Former Utah Gov. Rampton laid to rest

Calvin L. Rampton left behind a legacy even larger than his years as the state's longest serving governor, family and friends said during his funeral services today.

"I'd characterize him as a man of goodwill," President Thomas S. Monson, first counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, told the several hundred people gathered at the Salt Lake Parleys Stake Center.

Monson, who recalled Rampton calling on him to be a "conciliator" in appointing him to serve on the state Board of Regents, said that wherever he goes, "a piece of Cal Rampton goes with me."

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said Rampton told him only recently that the biggest challenge in public service today is the lack of civility. "The system has become too darn mean," Huntsman, a Republican, recalled Rampton saying just weeks before his death on Sunday.

Rampton, who was a Democrat, is credited with bringing Utah into the modern era after taking office in 1965, especially in education and tourism development. "All the modern issues we deal with today got their kick start with Gov. Rampton," Huntsman said.

Besides Utah's current governor, the stake center's chapel and cultural hall were filled with many current and former politicians including former governors Norm Bangerter and Olene Walker.

Elder Robert D. Hales of the LDS Church's Quorum of the Twelve, spoke of Rampton's "cordial relationship" with the state's predominant faith. Politicians today, Hales said, "see either the need to court the LDS vote or distance themselves from the church."

But Rampton, who wrote eloquently at 17 about questioning the existence of God after the death of his father, was different, Hales said. Rampton maintained his independence but was also "keenly aware" of ways the church and state could cooperate.

Rampton's three surviving children, Tony Rampton, Vince Rampton and Janet Warburton, described the personal life of the man many Utahns knew as "The Gov" long after his third term ended in 1977.

Tony Rampton said his father had run unsuccessfully for political offices including the U.S. Senate before winning the first of his three terms as governor. He said he wasn't sure how his father, an attorney, caught the political bug, "but he had a chronic case."

Rampton was to be buried at the Salt Lake City Cemetery. He died at age 93 after suffering a stroke and having been diagnosed with cancer.

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