Born 27 December 1929 in Salt Lake City, Elder Clinton L. Cutler
gained a testimony early in life. “My mother had a set of children’s Bible
stories,” he said after he received his call to the Seventy. “As a small
boy, I would listen to her read them. The lives of those great biblical
heroes inspired me.”
While attending Jordan High School, young Clint served
as student body president, dated his wife-to-be, Carma Nielsen (they married
in the Salt Lake Temple on 22 June 1949), and developed a great love for
basketball. He earned all-state honors in the sport and went on to attend
Utah State University on a basketball scholarship. Later, he transferred
to the University of Utah, where he graduated with honors while earning
a bachelor’s degree in physical education.
For thirty-two years he worked with Mountain Bell
(later US West), retiring as an assistant vice president in 1986, one month
before receiving his call as mission president. Prior to that Church calling,
he had served as regional representative, stake
president, stake president’s counselor, and bishop.
He was called to the Second Quorum of the Seventy March 31, 1990. As a General Authority, Elder Cutler served as second
counselor in the Sunday School general presidency from October 1991 to
August 1992 and first counselor after August 1992. He was also an assistant
executive director of the Family History Department.
Born in the season of Christmas, Elder Clinton L. Cutler
of the Seventy, age sixty-four, passed away April 9, 1994 in the season of Easter.
His life was marked by faith, observed President Gordon
B. Hinckley, then First Counselor in the First Presidency.
Presiding at Elder Cutler’s funeral, President Hinckley
noted that Elder Cutler was hired at Mountain Bell as a telephone installer
and retired more than three decades later in a position of high authority,
“moving up the ladder through integrity, honesty, hard work—simple integrity.
… That says more than a long, long sermon could say.”
Elder Cutler was sustained a member of the Second
Quorum of the Seventy on 31 March 1990. At the time of his call to the
Seventy, he was serving as mission president in Seattle, Washington.
“When I think of Clinton Cutler, there’s one particular
passage of scripture that I can’t get out of my mind—’Behold an Israelite
indeed, in whom is no guile’ [John 1:47],” said President Thomas
S. Monson, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, who conducted
and spoke during the funeral. “There was not an ounce of guile in Clinton
Cutler; he was an example unto the believers.”
President Howard W. Hunter,
President of the Quorum of Twelve, and members of the Quorum of the Twelve,
as well as other General Authorities, were also in attendance at the memorial
service.
Elder Cutler was survived by his wife, their six children,
and twenty-eight grandchildren.
