond's Peak (1944). In addition to this series of scholarly books, articles on Mormon development have appeared from his pen in The American Historical Review and the Pacific Historical Review, achievements that historians in large universities seldom make with distinction. All of this work demonstrates two fundamental qualities in the life of the new member of the First Council, first, unswerving faith in and devotion to his Church and its people; second, that gifts enhanced by a thirst for knowledge and higher education do not depend for their expression on an easy, ideal environment. Milton Reed Hunter, the eighth of eleven sons and daughters, was born to John Edward and Margaret Teeples Hunter in Holden, Millard County, Utah, October 25, 1902. His early training benefited much from life among brothers and sisters in a household of faith. In their advancing years, President Hunter's parents afford a worthy model for this generation to follow. Based on the fundamental teachings of such a home, schooling in the public schools of Millard County was accompanied by life and lessons on the farm. By 1929, the B.S. degree had been won from Brigham Young University, and in 1931, the M.S. A feature of President Hunter's education, from grade school upwards, is that it has been accompanied by hard work, not only in the classroom, but in the pursuits of life, earning his way. For example, paralleling the years taken to acquire the B.S., Brother Hunter also worked and taught in St. Thomas, Nevada, and in Leamington, and Lakeview, Utah. Upon receiving the bachelor's degree his ambition to enter the L.D.S. Department of Education as a teacher of the gospel was realized. And from 1928 to 1935, the seven years in which the master's and doctor's degrees were earned, he was also, in succession, principal of the L.D.S. seminaries at Lyman Stake ( Wyoming ) , South Emery Seminary, Ferrin ( Utah ) , and then a member of the faculty at the Provo seminary. Prior to his entry into service at Lyman in the autumn of 1928, Brother Hunter was ordained to the office of a seventy by President Rulon S. Wells. A wholesome, searching missionary spirit has characterized his entire career from that time until this. On July 30, 1931, Milton R. Hunter and Feme Gardner, daughter of Brother and Sister James H. Gardner of Lehi, Utah, were married in the Logan Temple. Sister Hunter, a graduate of the University of Utah department of English in 1928, has been a perfect wife and mother and has consistently devoted her intelligent knowledge of the English language and literature as help meet in her husband's professional life. They are the parents of five children, Milton Reed, Jr., 12, Margaret, 10, Lois Anne, 7, Linda 4, and Alison, aged 1. In Logan, the family lives in a home they themselves built. Brother and Sister Hunter selected their own lot, and Brother Hunter was his own contractor, builder, and chief carpenter. He is an excellent carpenter, a skilled inheritance from his father's training. Behind the house stretches an 18-rod lot filled with raspberry bushes, asparagus bed, and trees, shrubs, and garden planted and maintained by the family themselves. Through the long summer days the children can be seen tending their plots and learning the valuable lessons of working with a demanding but bountiful earth. With competition all around, in the shadow of the Utah State Agricultural College, Milton Hunter has produced and grown some of the finest hybrid corn (and other vegetables) in Cache Valley. (Projects of the 64th quorum of seventy for the welfare plan have not suffered thereby.) As teacher at the L.D.S. Institute, President Hunter, like his fellow workers, has devoted long hours. From teaching early morning classes to advising students long past the evening dinner hour, to chaperoning these fine young people at their social functions, M.I.A. meetings, Delta Phi and Lambda Delta Sigma gatherings, both Brother and Sister Hunter have labored long and far beyond the demands of ordinary college teaching. As a professional colleague on the other side of the Logan campus, I have often marveled how a single couple could rear five children, spend Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday evenings at the institute, do more regular Church work in Logan Ninth Ward and Cache Stake than people with regular hours, and still produce and publish scholarly books. When many could reasonably and perhaps with much wisdom excuse themselves from regular ward and stake activity, President Hunter has been just the reverse. He could be seen at the ward group meeting of his priesthood quorum regularly each Sunday morning. At sacrament meetings the bishopric could count on at least one row full of Hunters, even if the father were out in the valley preaching at another ward. As a president of the 64th quorum of the seventy since 1940, President Hunter has contributed mightily to a system emphasizing the significance of quorum membership. With President Hunter's effective cooperation, the 64th quorum council early in the war years inaugurated a set of "quorum standards" to offset these problems of population mobility that often produce "ghost" quorums and quorum membership Further, because the quorum embraced four ward groups, permitting additional opportunity for study in the united monthly quorum meetings, President Hunter (at the suggestion of President Levi Edgar Young) was largely instrumental, as chairman of the class instruction committee, for a successful quorum project, still developing, to acquaint the quorum members with the significance of the historicity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Much of this labor thus tested will be made available to the quorums of the Melchizedek Priesthood in 1946 by means of the study course, The Gospel Through the Ages, which Brother Hunter has been invited to prepare. As Christian neighbors, Elder Milton R. Hunter and his wife, Feme, leave nothing to be desired. His life is filled with simple good deeds. He has worked the summer days through in the vital war-canning factories of Cache Valley and yet found the time to be father, husband, friend, community leader, and notable contributor to his fellow men's need for an expanding knowledge of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has a testimony and is not afraid to bear it. May it prove to be mighty and strong in the cause of truth. May the Lord sustain and bless him in his new calling. |
MILTON R. HUNTER
BROTHER AND SISTER MILTON R. HUNTER AND THEIR FAMILY AT THEIR HOME IN LOGAN, UTAH.
