10-13 c rector in memoriam elbert - Sunstone

IN MEMORIAM

Daniel Hart

In Memoriam

1956–2002

PAGE 10 OCTOBER 2002

DANIEL RECTOR

rtman Rector

OCTOBER 2002 PAGE 11

IN MEMORIAM

IN MEMORIAM

DANIEL HARTMAN RECTOR

By Elbert Eugene Peck

W ITHOUT DANIEL RECTOR, wanted to start a Sunstone theological book- he left, Sunstone was in the black, no one
Sunstone would not be alive. store/cafe that would host regular speakers minded answering the phone any more,
And now, without Daniel our and be the main hang-out for Mormon intel- and subscribers numbered the most ever.
sunlight is less: he shined so! While lectuals. He loved being with people of good
climbing Mt. Superior in Utah’s Little will and discussing good things. This behind-the-scenes work was
Cottonwood Canyon with a friend early often not fun, but Daniel made working
on the morning of 4 September 2002, Daniel’s achievements were considerable. at Sunstone fun. And while penny-
Daniel died as he lived—engaging life He staged regular, new-subscriber mass- pinching, Sunstone expanded. Regional
with passion and joy. mailings that offered free books to names on symposiums multiplied, and the Salt Lake
every mailing list he could get. Sunstone was symposium’s speakers and attendees grew
In 1986, after a futile year of trying to deep in debt, owing almost two hundred in number and breadth. Daniel made the
recruit a successor, the great but burned- thousand dollars to creditors and the IRS. selling of conference tapes popular and
out SUNSTONE editor Peggy Fletcher, in The IRS agreed to his payment plan only after profitable. He particularly enjoyed organ-
desperation, announced her departure they made it clear Daniel would lose his izing the monthly scripture lecture series,
date, leaving the organization’s fate uncer- house if it weren’t met. But when the bill col- for he loved careful scriptural scholarship.
tain, and many insiders predicted demise lectors called, and they called all day long, Those heady years were full of achieve-
without the great leader. At Peggy’s he’d calmly say, “Well, we’re broke. I can pay ments, friendships, ideas, growth, and
farewell banquet, needing to announce you two thousand dollars if you’ll call our passion. Daniel made it all possible: he’d
some succession, the search committee eight-thousand-dollar bill paid.” His bold- laugh and joke and listen and share—and
punted with an unknown—the part-time ness awed us, but it just seemed normal work. Each year everything came together
business manager Sunstone had hired to him—just stating the truth. He was simi- at the symposium’s closing hymn.
only three months earlier. When the larly bold in asking supporters to donate Exhausted, Daniel would sing boister-
name Daniel H. Rector was announced as the outrageous amounts. His multi-year, semi- ously, get teary-eyed, and run around hug-
new Foundation president, there were gasps annual, “put-Sunstone-in-the-black” fund- ging everyone: his beliefs, his work, and his
and whispered doubts. Would the son of a raising campaign made giving annually a friends were all joined in one.
General Authority try to remake SUNSTONE habit for many that continues to this day.
into the Ensign? Monthly, he graphed his progress, and when D ANIEL was easy to like. He prized
friendship and loved deeply. He
But Daniel had the right stuff, barrels of it: ranks among the most honest
self-confidence, intelligence, passion, and people—ever. Sometimes I wished he would
pure energy. After going on a bike ride with learn the language of diplomacy, for his
Daniel, Mormon cartoonist Pat Bagley, who straightforwardness unintentionally, and
runs marathons, said he wasn’t sure about usually unknowingly, would occasionally of-
going again: “Daniel’s idea of fun is racing up fend people. He was pained when he learned
a 90-degree incline!” Daniel gave the same to of it, and he’d rush to make amends. But he
Sunstone, and he immediately began re- didn’t change his style. Daniel had no guile.
building and recruiting. After three days of He didn’t obscure or boast or plot or pretend
relentless lobbying, Daniel persuaded me to or hold grudges; he was as he appeared, and
join his team, and for the next five years we he assumed the same about others. I came to
worked in a joyful companionship as pub- value his candor, and I am more honest be-
lisher and editor. cause of his friendship. He didn’t cover his
mistakes or try to justify them. Void of tradi-
Those early days were hard. Every office tional Mormon guilt, he was comfortable
system had to be recreated. Even when we with his flawed humanness while he worked
had to work for months out of boxes and fur- hard on improving himself.
niture stacked in a basement hall, Daniel was
cheerful, plodding one by one through his in- Working with him was sweet collabora-
finite list of tasks. While draining the swamp, tion, each of us engaging the other in big-pic-
we looked at the stars and dreamed grand ture and picky-detail conversations about the
possibilities for Sunstone and the Church. He other’s tasks. Such cross-fertilization
strengthened Sunstone and deepened our
ELBERT EUGENE PECK was editor of SUNSTONE from 1986–2001. The picture on the facing page personal love and respect. After spending a
is of Elbert and Daniel at the end of a symposium.

