Hinckley children don't recall lectures — he taught by example

From a gardener to a handyman to a problem solver, President Gordon B. Hinckley was busy while rearing his children.

His five children discussed their father during a 1995 interview with KSL-TV, "Gordon B. Hinckley: A Family Portrait."

According to Kathleen Barnes Walker, one of his three daughters, he never seemed to take any leisure time. "He was always working," she said.

"We were always doing a project," said son Richard G. Hinckley. That included planting, pruning, building, etc.

"He had a hobby of building," Richard Hinckley said. "He loves to create."

President Hinckley's youngest child, Jane Dudley, told KSL that her father had attended a pruning school in Denver.

"He likes to share his advice with us on how to prune the trees," she said.

Richard Hinckley said his father may have put as many as 400 trees on his property. The family knew it was spring when he brought home new trees.

Prayer was another constant in their lives.

Daughter Virginia Pearce said she considered him a family problem-solver.

"One of the things he always said was, 'You just say your prayers and go to work.' And I think that kind of a formula was the way he approached life."

Dudley said it was important to her father that the family always knelt in prayer.

President Hinckley's children said he loved words and loved to read.

"We always had dinner together as a family," said son Clark B. Hinckley. "And there was always a grammar lesson at some time during the dinner."

Pearce said the family always had a summer vacation when the children were home.

"We stopped at every historical marker there ever was," he said.

But as soon as the children were reared, President Hinckley's summer vacations stopped. His children told KSL he never particularly liked to travel, but he knew it was necessary. His work seemed to energize him.

"I've never seen any evidence of ego. ... of wanting to be in the limelight," Walker said.

He was one of those "hunt and peck" typers, but he was very fast, Richard Hinckley said. He also never cared who got the credit for a project or job.