"I humbly testify of my privilege to bear the holy apostleship and to work daily with a modern Quorum of Twelve Apostles who are disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ." =- General conference, April 5, 1986

Far-ranging responsibilities during his years as an apostle led Elder Howard W. Hunter to the four corners of the earth. In distant lands, he earned a reputation for his kindness, gentleness, remarkable endurance and unflagging patience.

He walked the paths of the Savior while in Jerusalem to develop the Orson Hyde Memorial Gardens and BYU Jerusalem Center. In Central America, he traversed rain forests to track the New World Archaeological Foundation, unearthing secrets of ancient civilizations. He often visited the tropical island of Hawaii in helping develop the Polynesian Cultural Center. Each responsibility flourished under his wise and gentle guidance. Some of his responsibilities included:

- President of the Genealogical Society of Utah, from Jan. 21, 1964, to May 25, 1972.

- Chairman of the advisory board of the New World Archaeological Foundation, from Jan. 26, 1961 to 1985.

- President and chairman of the board of directors of the Polynesian Cultural Center, from Jan. 13, 1965, to April 1976.

- Church historian, from 1970 to 1972.

- Director of the Orson Hyde Memorial Garden project, from Dec. 19, 1972 to 1979.

- Director of the BYU-Jerusalem Center project, from the late 1970s to May 1989.

During his leadership, the Church's Genealogical Department continued developing such things as computerization of records, microfilming and better access to records in the Family History Library. Under his leadership in 1969, the department sponsored its first World Conference on Records, an event that became a milestone in the history of the department.

Elder Hunter was also interested in his own family's roots. Once, in the early 1970s, Elder and Sister Hunter visited Vienna, Austria. There, they asked Fredrick Barth, a research specialist in Europe for the Church, to accompany them to Poland to visit Sister Hunter's ancestral homeland.

Sister Hunter wanted to visit the village where her mother had been baptized many years earlier, at a farm with a fish pond, related Brother Barth in a Church News interview. So the party flew to Prague and from there drove to Poland in an automobile.

"The officials had given us only $5 each in Polish currency to take with us, and told us we could exchange more money at the border, but when we arrived at the Polish border, the office was closed. So we had no choice: with $15 we had to drive to Poland and back."

They arrived at the destination and found a small hotel. They had no food and didn't want to drink the tap water, so Brother Barth, who could not speak Polish, went to a small store. There, late in the day without refrigeration, the milk had soured.

"Some bottles in cases had no labels, so I bought three," he said. He also bought slices of bread and cheese. "The bottles turned out to be apricot juice," he said. "We had a very humble supper."

The next day, they found the baptismal site of Sister Hunter's mother, but the fish pond was mostly mud wallowed in by ducks and geese. Still, the Hunters diligently photographed it. A Polish family in a large adjacent farmhouse watched en masse, wondering at the rare visit of well-dressed Americans taking pictures of their mud hole.

"We got back into the car and drove away," said Brother Barth. "For the rest of their [the Polish family] lives, they would never know why on earth we would take pictures of that mudhole."

They managed to return without running out of money from that memorable trip, said Brother Barth.

"I loved him very much," Brother Barth said of President Hunter. "He always remembered our family and even the names of our children. He was a wonderful man."

President Hunter's travels also took him to southern Mexico where the New World Archaeology Foundation, under Gareth W. Lowe, unearthed the earliest pottery yet discovered in Mesoamerica.

Brother Lowe, 72, now of the Tucson 2nd Ward, Tucson Arizona Stake, recalled in a Church News interview many, many visits of the apostle to Chaipas, Mexico, where the foundation has specialized since 1953.

"Elder Hunter was always patient and understanding; he never made any demands. I was the one who was always ready to move somewhere else, but Elder Hunter said, `No. Just stay right where you are. I never dreamed we'd be in Chaipas 35 years.'

In 1987, Elder Hunter traveled to Chiapas, a hot plain near the ocean. The excavation was very deep because of the age of the artifacts.

"We took Elder Hunter to these hot fields where we were digging. He never complained, but we could tell he was suffering from the heat there. He suffered through our little presentations, then we took him to a swamp area near the ocean, and he suffered through that. Then we went to a restaurant to eat. It was a rustic restaurant, and we ordered various kinds of fish. He got a big long fish there [with its head still on]. He was sort of staring at it, not enjoying it, not enjoying it too much.

"Finally I said, `How is that fish, Elder Hunter?'

"He said, `Well, it is just as good as another ditch trout.'

"I think that fish took him right back to when he used to sit on the ditch bank up in Idaho.

"He won the love and respect of people wherever he went," said Brother Lowe.

Of his service at the Polynesian Cultural Center, Lester Moore, president, said in a Church News interview:

"During his tenure as president and chairman, attendance grew so fast that the center expanded to three times its original size; adding numerous new buildings and facilities by the time he was released. This was typical of President Hunter, for wherever he was involved, there was also great growth.

"The philosophy and ethics he established in those early days of the center became the cornerstone of what we are today, a treasure created to share with the world the cultures, diversity and spirit of the nations of Polynesia."

Projects that flourished from his patience were those in Jerusalem. Elder Hunter was assigned to supervise the Orson Hyde Memorial Garden project, and after that headed the Church's effort to build the BYU Jerusalem Center.

David A. Galbraith, who lived in Jerusalem for 20 years and was deeply associated with the project, told the Church News the success of the Jerusalem Center was based on the reputation of Church leaders gained during the development of the garden.

"They saw in the Church a people who had a genuine interest in Jerusalem," he said.

"Probably, in the final analysis, [Jerusalem] Mayor [Teddy] Kolleck said, that his support for the center was out of his faith in the leaders who had become personal friends to him. He saw them as men of integrity and men of strength of character. He had a great deal of faith in President Hunter."

Robert C. Taylor, assistant to the BYU president for the Jerusalem Center, worked closely with Elder Hunter on the Jerusalem Center.

One trait of Elder Hunter's was his tenderness toward his wife, Claire. Once upon arriving in Jerusalem, Elder Hunter phoned home to learn that his wife had been diagnosed with pneumonia.

"He was so distressed that he wept," recalled Brother Taylor. "He felt terrible. It was really hard for him to be away on assignment and leave his wife."

On another occasion, said Brother Taylor, Elder Hunter visited Mt. Sinai. He was to address a group of students who had hiked the mountain in the frigid weather.

"Elder Hunter had recently had surgery," he said. "But he was going to make it. I don't know if you have ever ridden a camel up a mountain. It is one bumpy, swaying, uneven ride. Elder Hunter just gritted his teeth and he was determined to go. We nearly froze to death, but we made it."