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DANIEL RECTOR

weekend reading Lynn Packer’s Exhausted, Daniel
manuscript detailing Elder Paul would sing boisterously,
H. Dunn’s fictionalized war and get teary-eyed, and run
baseball stories, Daniel gathered around hugging everyone:
the staff and shared his impres- his beliefs, his work, and
sions. It had been a hell of a
weekend, he said. Elder Dunn his friends were all
was a family friend, and the alle- joined in one.
gations deeply troubled him. He
had done some investigation to being single, spent most nights and week- the intolerant times, and with the excommu-
confirm the facts. “Is it true?” he ends at the office, to his credit Daniel went nications of the “September Six,” like many
concluded. “And, if so, should it home to his family. He knew his priorities; in invisible others, Daniel became collateral
be published?” There was a long fact, he was climbing early in the morning on damage. His involvement in institutional reli-
silence, then he said: “Yes. And the day he fell and died so he could spend gion lessened, and his spirituality became
yes.” Others approached such that evening with them. more relational, finding grace and making
topics with judgment and anger; joy in family and friendships, and in God’s
Daniel engaged them with honesty and com- S UNSTONE expanded under Daniel, natural creation. It was a healthy spiritual
passion. and he had the good fortune to leave it journey for him, and he did not lose his pas-
just before the wave crested. As with sion in life. Through that last decade, Daniel
L IKE most, Daniel had his hobby-horse all of the preceding Sunstone gurus, he left increased in love. When we talked at the
theologies, but he did not ride them because he couldn’t support his family on his symposium this past August, he was serenely
often in public nor impose them on scant salary. Some speculated that he left be- happy, full of love, and very much at peace.
others. He liked ideas, but he liked people cause of the stress surrounding the General
more. And through working with Sunstone’s Authority “Statement on Symposia,” which Daniel’s funeral, held 9 September 2002,
readers, donors, and participants, he made had followed the 1991 Salt Lake symposium. nearly filled the overflow gym of the capa-
many dear friends. Rooted in personal I don’t believe it. A week before the sympo- cious Cottonwood Stake Center. His father,
epiphanies, at the core of his theology was sium, he proposed that we go out for lunch. Hartman Rector Jr., recounted Daniel’s sto-
grace. Some who knew a younger Daniel say In quirky Daniel fashion, for some reason, he ried and wildly baptizing missionary labors,
he had a strong, annoying, self-confident, was determined to dine at a well-known “pri- where I suspect Daniel’s boldness was at
self-righteous streak, which could be quite vate club” (meaning it serves liquor), al- times overbearing, but his love then was no
imposing. The Book of Mormon tells us to be though neither of us were a club member nor doubt overwhelming, too. Family members
bold but not overbearing (Alma 38:12); that drank alcohol. After we had ordered, and just remembered his nurturing, and his adven-
combination was a work of grace in Daniel. as Daniel began to speak, some announcer- ture buddies shared intimacies gained while
By the time I met him, grace had wrought in guy broadcasted, “Well, you all know what skiing, biking, and climbing. All remem-
him his trademark, guilt-free repenting heart today is—it’s our monthly lingerie show!” bered the intensity with which he met life—
and a humility about his abilities that de- So, while Daniel is detailing his painful deci- energetic activity coupled with deep and
manded action, required truthfulness, and sion to leave Sunstone, there are a swarm of loving and accepting relationships. To have
cultivated an impressive tolerance for the di- scantily clad women hovering around us. that life unexpectedly end after only forty-six
vergent paths of others. He had no desire to That memory embodies for me so many en- years makes his departure pronounced. At
remake others into his image of God and dearing things about him: the humorous in- John Kennedy Jr.’s funeral, Edward Kennedy
grace. Once when we were discussing the congruities that constantly shadowed him, said, “He had every gift but length of years.”
public fall and humiliation of a prominent the intellectual thoughts and the practical Similarly, Daniel had a full and complete life;
Salt Lake Mormon, Daniel expressed sadness concerns, and, most of all, the love and just a short one. It was abundant in passion
about the affair that had hurt so many, but he friendship. and joy and brimming with love and friend-
eschewed shame and judgment, accepting ship; like God’s sun, it democratically shined
human messiness as the unavoidable and glo- After leaving Sunstone’s employment, light on everyone. I was a small part of
rious consequence of being human and Daniel continued to serve on its board and Daniel Rector’s life, but my life is larger be-
through which grace works. comment at symposiums. He settled in cause of his. So, too, is Sunstone’s.
working for eXegeSys, Inc, a computer soft-
Since the office at Sunstone was one big ware company. The increasing tensions be- Daniel helped Sunstone in its hour of need.
room partitioned by six-foot high dividers, tween the Church and its intellectuals Those who can, please reciprocate his gift by
without trying, one heard at least snippets of troubled him because he loved the Church, donating to the Daniel Rector Memorial
everyone’s phone conversations (and more if he loved the intellectuals (many were close Fund at any Zions Bank. Thank you. —E.P.
they were interesting). But when Daniel was friends), and he loved open exploration. But
talking with his wife, Lisa, the rest of us his grace-motivated tolerance did not match
wished we couldn’t hear anything at all—too
much information. His raw honesty and
candor in their relationship was as breath-
taking as it was unnerving, and so was his
love. His open and adult conversations with
his children were the envy of every parent in
the office. During those first years when I,

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