[1] As a young man he served in the Northern States Mission of the LDS Church, which was headquartered in Chicago.

[2] Prior to his call as a general authority, Hanks worked as an instructor in the Church Educational System.

Among the missionaries in his mission were Jeffrey R. Holland and Quentin L. Cook, who both later became apostles of the church,[4] as well as D. Michael Quinn, historian of Mormonism who was later excommunicated as one of the September Six.

[2] Hanks wrote the words to "That Easter Morn", which is hymn number 198 in the LDS Church's 1985 hymnal.

[9][10] At the time of his death, Hanks was the oldest living former member of the First Quorum of the Seventy and the second-oldest emeritus general authority after Eldred G.