WASHINGTON, D.C. — As U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Michael O. Leavitt, a Church member and former governor of Utah, oversees a federal department with a budget of nearly $650 billion and some 70,000 employees. Does he feel weighed down by the enormity of it?

Photo by R. Scott Lloyd

Michael and Jacalyn Leavitt stand outside meetinghouse where they attend Church services in Arlington, Va., near his workplace in nation's capital.

"Well, it's a weighty place to work," Brother Leavitt reflected during a recent Church News interview with him and his wife, Jacalyn, at their ward meetinghouse in Arlington, Va. "I've had a remarkable opportunity, and I am not weighted in the sense that I feel anything but privileged to do it."

In subdued tones, he tells of the first diplomatic meeting at which he represented the United States in the cabinet post he assumed early this year at the start of U.S. President George W. Bush's second term. The occasion was a gathering of representatives of 48 nations in Tokyo.

"The United States starts with U," he noted, "and consequently, we're generally at the end alphabetically. By the time you've heard 48 opening statements from countries around the world, people are beginning to lose focus. They were walking around, reading papers, and small conversations were going on quietly in the back. When it came to me, everything stopped. Everyone turned and listened to each word I spoke! I realized it had nothing to do with me. It was the fact that I sat behind a sign that said 'The United States of America.' That is the weighty part!"

Such reverence for the position he now occupies pervades Secretary Leavitt's attitude toward public service in general, an attitude stemming in part from his understanding of gospel doctrine.

Hinting at King Benjamin's discourse in Mosiah 2, he said: "We are who we are. I grew up in a family where service was important, both publicly and privately. I like to think that when doing public service that I'm serving my fellow man, and hence, serving my God. I've had to learn the importance of the separation between the two, but in terms of what goes on in my heart, I hope it's the same."

Public service was not an early aspiration of his, but the influence was certainly present. His father, Dixie, made a name for himself as a member of the Utah Legislature, and, like each of his six younger brothers, he had a tradition as a youth of spending a week at the Legislature with his father. There he became acquainted with the fixtures in the Utah State Capitol, such as Ab Jenkins' "Mormon Meteor" salt flats race car. Later, as governor, he would occasionally walk through the capitol and have a sight or other familiar sense trigger an associated memory.

In those days, he would sometimes spend lunch hours ascending the famous Ensign Peak to the north of the Capitol. "You could stand on that platform and see the entire (Salt Lake) valley and valleys beyond to the south and valleys behind you to the north. You could see highways, schools, hospitals and businesses, neighborhoods and parks, all the things that make a society work."

He reflected that Brigham Young, the first territorial governor of Utah, might have viewed the same sight in vision when he surveyed the valley from the peak. "Much of what I saw was a reflection of his work."

And much of his own work as governor, dealing with what he called "a cross-section of humanity" prepared him for the burden he now carries as a cabinet officer, he said.

"In many respects, it's just a bigger version of part of the portfolio I dealt with while I was governor," he noted. "What has provided great value is seeing how it interrelates with every other piece of society. Yes, I'm responsible for health care, but I understand that health care is a profoundly important part of our economic model as a country. Health diplomacy is a very important part of our interrelationship with people around the world. So I spend a lot of my time dealing with ambassadors, health ministries and problems in other nations."

Through it all he maintains a respect for human dignity and progress borne of his pioneer heritage. The O in "Michael O. Leavitt" stands for Okerlund, the name of his ancestor on his mother's side who joined the Church in Sweden and emigrated to Utah. He and his brothers all carry the name, thus bearing a nominal imprint from ancestors on both sides of the family.

Sister Leavitt recalled that the sense of closeness in the Leavitt family attracted her to Michael as a prospective husband. They met soon after his Church mission to Oregon and not long afterward were married in the Logan Utah Temple.

A schoolteacher by training, she pursued her own agenda as Utah's First Lady, championing causes related to families and children. One of these she took with her to Washington when her husband was tapped by President Bush as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. She chairs the Internet Keep Safe Coalition. The group works to prevent Internet crimes against children by empowering them to keep personal information to themselves, refraining from meeting persons they contact on line and tell an adult if they see something that makes them uncomfortable.

As she was telling about the coalition during the interview, her husband interjected wryly, "I think what Jackie is saying is that she really hopes you will use the Web site in your article." That Web site is www.ikeepsafe.org.

The Leavitts have reared five children, the eldest of whom, Mike, just graduated from law school, and another son, Chase, recently returned from a mission to Vancouver, B.C. Speaking on Mother's Day in the Arlington Ward sacrament meeting, youngest son Westin, still in high school, gave glowing tributes to his mother and two grandmothers.

Secretary Leavitt's advice to his children is consistent with what he would tell any young person with aspirations for public service.

"I would tell them to prepare for life and to learn an industry or way to make a living and then do your best to excel in it, because what the government needs are people of broad experience and pure motive. . . . I would say, first and foremost, prepare yourself to make a difference in whatever setting you're in."

E-mail to: rscott@desnews.com