Elder Derek A. Cuthbert Eulogized

Elder Derek A. Cuthbert

“I’m grateful for such men as Derek Cuthbert. There’s never any question about where they stand. Nobody can question their integrity. No one can question their faith. No one can question their sense of duty.”

Those qualities “flowered in his tremendous work as a General Authority,” said President Gordon B. Hinckley, First Counselor in the First Presidency. “God be thanked for him and his kind!”

His tribute came at the April 11 funeral for Elder Derek Alfred Cuthbert of the First Quorum of the Seventy, who died April 7.

President Thomas S. Monson, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, also spoke, praising Elder Cuthbert as one who never shunned difficult assignments and was eager to get back into full-time Church service even as he fought the illness that took his life.

President Monson testified to members of Elder Cuthbert’s family that “all you knew and loved and appreciated in your husband and father still lives.”

President Howard W. Hunter of the Quorum of the Twelve, members of the Twelve, and many of Elder Cuthbert’s colleagues among the Seventy attended the funeral.

Elder George I. Cannon of the Seventy read a message from the Quorums of the Seventy that praised their colleague as a “man of vision, great faith, and wisdom.”

Other speakers were Bishop Charles W. Hillier of the Murray Twenty-third Ward, Murray Utah Stake, and Elder Cuthbert’s son, Jonathan, who said, “Dad loved the gospel. He bore his testimony at every opportunity.” Just two weeks ago, when he could hardly lift his head from a pillow, Elder Cuthbert bore his testimony to the two sons who prepared and blessed the sacrament for him, then paid tribute to their mother.

The importance of Elder Cuthbert’s family in his life was spoken of. He and his wife, Muriel, have ten children: Janis (Croft), Maureen (Ludlow), Sheila (Young), David, Rosalind (Jamieson), Jonathan, Hazel (Dunsmore), Andrew, Paul, and Jenny. There are twenty-nine Cuthbert grandchildren.

Elder Cuthbert and his wife, Muriel Olive Mason, had been married since 1945.

A son of Harry Cuthbert and Hilda May Freck, Derek was born 5 October 1926 in Nottingham, England. He served in the air force during and after World War II, then studied at the University of Nottingham. After graduation, he worked for British Celanese, eventually rising to high executive positions within the company.

The Cuthberts were baptized in January 1951 and sealed in the London Temple after its dedication in 1958.

Elder Cuthbert once reflected, “Before we were baptized, we vowed that the Church would be our life. We have never had one doubt, nor one regret.” (Ensign, Sept. 1984, p. 20.) Their vow was backed by dedication.

He served as president of the Nottingham Branch and the Leicester District. When the district was made the third stake in the British Isles, he was called as the first British president of a stake in his country. He later served as stake president in Birmingham and as a counselor in the presidency of the London Stake. He served four stake and district missions and was a counselor to four mission presidents.

He was a regional representative in 1975 when he received a call to full-time Church service as president of the Scotland Edinburgh Mission. In March 1978, he was called to the First Quorum of the Seventy. Since then, he has filled assignments in the British Isles, Africa, Europe, South America, and various areas of the United States. His assignments at Church headquarters have included service in the general Sunday School presidency, in the Correlation, Temple, Priesthood, and Curriculum departments, and on the Boundary and Leadership Change Committee.

After service in so many areas of the world, Elder Cuthbert came to feel at home wherever the Lord called him. He once said that he hoped he did not sound presumptuous, “but our home is in heaven, we trust.” (Ensign, Sept. 1984, p. 19.)