Thomas Spencer Monson

Thomas Spencer Monson (born August 21, 1927, Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.—died January 2, 2018, Salt Lake City) was an American religious leader who was the 16th president (2008–18) of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), also known as the Mormon church.

Monson was the second of six children. He joined the U.S. Naval Reserve at age 17 and served one year of active duty, including a few weeks at the end of World War II. He completed a business degree cum laude at the University of Utah in 1948. In the same year, he married and began his career in publishing; he eventually rose to the post of general manager of Deseret Press, then the largest publishing company west of the Mississippi River.

Monson’s rise in church affairs was equally notable. He was made bishop of a ward (ecclesiastical jurisdiction) in Salt Lake City at age 22, and in 1959 he became president of the Canadian Mission. In 1963 he was elevated to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the LDS’s second highest executive body. In later years Monson was active with LDS mission work in the South Pacific and especially in eastern Europe, where he helped in the construction of a temple (dedicated in 1985) in Freiberg, Germany, and in gaining permission for the LDS to proselytize behind the Iron Curtain. He also was active in LDS church publishing activities, including the preparation of new versions of basic Mormon texts. He served for many years on the National Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America and received numerous awards from national and international scouting bodies.

In 1985 Monson was appointed to the church’s highest executive body, the First Presidency (consisting of the president and two counselors), for which he served as second counselor (1985–95) and then as first counselor (1995–2008). From 1995 he also served as president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, a position that placed him in line for the presidency of the denomination. He was appointed president of the LDS following the death of his predecessor, Gordon B. Hinckley, on January 27, 2008. He assumed office on February 3 of that year.