Elder Boyd K. Packer:
Disciple of the Master Teacher
By Don L. Searle
Assistant Editor
Ensign, Jun 1986, 8
The brass knocker on the
door is in the form of a yoked ox.
Visitors who lift the bow of the
yoke to tap on the door may
notice two sets of initials
underneath, one on each side of
the bow—“I.W.P.” and “E.J.P.”—
for Ira Wight Packer and Emma Jensen Packer.
You can find an identical brass knocker on the
front door of each of the children of Ira and Emma Packer,
and on the doors of many of their grandchildren. This one
happens to be on the home of Elder Boyd K. Packer of the
Council of the Twelve, who carved the wooden original
from which the brass ornaments were patterned.
It is important to understand this family emblem
in order to understand some of the influences that have
shaped the man who carved it. Sister Donna Packer can
provide the guest with a parchment sheet bearing a picture
of the emblem and an explanation of its origin and
symbolic meaning.
In 1947, to mark the centennial of the pioneers’
arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, a “wagon train” of cars
reenacted the trek. The travelers met in Nauvoo, Illinois,
and then followed the pioneer route to Salt Lake City.
Like other drivers in the caravan, Ira Packer had rigged a
cloth wagon top over the roof of his car and attached a
plywood ox on each front fender. With his children
gathered to see their father and mother off on the trip, Ira
took a paint brush and “branded” the two oxen, painting
“I.W.P.” on one and “E.J.P” on the other. They
represented, he said, “the best team that ever pulled
together in this life.”
There is more to the story of the brass door
ornament, however, than the bond that existed between Ira
and Emma Packer. The yoked ox, the parchment sheet
explains, symbolizes the faith and dedication that is the
strength of the Packers and their ancestors, and the team
of oxen represents the pulling together of the family. The
symbol also represents a reminder that children be taught,
“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me … For my yoke
is easy, and my burden is light.” (See Matt. 11:29–30.)
Elder Packer’s ancestors (like those of his wife)
were pioneer Latter-day Saints. But the timing of his
ancestors’ arrival in Utah is not so important as the values
they taught their descendants. The qualities of character
symbolized in that yoked ox emblem suggest much about
Boyd Kenneth Packer.
He was born 10 September 1924 in Brigham City,
Utah, the fifth son and tenth child in the family. His early
years were spent in a two-story home on South Main
Street, but when he was twelve his family moved into an
apartment in the Packer Motor Company building. His
father, a skilled, industrious mechanic, struggled for many
years building the business of his garage, and later the
motor company.
“Sometimes in my growing years I thought we
were poor,” Elder Packer would write later in a short life
history. “I later learned that that was not true. We just
didn’t have any money. We were always rich in the things
most significant in our lives.”
From his early years, he showed a love of the outof-doors, and of nature. Usually there was some kind of
pet around while he was growing up. He had a particular
fondness for birds. Mounted in his book of remembrance
is a drawing of a bird that won a prize at the Utah State
Fair when he was a boy.
That fondness for birds has persisted. Across the
driveway from the Packers’ front door is an enclosure
containing live birds ranging from peacocks to golden
pheasants to pigeons. Inside the house, his carefully
detailed carvings of birds, painted in natural colors, catch
the visitor’s eye. The carvings display not only a
sensitivity to the creatures, but a reverence for the artistry
of the Creator.
With what little spare
time he has, Elder Packer may
take up to a year to produce
one of his delicate bird
carvings. (Photography by
Michael M. McConkie and Jed
A. Clark.)
Each of the carvings
takes about a year for Elder
Packer to produce, using what
little spare time he may have.
Elder Packer also enjoys painting and sculpture. But there
was little time for these activities until recent years, for
being a father always came first. From his youth, it seems,
he has kept eternal goals in view.
Young manhood came to Boyd Packer about the
time World War II began. After graduation from high
school, he worked for a time on construction of an army
hospital in his hometown. Like many young LDS men of
his generation, he was unable to serve a proselyting
mission because of the war. In the spring of 1943, he
enlisted in the Army Air Force, graduating as a pilot the
following year, a few days before his twentieth birthday.
He was then trained to fly bombers and ordered to the
Pacific Theater. He was stationed in Japan for nearly a
year after the end of the war.