LEFT TO RIGHT: LINDA, FERNE GARDNER HUNTER, MILTON REED, JR., MARGARET, LOIS ANN, ALISON, MILTON REED HUNTER |
Chase, Daryl. "Milton R. Hunter." Relief Society Magazine. June 1945. pg. 332-333.
Milton R. Hunter Elder Daryl Chase Director of Latter-day Saint Institute, Logan, Utah IT gives me great pleasure to introduce the Hunter family to the readers of The Relief Society Magazine. Let us start with the wife. Sister Feme Hunter is the daughter of Brother and Sister James H. Gardner of Lehi, Utah. I met her for the first time in an English class at the University of Utah. I well remember that she was a very attractive young woman at that time, just as she is a very attractive matron at the present. And as a young college girl she was an outstanding student just as she is an outstanding mother and wife today. At the present time she is a member of the Cache Stake Relief Society Board, and the class leader in theology in the Logan Ninth Ward. President Hunter has many honors to his credit, a few of which I shall point out later, but I am sure that all of his close friends will agree with me that one of the highest achievements of his life was winning Feme Gardner for his wife. They were married in the Logan Temple in 1931 and are the parents of the following children: Milton Reed, age 12; Margaret, 10; Lois Anne, 7; Linda, 4; and Alison, 1. President Hunter, who was sustained a member of the First Council of Seventy, April 6, 1945, is the son of John E. and Margaret Hunter of Holden, Utah, at which place he was born October 25, 1902. I have known him since his graduate days at the University of California. During the past two years his office has been adjoining mine, and we have worked together very intimately seven days of each week. All who know him well, know that the following statements are true: No teacher ever had a greater love for his students and the gospel. His loyalty to the Church from early youth until the present time has been of the highest. I have never known a more industrious man. I do not know any person of his age in the Church who has published more books and articles or taught more classes in religion than Dr. Hunter. The students and faculty of the Logan Institute rejoice in his promotion, knowing that his industry the Church at large. However, all who know the service which Brother and Sister Hunter have rendered the Church in this area deeply regret to see them move from our midst. |
THE MILTON R. HUNTER FAMILY
Left to right: Linda, Feme Gardner Hunter, Milton Reed, Margaret, Lois Anne, Allison, Elder Milton R. Hunter |
"Milton R. Hunter of the First Council of the Seventy." Improvement Era. November 1967. pg. 56.
MILTON R. HUNTER of the First Council of the Seventy Milton R. Hunter has had a profound influence upon gospel-oriented thought. His writings on such subjects as the Pearl of Great Price, Book of Mormon archeology, Church history, and the gospel through the ages form an indelible impression in the minds of many Latter-day Saints. Described as one "gifted by a thirst for knowledge," Elder Hunter early impressed others with his potential. After he received his doctorate in history from the University of California at Berkeley in 1935, Elder Hunter was chatting with Dr. Herbert Bolton, famous librarian and historian, when the professor abruptly said, "Hunter, I won't let you throw your career away on some little Mormon seminary in Utah. You have the makings of one of America's great historians. I haven't spent these years in order for you to expend this training fruitlessly. If you will change your mind, we will secure for you a proper place in a great university where expectations, and the training you have received, may be realized." But Brother Hunter turned his attention back to his home and the Church. Born October 25, 1902, in Holden, Utah, to John Edward and Margaret Teeples Hunter, Elder Hunter was schooled early in gospel precepts by his faithful parents. By high school graduation time. Elder Hunter knew he wanted to gain all the knowledge he could. However, finances were hard to come by, so after some initial college classes, he taught school in the winters and continued his own education during summers, a pattern that increasingly turned his heart toward religious education. When he finally received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Brigham Young University, he had been a principal in Nevada, headed two Utah junior high schools, and had served as principal of two seminaries. Elder Hunter married Feme Gardner of Lehi in 1931, and they have six children. He taught seminary while he pursued his Ph.D; then he accepted a position at the Logan (Utah) Institute of Religion and entered a lifetime of research and writing. Within just a few years he had written for many Western America historical journals, his history of Utah had been chosen as—and still is—a text for Utah schools, and he had written several noteworthy books on the subject of Church history. On April 6, 1945, Elder Hunter was called to the First Council of the Seventy, and his search for truth and its promulgation took on new dimensions. Now, 22 books and hundreds of articles later, rather than having expended "his training fruitlessly," Elder Hunter has created a lasting memory for his labors. |