J. Richard Clarke
J. Richard Clarke was an emeritus General Authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was sustained as Second Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric on October 1, 1976, and served there until he was sustained as a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy on April 6, 1985. He served in the Presidency of the Seventy from October 1, 1988, to August 15, 1993. He was designated emeritus status on October 4, 1997. From 1998 to 2001, he served as president of the Laie Hawaii Temple. He also served as president of the Boise Idaho Temple.
Clarke served in various other callings in the Church, including as a full-time missionary in South Africa. He was a bishop, stake president, and regional representative. He also served as president of the South Africa Cape Town Mission.
He was born on April 4, 1927, in Rexburg, Idaho. After graduating from high school, near the end of World War II, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, serving 18 months in the South Pacific. At the time of his call to full-time service in the Church, he was a general manager for an insurance company. His first assignment as a Seventy was to serve as Mission President in Cape Town, South Africa--the mission of his youth. In later years, he returned to Africa to serve as Area President.
He and his wife, Barbara, are the parents of eight children. He died on June 29, 2022.
