Tad Callister, whose writings and sermons helped shape an entire Latter-day Saint generation’s understanding of Jesus and the doctrine of the atonement, died Thursday in Bountiful at the age of 79.

Callister never reached the highest and most visible ranks of church leadership. His most prominent appointment was that of counselor in the three-man presidency responsible for overseeing the faith’s Sunday School programs. It didn’t matter. The tax lawyer out of Los Angeles succeeded in becoming a household name among members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints all the same.

Born in 1945, Callister received his law degree from the University of California-Los Angeles before graduating from New York University with a master’s in tax law. He practiced for decades in Glendale, on

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