Russell T. Osguthorpe

Teaching is an essential key to any success we have as a church,” says Russell Trent Osguthorpe, newly sustained as Sunday School general president. “Much of what we call leadership is really teaching. I see the Sunday School as the teaching improvement arm of the Church.”

Brother Osguthorpe is a teacher both by profession and inclination. He holds multiple degrees from Brigham Young University, including a PhD in instructional psychology.

Currently Brother Osguthorpe is a professor in the Department of Instructional Psychology and Technology at BYU. He also serves as director of the university’s Center for Teaching and Learning, whose goal is to improve student learning and to help faculty teach to their potential.

Born on December 4, 1946, in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, to Wesley and Iva Russell Osguthorpe, Brother Osguthorpe served a mission in Tahiti. On August 7, 1969, he married Lola “Lolly” Sedgwick in the Salt Lake Temple. They are the parents of three sons and two daughters.

Prior to serving as president of the South Dakota Rapid City Mission, Brother Osguthorpe served as stake Young Men president, counselor in a bishopric, branch president at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, and as president of a BYU student stake. At the time of his call, Brother Osguthorpe was serving in the Fifth Quorum of the Seventy.

“I have seen the Lord’s hand so often and in so many ways,” Brother Osguthorpe says of how his testimony has developed. “Even as a child I knew that divine help was with me. It was the same on my mission to Tahiti. I’ve had moments as a father when I knew the Lord was directing me. And when I served as a mission president, watching the Lord magnify missionaries was a constant daily reminder of the power and love of God.”