Bio of Richard Clutter

My wife Kristin and I have been blessed with three boys. Zach is 15 and Bart & Abel, fraternal twins, are 10. This summer Zach and I hiked 35 miles down Tonto Creek in the Hell's Gate Wilderness. It was actually more like swam, wadded, stumbled ... did I mention it was called Hell's Gate. What makes the trip more special was Zach was diagnosed with cancer as an infant and given little chance for survival. Through faith, prayer and priesthood blessings Zach today is a healthy young man.

Even though my Home Town is listed as Grand Junction, Colorado, I hardly lived there, growing up in Las Vegas, Nevada and only moving to Colorado one week before I left for my mission. After returning to Colorado I decided to attend Texas A&M University, graduating in 1985 with a Masters of Architecture Degree. I missed the desert and mountains badly so I threw everything in the pick-up and moved to Arizona where I met my wife while attending a singles ward at the Arizona State University Institute. I currently teach Gospel Doctrine, a calling I have been blessed with several times over the years.

I am a partner in an architectural firm that specializes in designing K-12 educational facilities. My work gives me the opportunity to work all over the State of Arizona. I have designed schools from the Navajo Reservation down to the Southern Border. I am currently working in Douglas, on the Mexican Border, where I find my poor and rusty Spanish comes in useful at times.

I served in Escazu, Costa Rica, Panama City, Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula and finished up spending 8 months in Managua. I look back on my mission as a great character building experience, both spiritually and emotionally. While most of the members, investigators and companions are now just a blur, there are numerous experiences that are as fresh today as when they happened where witnesses were borne, lessons were learned and the spirit testified to me of the truthfulness of the work we were performing.