From the experiences of war and its aftermath, he
drew lessons of peace which have on occasion been
recalled as he has taught the Saints. Once, in a general
conference talk, he reflected on being guided as a pilot by
the signal from a radio beacon. Sometimes amid storms
pilots had to listen very closely to hear the signal. “There
is a spiritual beam, with a constant signal,” he counseled.
“If you know how to pray and how to listen, spiritually
listen, you may move through life, through clear weather,
through storms, through wars, through peace, and be all
right.” (Ensign, Nov. 1979, p. 21.)
While in the military, he found ample opportunity
to study the scriptures. He read the Book of Mormon
several times; today he refers to the book as “the single
most powerful influence in my life.” In the spirit of the
book, he also found time to engage, along with other LDS
servicemen, in preaching the gospel of peace to the
Japanese. Among those who learned of the gospel from
servicemen were Tatsui Sato and his wife Chio. When the
time came for their baptism, it was Boyd Packer’s
privilege to perform the ordinance for Sister Sato. C.
Elliot Richards, now a physician in Salt Lake City
baptized Brother Sato. Later, Brother Sato’s translation
work would make it possible for many Japanese to enjoy
the scriptures and the temple ceremonies in their own
language.
Boyd Packer returned home in 1946 and enrolled
at Weber (now Weber State) College, in nearby Ogden. It
was there he met Donna Edith Smith, also from Brigham
City. They were married 27 July 1947 in the Logan
Temple.
They would become the parents of ten children:
Allan, Kenneth, David, Laurel, Russell, Spencer, Gayle,
Kathleen, Lawrence, and Eldon.
It was Brother Packer’s goal to be a teacher, and
he pursued that dream. He received an associate degree
from Weber in 1948 and a bachelor’s degree from Utah
State University in Logan in 1949. He would later receive
a master’s degree from Utah State, in 1953, and a doctor
of education degree from Brigham Young University, in
1962.
Those were busy years. In addition to functioning
in local church callings—teacher, assistant stake clerk,
high councilor—he began teaching seminary in 1949. The
old army hospital in Brigham City which he had helped
build was turned into a federally run school for Indian
students, and from 1949 until mid-1955 the young
seminary teacher served as Coordinator of Indian Affairs
in connection with the school for the Church Educational
System. In that role, it was his opportunity to work
frequently with Elder Spencer W. Kimball of the Council
of the Twelve.
During this same period, he served a four-year
term as a city councilman in Brigham City. In this, too,
there were lessons to be drawn from life. Experiences in
local government taught him (and the impressions would
be confirmed in later Church service) that many people
are willing to pass judgment on the actions of those
leading an organization without access to the knowledge
(or spiritual influence) that shaped their decisions. In a
1979 conference talk, he cautioned against that error, and
affirmed:
“Stand steady. Keep your faith. I bear witness that
the gospel of Jesus Christ is true. God lives and directs
this work. The Church is on the right course. It is on
schedule. And I bear witness that it is righteously led by a
prophet of God.” (Ensign, May 1979, p. 81.)
In 1955, Boyd Packer was appointed an assistant
administrator of seminaries and institutes in the Church
Educational System, and the position made it necessary to
move his family south the following year, to Lindon, a
small community near Brigham Young University. He
served in that administrative position until October 1961,
when he was called as an Assistant to the Twelve. He was
sustained to the Council of the Twelve in April of 1970.
With a growing family, growing responsibilities,
and continuing education, those early years of marriage
were very full. How was he able to do so much?
Elder Packer credits
his wife, Donna, with much
of his success because of
her strengths as a
companion. (Photography
by Michael M. McConkie
and Jed A. Clark.)
“All of that can be
explained in two words: my
wife,” Elder Packer says.
“She’s perfect. And,” he adds with a twinkle in his eye,
“I’m on Church property when I say that, so I have to tell
the truth.” The word “perfect” is mentioned frequently
when he talks about his wife.
She smiles at the description. “He says that so I’ll
try to improve myself,” she explains.
It becomes quickly obvious, however, that Donna
Packer is a very accomplished woman—skilled
homemaker, talented church worker, genealogical
researcher. She is currently writing a book on the Packer
genealogy, and her corner of the family room is filled with
file cabinets and shelves where her materials are stored.
These are the accumulation of years, built slowly at first
while her children were small, but growing more rapidly
as she is able to devote more time to the project.
