The following is excerpted from the Church News. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.Â
Elder Wayne M. Hancock, who served as a General Authority Seventy from 1997 to 2001, died on Saturday, May 27, in Salt Lake City. He was 91.
In addition to his time as a general authority, Elder Hancock served as president of the Utah Provo Mission from 1994 to 1997 and as president of the Bern Switzerland Temple from 2005 to 2008.
Wayne M. Hancock was born July 16, 1931, to Wayne M.P. Hancock and Phyllis Lines Hancock. In a Church News article after being called as a general authority, Elder Hancock credited his “angel mother” with teaching him to love the gospel and the difference between right and wrong.
“I didn’t want to do anything in my life to hurt her. Whenever there were temptations, I thought of my mother,” he recalled.
As a child and youth, his father was not a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Elder Hancock expressed gratitude for his grandmother, Eva Lines, and for several bishops — including Bishop Harry V. Brooks, who he called “my surrogate father” — for their influence on his life and testimony.
In 1950, Elder Hancock submitted his mission papers and was given a mission farewell before finding out the draft board had rejected his request for a draft deferment because of the Korean War.
Sorely disappointed, he felt prompted to transfer from the University of Arizona — “the family university” — to Brigham Young University. There he met Connie Ann Cameron, who would become his wife.
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.Â
