After all, Rector’s 1952 baptism into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Japan, while serving in the U.S. Navy, was a pivotal moment for the young seeker.
“I was like a starving man who had found food and drink for the first time,” the dynamic Latter-day Saint leader said in 1994. “I loved it.”
Within 16 years of joining the Utah-based faith, Rector — who died Tuesday in Orem at age 94 — rose to the rank of Seventy at age 43, at the time the only adult male convert serving as a full-time general authority.