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Milton Reed Hunter (1902 - 1975) was an American author, educator, and religious leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He served as a member of the church's First Council of the Seventy from 1945 until his death in 1975. Of Scottish descent, Hunter was born on October 25, 1902, in Holden, Utah, the son of John Edward and Margaret Teeples Hunter. He attended Brigham Young High School, and Brigham Young University, receiving a bachelor's degree in 1929 and a master’s degree in 1931. He married Ferne Gardner in Logan, Utah in 1931, and the couple later had six children. For several years Hunter worked as a public school administrator in Nevada and Utah. He later taught LDS seminary courses while living in Provo, Utah. In 1935, Hunter was awarded a Ph.D. in history by the University of California. Although his professors in Berkeley, California encouraged him to take a university position in history, he chose to continue as a teacher of religion and moved to Logan, Utah to teach at the Institute of Religion. Hunter spent the next 17 years as a seminary teacher. Hunter was called to serve on the LDS First Council of the Seventy and was sustained on April 6, 1945. Assignments as a General Authority for the LDS Church took him to many parts of the world. During this time, he visited Mexico, Central America, and South America to study archaeological ruins in the context of accounts found within the Book of Mormon. He was a cofounder of the New World Archaeological Foundation, and is widely known among LDS faithful as co-author of the book Ancient America and the Book of Mormon.[1] First published in 1950, the book focuses on the writings of an Aztec historian Ixtlilxochitl who, in written accounts of Mesoamerican history provided to the newly-arrived Europeans, appears to corroborate a number of claims made in the Book of Mormon. Hunter also served as national president of Delta Phi Kappa (LDS), the LDS returned missionary fraternity.
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