Growing up in the picturesque red rock area of Kanab, Utah, Daniel K. Judd spoke of "harses in barns" and "carn on cobs" in the same rural drawl as his friends. He didn't learn city English, he now muses, until he served in the California San Diego Mission. But over the years, as the course of his life unfolded, he learned that his mother tongue is actually the scriptures.

Photo by Shaun Stahle

Substituting in a seminary class for a few weeks led Daniel K. Judd from a career in health care to one of teaching.

"My mission president, Frank Bradshaw, was a teacher in the Church Educational System. He instilled in me a love of the scriptures," Brother Judd said. "He had a great love for the gospel and an enthusiasm for life."

This deepened love of the gospel soon altered Brother Judd's plans for the future and quickly propelled him on a course of gospel instruction that now includes an assignment as first counselor in the newly organized Sunday School general presidency.

All during his youth, Brother Judd herded 300 head of cattle with his brothers and father on the family ranch on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. At age 17 he left for Southern Utah State College, now SUU, in Cedar City, Utah, where he had early ambitions of working in medicine.

His ambitions began to shift the summer prior to his senior year in college while he was working in the emergency room. A man was brought with a broken back from a backhoe accident.

"He kept speaking about his kids," said Brother Judd. "I thought he meant his children. But it became apparent he was worried about who would teach his seminary students when the new school year began in a few weeks. During the next days, the CES supervisors assured the patient that arrangements had been made. The local bishop would teach for a few days, then others.

"It was obvious that this man loved his students and wanted them to have a steady teacher," continued Brother Judd. On one occasion, while Brother Judd was in the patient's room taking vital signs, he overheard the supervisor ask who could teach on such short notice.

"I'll teach," Brother Judd blurted out without any calculated thought. Somewhat taken aback, the men turned to Brother Judd and asked his credentials. "I know your supervisor," he said, "Frank Bradshaw."

Unknown to Brother Judd at the time, the CES supervisors called his former mission president. President Bradshaw endorsed him as a teacher and several weeks later, before his college classes began, Brother Judd was in Circleville, Utah, teaching seminary with no prior training, a natural teacher.

"Before my several weeks of teaching were over," Brother Judd said, "a CES representative sat in the back of several classes. He said I could teach and they wanted to consider me for a seminary teaching position the following fall."

Brother Judd returned to college, and in the process of completing his zoology degree that fall, he met Kaye Seegmiller, a new member of his ward. Impressed by her testimony one fast Sunday, as ward mission leader, he suggested her name to serve on a ward activation committee. Months later, on Dec. 28, 1979, they were married in the St. George Temple.

People — their cares, concerns and problems — became his new focus as a seminary teacher. After years of teaching in Arizona and Michigan, and then teaching family science courses at Ricks College, now BYU-Idaho, and after earning master's and doctorate degrees at BYU, Brother Judd was invited in 1993 to teach religion courses at BYU, where he has since been named chairman of the Department of Ancient Scripture.

All the while, as a young bishop in Michigan in a ward of many first-generation members, or developing a seminary program on the San Carlos Indian Reservation, as a stake president or in rearing his four children, Brother Judd has repeatedly experienced the power of the gospel to heal and renew.

"I'm constantly reminded of the power of the gospel as a solution to problems," he said. "Our challenge now as a Sunday School presidency is to help teachers learn to instruct the gospel and apply it to life."

E-mail to: shaun@desnews.com