c. 2008 Salt Lake Tribune SALT LAKE CITY _ Thomas S. Monson was introduced Monday (Feb. 4) as the 16th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The election of Monson, 80, was expected since he was the longest-serving member of the church’s top leadership body. He succeeds Gordon B. Hinckley, who died Jan. 27 at age 97, as leader of the world’s 13 million Mormons.
Monson chose Henry B. Eyring, 74, as first counselor, the church’s No. 2 position. Dieter F. Uchtdorf, 67, was named second counselor in the church’s three-man First Presidency.
Monson, Eyring and Uchtdorf unveiled the new leadership at a news conference at church headquarters in Salt Lake City. It came two days after funeral services for Hinckley, who had been the LDS Church’s “prophet, seer and revelator” for 13 years.
“Hinckley’s passing has affected all of us. … We shall miss him, yet he has left us with a wonderful legacy,” Monson said in introducing his counselors.
He said he anticipates “no abrupt changes from the courses we have been pursuing,” and emphasized that he has worked closely with those of other faiths and “we will continue this cooperative effort.”
Eyring pledged his “total love and support” to Monson and said he looks forward to seeing his “great influence and power” at work.
Uchtdorf described himself as “joyfully overwhelmed” by his calling. “It is a great honor and I’m very humbled by the call,” he said.
Monson has spent his entire career in the service of the LDS Church, working alongside every Mormon president since 1963 when he was named to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles _ the church’s second-highest governing body and essentially, the president’s cabinet _ at the age of 36.
Monson is a folksy orator known for his compassion, fondness for modern-day parables of struggle and spiritual triumph, and willingness to enlist non-Mormons in humanitarian causes. He repeatedly talks of being spiritually prompted to help the disadvantaged and outcast, a lesson he learned during the waning years of the Great Depression.
Eyring had spent more than three decades serving the LDS Church full time before becoming an apostle in 1995 and second counselor in the First Presidency last October.
After earning a graduate degree in business administration from Harvard University, Eyring became an educator, working for years at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in Palo Alto, Calif. He was president of LDS-owned Ricks College (now Brigham Young University-Idaho) in Rexburg, Idaho, from 1972 to 1977, then became the church’s commissioner of education.
Eyring managed the church’s extensive educational operations, including BYU, the LDS institutes of religion adjacent to many college campuses, and seminary programs for high school students. He then had a brief stint with the Presiding Bishop’s Office, where he oversaw the church’s buildings.
Uchtdorf, a native German who was born in Czechoslovakia, was ordained an apostle on Oct. 7, 2004. He is a former pilot and executive for Lufthansa German Airlines.
The selection of Uchtdorf to serve in one of the church’s top three leadership positions leaves a vacancy in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Monson may announce a replacement soon, or he may wait until LDS General Conference in April.
(Peggy Fletcher Stack is a writer for the Salt Lake Tribune.)
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