SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – High-ranking Mormon leader Boyd K. Packer was remembered Friday as an unwavering defender and teacher of church gospel and for his quick wit and humor during a public funeral in Salt Lake City.
Church president Thomas S. Monson said Packer had a gift to boil down complex gospel concepts into words easily understood by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Packer died on July 3 at the age of 90 from natural causes. As the president of the church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Packer was next in line to become the church president and prophet.
It was the second recent funeral for a church leader. Fellow quorum member L. Tom Perry died on May 30 from cancer at the age of 92.
Replacements will be named sometime in the coming months.