Bruce C. Hafen

Bruce C. Hafen is a General Authority and member of the First Quorum of Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Elder Hafen was born on October 30, 1940, in St. George, Utah.

Elder Hafen is a nationally recognized scholar on family relationships, children, and education. He earned a juris doctorate from the University of Utah and is a former dean of Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School. He helped establish BYU’s law school in 1973, teaching on the school’s first faculty. From 1978 to 1985, he was president of Ricks College (now BYU-Idaho), always teaching one class each semester. In 1989 he became provost at BYU, the number-two administrator at the university.

While attending BYU, he met Marie Kartchner. The two married on 2 June 1964 in the St. George Temple and have seven children and 10 grandchildren (one deceased). Elder Hafen served a mission in West Germany. He has served as a bishop's counselor, a counselor in a stake presidency, and as a regional representative. He was called to serve in the First Quorum of the Seventy in 1996.