After a life of faithful service, Elder David S. Baxter, an emeritus General Authority Seventy, died Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025, in Devizes, Wiltshire, England. He was 70 years old.
Elder Baxter was serving as an Area Seventy and counselor in the Europe West Area of the Church when he was called in 2006 by Church President Gordon B. Hinckley to be a General Authority Seventy.
He was serving as president of the Pacific Area in 2009 when he was diagnosed with brain cancer and placed on medical leave from his assignments. After treatment, he served in a variety of assignments at Church headquarters. In 2017, he was again placed on medical leave until last month, when he received emeritus status.
Despite experiencing a tumultuous childhood, financial trials and serious health challenges, Elder Baxter credited the gospel of Jesus Christ as providing him hope and happiness.
“All that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. My life experience has taught me to know the blessings from the Savior’s Atonement. We can be refreshed, cleansed, lifted up. We can be healed,” he testified (“Elder David S. Baxter of the Seventy,” Ensign, May 2006).
David Steward Baxter was born Feb. 7, 1955, in Stirling, Scotland. He was 12 years old when his mother, Ellen Baxter, who was doing her best to singlehandedly raise four children born from three troubled marriages, opened the door to Latter-day Saint missionaries.
“An incredible feeling of peace and goodness descended on us when the missionaries came,” Elder Baxter said in an interview with the Church News following his call as a general authority. ”We wanted that feeling all the time.”
Being baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints “opened our lives to an incredible transformation — a completely different course," he said.
In a tender address to single parents during the April 2012 general conference, Elder Baxter spoke of his mother, who, he said, coped with the challenges dealt her with dignity and “sheer Scottish grit.”
“With God’s help, you need not fear for the future,” Elder Baxter assured Church members across the world struggling to raise children alone. “Your children will grow up and call you blessed, and every single one of their many achievements will stand as a tribute to you.”
Elder Baxter’s mother eventually married a new convert, a widower, and the family moved to Surrey, England, where they were embraced by local Church members.
It was within that branch that Elder Baxter met Dianne Marie Lewars. They attended youth activities and seminary together and were two of five Church members in their school of 1,200.
In 1976, Elder Baxter graduated in business and economics from the University of Wales and was called to serve in the Scotland Edinburgh Mission. The opportunities on his mission to teach and serve brought further depth and breadth to his testimony, he said.
Shortly after returning home from his mission, the two married. The Baxters were first married civilly on Feb. 24, 1979, as required by law, then sealed later that day in the London England Temple. Together, they raised four children and have 14 grandchildren. Sister Baxter died in 2022 at age 66.
Early in their marriage as the two prayed together, Elder and Sister Baxter committed their lives to serving the Lord, expressing their willingness to do “His will.”
Elder Baxter was called soon thereafter to be a bishop at age 25. Through the years, he served in a variety of callings, including as stake president, mission president’s counselor, stake institute and public affairs director.
Throughout his career, he worked in communication and marketing with several international companies. At the time of his call as a general authority, he was employed as the London director of international trade and investment for the U.K. Department of Trade and Industry and as a member of the board of a U.K. government agency providing help to deprived communities.
The author of three books, Elder Baxter wrote of being brought up in poverty, then of trials endured during adulthood, including a failed business investment and serious debt, an accident that severely burned his infant son, and his own battle with cancer.
Supportive teachers, his amazing wife and, most importantly, Jesus Christ helped see him through, he wrote.
In his 2006 general conference address, he testified, “It is my witness that as we cultivate our faith, grow through service, and stay constant and true come what may, so we feel the Savior’s love. We place ourselves in the position where we can access the breadth and depth of the blessings of the Atonement. Our membership is transformed into discipleship. We are strengthened, cleansed, refreshed, spiritually and emotionally healed.”
Funeral arrangements are pending.
