VISALIA, Calif. -- Clay Sannar, the young LDS Church leader gunned down Sunday by a mentally ill stranger, would want his family to heal and move on without him, his brother said Wednesday.
"That was his whole life -- his wife and his children. That meant everything to him," said Jared Sannar, of Fresno.
Clay Sannar, 40, is survived by his wife, Julie, 39, and six sons ages 4 months to 14 years.
"They'll move forward as Clay would want them to," his brother said. "The boys know who their father is."
The past several days have been a whirlwind of tears, prayers, phone calls and funeral planning, but one thing is clear, Jared Sannar said in his role as the family spokesman: "We're so glad we had him."
Clay Sannar grew up in a farming family in the northern Central Valley town of Gridley, one of 11 children of Ron and Rita Sannar, who still live in Gridley.
Sannar, who majored in agronomy at Brigham Young University, moved with his wife to Visalia after he landed a job as a technical consultant with Soil Basics, a soil analysis and fertilizer company.
By his late 30s, Clay Sannar had it all: a beautiful wife, lovely children, a new house and ownership of the company that had hired him.
Yet, "Clay was a humble man," his brother said. After Clay acquired Soil Basics, he referred to himself simply as "the general manager."
Furthermore, he didn't tell co-workers that four months ago he was named bishop of the Visalia Second Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- a position of honor equivalent to being a pastor, yet unpaid and requiring 20 hours or more of work each week.
But this humble church leader "acted with heroism" in the face of danger, said Visalia Police Chief Colleen Mestas.
When he found himself in his church office with a large, deranged man holding a gun, he yelled for people to leave the building while trying to restrain the man, later identified as Kenneth Ward, 47, of Modesto, Mestas said.
"He was a hero, and we know that," Jared Sannar said. "He always served people in his life. It doesn't surprise us at all he'd do that. That's the kind of man he was."
Ward fled. Half an hour later, police killed him about a mile away in a gun battle.
Despite being blindsided by tragedy, the Sannar family members have no hard feelings for the Ward family: "Our hearts go out to them and they are in our prayers," Jared Sannar said.
Sannar served two years as an LDS missionary in Dublin, Ireland. He liked it so much that he kept a special display of his mementos from Ireland.
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