Elder Eran A. Call, of the Second Quorum
of the Seventy, learned the habit of priesthood service as a deacon. He
remembered “collecting fast offerings, going from house to house in a wagon
gathering offerings in kind.”
Indeed, Church service is a Call family heritage.
His father served in the bishopric of their ward in Colonia Dublán,
Mexico, for 50 years—29 as bishop. Elder Call and his wife have passed
this heritage of service on to their children by example.
He has served as bishop, stake high councilor, counselor
in a stake presidency (twice), stake patriarch, mission president (Mexico
City, 1970 to 1973), and missionary training center president (again in
Mexico, 1995 to 1996).
Elder Call was born in Colonia Dublán, Mexico, on
2 December 1929. He graduated from the Juárez Stake Academy in Colonia
Juárez, Mexico, then moved to the United States to attend Brigham
Young University, where he received a bachelor’s degree.
He later received a master’s degree in business administration from
New York University.
He has been active in business—from managing a department
store to developing property—and active in community affairs throughout
his life. But his central career has been as a faculty member at Brigham
Young University, from which he retired in
December 1994. In the early 1980s, he took a three-year leave to serve
as director of the Church Educational System in Mexico.
He married Katherine Groesbeck in the Salt Lake Temple
on 24 August 1955. They had 6 sons, 3 daughters, and 23 grandchildren at
the time of his call to the Seventy.
“His hobby is working,” sayid his wife. Seven years
ago, she gave him a set of golf clubs so he could learn the game with his
sons and son-in-law. The clubs have been used only three times. But his
capacity for work would be an asset in his calling, Sister
Call indicated, as is his love for people.
He interpreted his commitment to the gospel in a way
that gave primary importance to eternal relationships—with his wife and
their children, Sister Call said. His own words affirmed that this is so:
“The gospel has always been first in my life and paramount in all things.”
Elder Call was honorably released as a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy October 7, 2000.
