Man of Faith, Man of Compassion

Thomas S. Monson, born in Salt Lake City on August 21, 1927, learned caring and sensitivity from his parents, G. Spencer and Gladys Condie Monson. He remembers that nobody would ever be turned away from their door. It was a time of great economic difficulty, and some transients inevitably would make their way to the Monson home every week. His mother would host them as though each had been an invited guest.

His mother’s caring example was not lost on young Thomas Monson who, while growing up during the Great Depression, became aware of the hardships of those around him.

“He was the kind who accomplished what most boys don’t,” according to President Monson’s boyhood bishop, John R. Burt. “He’d meet with his quorum counselors and stir things up, even as a youngster. Usually you have to do a lot of prodding with young boys, but not with Tom” (Ensign, Feb. 1986, 13).

Although times were tough during the Depression, there were also happy times for the Monson family. They spent their summers at a cabin near Provo, Utah, where he developed a love for swimming and fly fishing. Other interests that continued from boyhood include raising Birmingham roller pigeons (performing birds that roll over backward while flying) and watching football, basketball, and baseball.

President Monson graduated from West High School in Salt Lake City, served in the U.S. Navy during the closing months of World War II, and studied business management at the University of Utah. In 1948 he graduated and on October 7 married his sweetheart, Frances Beverly Johnson, in the Salt Lake Temple. (You can read the story of how they met in the New Era article “Whom Shall I Marry?” Oct. 2004, 4.) The couple later became the parents of three children and have nine grandchildren.

The compassion and sensitivity developed in President Monson’s boyhood continued to be a major part of his life when he was called to be a bishop at age 22. Bishop Monson’s 67th Ward had more than 1,000 members, including 85 widows.

Every Christmas the young bishop took a week of his personal vacation time to visit and bring a gift to each of the widows in his ward. He continued to visit these sisters at Christmas for the next 47 years until the last widow passed away in 1998.

At age 27, President Monson was called as a counselor in the Temple View Stake Presidency, and a few years later he was called to serve as president of the Canadian Mission. On October 4, 1963, he was ordained an Apostle at age 36 (the youngest Apostle in 53 years), and on November 10, 1985, he became a counselor in the First Presidency at age 58 (the youngest in the 20th century).

President Monson has a favorite painting of the Savior, which has always hung in his various offices. “Positioned on the wall of my office, directly opposite my desk, is a lovely print of the Savior, painted by Heinrich Hofmann. I love the painting, which I have had since I was a 22-year-old bishop and which I have taken with me wherever I have been assigned to labor. I have tried to pattern my life after the Master. Whenever I have a difficult decision to make, I have looked at that picture and asked myself, ‘What would He do?’ Then I try to do it. We can never go wrong when we choose to follow the Savior” (Ensign, Nov. 2004, 67).