When he was starting out as a seminary teacher,
Brother Packer made the acquaintance of a young exMarine who was also teaching in the seminary—A.
Theodore Tuttle, now a member of the First Quorum of
the Seventy. It has been an enduring friendship. In a
foreword to Elder Packer’s book Teach Ye Diligently
(illustrated, incidentally, by the author; the cover includes
a painting of some of the Packer children), Elder Tuttle
wrote: “There is one source of inspiration available to
Elder Packer that is not available to anyone else. That is
Donna. … She is the one who has borne their ten
children—and borne much of the responsibility of rearing
them, due to his call as ‘special witness.’ She it is who is
his friend, his sweetheart, his quiet support.” (In Boyd K.
Packer, Teach Ye Diligently, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book
Company, 1975, pp. viii–ix.)
In Donna Packer’s case, “quiet support” does not
mean passivity. She is a dynamic woman. “She’s a great
and powerful motivating influence,” Elder Packer
comments.
Sister Packer recalls a story her husband has used
in teaching. It was an experience they had when they
attended a fair in New England while he was serving as
mission president there several years ago. They watched
as a smaller pair of oxen, complementing each other and
working perfectly in tandem, bested much larger, less
well-matched teams in a pulling competition.
Theirs is that kind of relationship. On family
matters, they seem almost to speak as one mind. Elder
Packer says this facility has developed as they have grown
together through their marriage. His wife notes also that
they agree because they have taken pains to plan unitedly,
far in advance, to meet their children’s needs and help
each one of them develop his or her talents with
educational opportunities suited to the individual.
Their home, for example, sits on a large wooded
lot where they could have farm animals and pets and the
children could have chores to do. Each of the children was
given the opportunity to develop musical abilities, as well
as other special interests—electronics, sewing, drawing,
mechanics—as these became apparent. The home is a
showcase of items made by family members. To one side
of the house is a workshop where parents or children
could spread out projects and take the time needed to
finish them. Currently it houses the 1940 tractor Eldon, a
junior in high school, bought from a neighbor and restored
to good running order.
All but two of the Packers’ married children—and
thirty of their thirty-seven grandchildren—live within an
hour’s drive. The children visit their parents frequently.
(At Elder and Sister Packer’s urging, their married
children also try to participate often in activities with their
spouses’ families.) Sister Packer takes the lead in planning
an annual summer reunion for their family; she gives it a
theme dealing with one or another of the Packer ancestors
and that person’s occupation or activities.
While the children were growing up, their home
life revolved in many ways around their mother. She had
to help motivate them and had to speak for the parental
team when her husband was away in connection with
Church service. But always the children have known that
his support was with her and with them.
“I have tried I have earnestly tried when I have
been home with the children to be with the children,”
Elder Packer says. That meant spending a little time with
each one each day, where possible.
Allan Packer says his father deliberately made
himself available in the home to take advantage of every
opportunity to teach. Elder Packer’s children still turn to
him for counsel.
“He is our patriarch,” Allan comments. “He’s still
a father, and that’s his number one priority.”
Laurel Packer Dillman says her father has always
seemed very sensitive to the promptings of the Spirit.
When she was a student at BYU, “I remember that he
would always call me on the days when I was having the
roughest times.” A word of counsel or encouragement
would help her through it.
She remembers particularly the fun of working
together as a family. Helping each other has become a
Boyd Packer family tradition, whether it has meant
pitching in to help a teen-aged Laurel make party favors
for a Church activity or gathering at one of the children’s
home to help add a room. Elder Packer’s enjoyment of
work seems to be augmented by sharing it with one or
more of his children or, frequently now, his grandchildren.
“Most of the serious talks that we have had have
been when we were working,” Kenneth Packer says,
recalling his father’s counsel.
“I really believe that a lot of Dad’s success comes
from the love of a woman that supports and sustains him,
and frees him to fulfill his ecclesiastical duties,” Kenneth
reflects. He adds that he and his brothers and sisters are
also able to offer support to their father’s ministry. “I try
to live my life, and direct my family’s life, and raise my
children so that Dad doesn’t have to worry about whether
I’m living the gospel.”
