calling of Assistant to the Twelve was eliminated. Maxwell was ordained an apostle by N. Eldon Tanner on July 23, 1981, after Gordon B. Hinckley became a counselor in the First Presidency. He was sustained a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on October 3, 1981. Among his assignments was to preside over the organization of new stakes of the church. One of the more notable was the Aba Nigeria Stake in 1988, with David W. Eka called as president. This was the first stake in the church staffed entirely by people of African descent. Maxwell wrote approximately 30 books concerning religion and authored numerous articles on politics and government for local, professional and national publications. He was well known for his extensive vocabulary and elegant style of speaking and writing. His highly alliterative talks have always presented a great challenge to translators. During one LDS general conference, the translators had categorized each of the talks to be given into five levels of difficulty. All of the talks were assigned to levels one to four, except Maxwell's. His talk was alone at level five. Commenting on his speaking and writing styles at Maxwell's funeral, church president Gordon B. Hinckley said, Maxwell received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Utah; an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Westminster College, Salt Lake City; an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Brigham Young University (BYU), Provo, Utah; an Honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Utah State University, Logan, Utah; an Honorary Degree from Ricks College, Rexburg, Idaho; and an Honorary Degree from Salt Lake Community College. The University of Utah established the Neal A. Maxwell Presidential Endowed Chair in Political Theory, Public Policy and Public Service in the fall of 1998. Maxwell's business career included serving as a director of several business firms, including Questar Corporation, Questar Pipeline, and Deseret News Publishing Company. He also was active in public service, including service as chairman of the Utah Constitutional Revision Commission. Maxwell received the Liberty Bell award from the Utah State Bar in 1967 for public service. In 1973, the Institute of Government Service at BYU named him Public Administrator of the Year. Death Maxwell died in Salt Lake City, from leukemia. He was originally diagnosed with leukemia in 1996, eight years before his death. An estimated 4,000 people attended the funeral in the Tabernacle or via video