President Gordon B. Hinckley, world leader of The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was
ordained and set apart as the 15th President of the
Church on Sunday, March 12, 1995.
He had earlier served 14 years as a counselor in
the First Presidency, the top governing body of the
Church, and as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve
Apostles for 20 years prior to that.
His Church service has
been extensive. He was called as a member of the Sunday School General
Board in 1937, two years after returning home from missionary service
in Great Britain. For 20 years, he directed all Church public communications.
In 1951 he was named executive secretary of the General Missionary
Committee, managing the entire missionary program of the Church,
and served in this capacity for seven years. He was president of
the East Millcreek Stake in Salt Lake City when he was called as
a General Authority in the capacity of an Assistant to the Quorum
of the Twelve Apostles on April 6, 1958.
President Hinckley was named to the Quorum of the
Twelve Apostles on October 5, 1961. On July 23, 1981, he
was called into the First Presidency to serve as
Counselor and on December 2, 1982, was named Second
Counselor to President Spencer W. Kimball. He served as
First Counselor to President Ezra Taft Benson from
November 1985 to May 30, 1994. On June 5, 1994, he was
called as the First Counselor to President Howard W.
Hunter. He was also ordained and set apart as the
President of the Quorum of the Twelve
Apostles.
As a member of the First
Presidency, he has had a major role in administering both the ecclesiastical
and temporal affairs of the Church, whose more than 10 million members
are spread over some 160 nations and territories. His Church assignments
have taken him around the world many times, and he has dedicated
more temples than any other leader in the history of the Church.
He is the first Church President ever to travel to Spain, where
in 1996 he broke ground for a temple in Madrid, and to Africa, where
he met with thousands of Latter-day Saints in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya,
Zimbabwe, and South Africa.
He has given numerous
interviews to major news media, including the New York Times,
Los Angeles Times, and the CBS 60 Minutes television
news magazine, which featured him and the Church in 1996 on an Easter
Sunday show seen by more than 20 million. In September of 1998 he
was the guest on the popular CNN cable television program Larry
King Live.
President Hinckley was
born June 23, 1910, in Salt Lake City, Utah, a son of Bryant Strigham
and Ada Bitner Hinckley. One of his forebears, Stephen Hopkins,
came to America on the Mayflower. Another, Thomas Hinckley,
served as governor of the Plymouth Colony from 1680 to 1692.
His first job was as
a newspaper carrier for the Deseret News, a Salt Lake City
daily. After attending public schools in Salt Lake City, the future
Church leader earned a bachelor of arts degree at the University
of Utah and then accepted a call from the Church to spend two years
as a full-time missionary in Great Britain. He served with distinction
and ultimately was called to be an assistant to the Church Apostle
who presided over all the European missions.
Upon being released from missionary service in the
mid-1930s, he was called by then Church President
Heber J. Grant to organize what has become the
Church's public affairs program.
President Hinckley's
major assignments during two decades of service as a member of the
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles included the supervision of Church
units in Asia, Europe, and South America. His Church committee assignments
as a general officer have been in such areas as temples, missionary
work, welfare services, priesthood, and members in the military
service. He also served as chairman of the executive committee for
the observance of the Church's 150th anniversary in 1980.
In addition to his Church
duties, President Hinckley has been active in community and business
affairs, serving as chairman and board member of a number of business
corporations. He has been the recipient of a number of educational
honors including: the Distinguished Citizen Award, from Southern
Utah University; Distinguished Alumni Award, from the University
of Utah; and honorary doctorates from Westminster College, Utah
State University, University of Utah, Brigham Young University,
and Southern Utah University. He has received the Silver Buffalo
Award of the Boy Scouts of America and has been honored by the National
Conference (formerly the National Conference of Christians and Jews)
for his contributions to tolerance and understanding in the world.
He has served as chairman
of the executive committees of the Board of Trustees of Brigham
Young University and of the Church Board of Education. The Church
Educational System includes not only Brigham Young University's
Utah and Hawaii campuses, but Brigham Young University - Idaho in Rexburg, Idaho, LDS
Business College in Salt Lake City, elementary and secondary schools
in developing countries, and hundreds of seminaries and institutes
of religion serving several hundred thousand high school- and college-age
youth.
The Church leader is
known for his writing and speaking skills, which he began developing
as a young boy growing up in the Church. He honed those talents
as a missionary preaching regularly from a portable stand in London's
Hyde Park and further refined them as a Church authority. He has
written and edited several books and numerous manuals, pamphlets,
and scripts.
President Hinckley and his wife, Marjorie Pay
Hinckley, have five children.
