Staples growing up years were likewise unremarkable for any of his contemporaries growing up at the time—much farm work and local schooling in Kanosh and nearby Millard High School in the county seat of Fillmore, Utah. He attended Utah State Agricultural College at Logan, Utah, produced unremarkable grades, and left early to serve as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in Florida and Georgia from 1939 to 1941, arriving back home in late November of that year.