A few years ago, Elder Packer spoke publicly in
general conference to his children and grandchildren about
the legacy he would like to leave them, expressing the
hope that his talk “may help someone else” as well. He
took pains to point out that though their lineage runs “to
the stately manor houses of England,” it also “runs to the
poorhouse in Pullham, Norfolk”—and that neither of those
origins is a determinant of success or happiness in life.
“We want our children and their children to know
that the choice in life is not between fame and obscurity,
nor is the choice between wealth and poverty. The choice
is between good and evil. …
“When we finally understand this lesson,
thereafter our happiness will not be determined by
material things. We may be happy without them or
successful in spite of them. …
“I may see you go the full distance of mortality
without becoming either well-known or wealthy. I can see
myself falling to my knees to thank a generous God that
my prayers have been answered, that you have succeeded,
that you are truly happy.
“We now move into an uncertain future. But we
are not uncertain. Children, bear testimony, build Zion.
Then you will find true success, complete happiness.”
(Ensign, Nov. 1980, pp. 21–22.)
Elder Tuttle commented that his friend Boyd
Packer “understands the principles of teaching and their
practical application as the Savior taught.” (Teach Ye
Diligently, p. ix.) But the great, simple sermons Elder
Packer delivers in conference do not necessarily come
easily. On one side of the Packer family room—the side
that faces his son Allan’s home, across a small creek—is a
computer where Elder Packer frequently writes. “Very
seldom do I wake up that I don’t look over and see their
lights on,” Allan says. His father has “learned to take
advantage of the early morning hours, when the mind is
clear.”
Elder Packer’s addresses cover a broad range of
subjects. Allan comments that his father does his
“homework” well, consulting with experts and blending
his spiritual insights with the knowledge gained. “He’ll
spend tens, dozens, of hours on his talks.”
But there are contributions Church members in
general never see.
“Elder Packer is very much a teacher,” says Elder
James E. Faust of the Council of the Twelve. “While all of
the Twelve are teachers, he’s a teacher in the Twelve.” As
a senior member of the Quorum, he offers instruction and
approaches decisions with deep insight into their possible
effects on the Church and its people, Elder Faust explains.
He adds that Elder Packer’s love of and use of the
scriptures in his leadership role has influenced the
direction of the entire Church.
Often, says Elder Russell M. Nelson of the
Council of the Twelve, when the Quorum is weighing a
problem, Elder Packer will search his mind for relevant
teachings from the Book of Mormon and apply them to
the discussion.
The Book of Mormon has had a profound effect
on Boyd Packer’s life. “Without the Book of Mormon,
Elder Packer couldn’t be the prophet he is,” Elder Nelson
comments. “He is a gifted seer.”
His teaching from the scriptures is characterized
by “deep comprehension,” Elder Nelson adds. “No one
has plumbed the depths of this man.”
As a group, members of the Twelve are capable of
bringing great individual strengths and abilities to bear on
their collective responsibilities—and then bending their
wills to divine direction, in unanimity. It is a unique
experience, Elder Packer says.
“We share something that no other men on earth
share. We’re all individual, and we’re all resolute, but
we’re all one.”
Nevertheless, as individuals, each puts into the
Master’s service the sum of what life and the Spirit have
taught. Through the years, Elder Packer has drawn on his
own experiences again and again, turning them into
parables and memorable teaching moments.
The Book of Mormon has had a
profound effect on Elder
Packer’s life.
Some themes seem to be heard frequently in his
teaching—the importance of listening to the voice of the
Spirit, the plan of life and salvation, missionary work,
supporting the Lord’s chosen leaders, obedience as the
key to happiness. But there is one theme that is constant:
the sure witness it is his calling, his privilege to give.
In a 1977 general conference talk titled “The
Mediator” (Ensign, May 1977, p. 56), he reviewed the
pivotal role of Christ in the redemption of mankind, then
added:
“I have carried with me a great desire to bear
testimony of the Lord, Jesus Christ. I have yearned to tell
you, in as simple terms as I can, what He did, and who He
is.
“Although I know how poor mere words can be, I
also know that such feelings are often carried by the
Spirit, even without words.
“At times I struggle under the burden of
imperfections. Nevertheless, because I know that He lives,
there is a supreme recurring happiness and joy.”
And after his talk to young people about being
guided as a pilot by that radio beam, he added: “You can
come to know, as many of us come to know, and as I bear
witness, that the Lord lives. I know His voice when He
speaks.”