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SALT LAKE CITY — Elder Bruce D. Porter, General Authority Seventy, died Wednesday, LDS Church officials said. He was 64 years old.

Elder Porter died at his home surrounded by his family, said Eric Hawkins, spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Up until early December, Elder Porter was serving as President of the East Europe Area. He was released from that position and assigned to serve as a General Authority Seventy at the headquarters for the LDS Church.

Elder Porter had been battling a pulmonary infection over the past few weeks, Hawkins added.

“Our gratitude, thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Susan, and their family,” Hawkins said, in a statement. “We are profoundly grateful for the valiant service he offered to the very end of his life. He will be greatly missed."

He was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Sept. 18, 1952, and was married to Susan Holland in 1977. The two had four children. Before he began full-time service for the LDS Church, Elder Porter was a political science professor at Brigham Young University. He was sustained as a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on April 1, 1995.

Funeral plans are still pending.

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