Human Performance

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Travers was just as adamant about the performance of mankind—in improving their lives and in making positive contributions to family and society. That was why he sometimes turned from promoting Simmental to talking of his belief in God and in handing out copies of the Book of Mormon—a book of scripture that he held in esteem alongside the Holy Bible. Instances of his spiritual asides were sometimes reported in the media, and a blog post referencing some instances can be found at http://simmental-sbl.blogspot.com/2011/11/performance-testing-for-mankind.html

At his funeral service (February 11, 1974), all three speakers spoke of Travers’ faith in God. His friend Oakley Thompson said:

“Travers didn’t separate temporal and spiritual matters. Often times we hear people excusing themselves, “Well, that’s business, and this is church. You don’t mix the two.” They do mix, and Travers kept them together all the time wherever he went, and in the work that he has done. He said the Book of Mormon was his passport to the countries he went to, dealing on this Simmental work that he started to take up. Wherever he went, he preached the Gospel to those that he met up with. On one occasion he handed out 26 Books of Mormon to one group, and 39 to another group as they were getting on chartered buses, and he said they all acted eager to receive them. I thought Travers’ motto might well be stated as the Scripture which says, “Oh ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve Him with all your heart, might, mind and strength that ye may be able to stand blameless before God at the last day.” And that was the way he lived his life.”

His friend and stake president, Fred Spackman, said:

“[Travers] had some priorities in his life. His first priority was his family. … He had great concern and a great love for them. His second priority was his duty to the church to which he belonged and in which he believed, and which he knew was true, and he served faithfully many long hours in striving to do the things he was called to do. His third priority was his business, and I don’t suppose that any of us can realize the tremendous impact that this man, with his courage, has had on the cattle industry in this country and in the United States.
“Travers never gave up. One man in the government with whom he dealt, and told me this story, finally said to him, “I have never seen such a stubbornly persistent individual in all my life.” And he meant that as a compliment, and you know that Travers was like that.
“His other priority in his life was to be a good citizen, a law-abiding citizen, and he was that, and he served in many capacities in our community and our area. Why did he have these priorities? I can only tell you that he felt the same way that the prophet Joseph Smith felt about the purpose of this life. The prophet Joseph Smith said: ‘Man is an eternal being. The resurrection from the dead, if quickened by the Celestial Glory, restores him to life with all his bodily and mental powers and faculties, and consequently associates him with his family, friends, and kindred as one of the necessary links of the chain which connects the great and loyal family of Heaven and Earth in one eternal bond of kindred affection and association.’”

Robert Sackley, another dear friend, said:

“I think I have some obligation to him and, humbly, to you who are in the audience, whether you be Latter-day Saints or not Latter-day Saints, to express a point of view that he would express. …
“Travers believed that God commanded the earth, and he believed also that He commanded him and that he belonged to Him, and that it was according to the Lord’s will and pleasure whatever he should do. …
“I would just like to be personal for a moment. I flew in here, as the family knows, not so long ago. … I spent some time alone in Travers’ room, and we held hands together and we prayed together. He said, “Will you talk at my funeral?” And I didn’t tell Belle that he had asked me to talk at his funeral because I knew she would anyway. And I said, “What do you want me to talk about?” By the way, he hadn’t even told the family that he thought he was going to die. He wanted to spare his mother that horrible feeling of anguish and difficulty, but I knew that he knew, and he said, “Tell the people that the religion that I have embraced,” and he said it in a shocking and difficult voice, and you men who know Travers and know he spoke quietly anyway—and he had a great struggle speaking in the last hours of his life—”tell them that I belonged to a cause that I believed in. They know me as a cattleman, many of them, and they know me as a businessman and some of them know me as a pretty hard-headed fellow.” He said, “You and I have been together on many occasions,” and there are some of you in the room that Travers and I have met with, and I would like to tell you, all of you, that he believed and understood and accepted implicitly his religious code; that it was the pivotal part of his life that belonged to him, and that at no time that I ever knew him did he flinch in that particular area. He stayed with it all the way. … The process by which he spread his business was a religious process. … His whole life was guided by virtue of the fact that he accepted the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
“And if there is any message that I could give, humbly and sincerely at his death, it would be to ask you, whether you be members of his church or not, to take a look at it and see what it teaches, and see why he was motivated in it.