The New First Presidency: the Men Beyond the Title
By Erika Peterson
General Conference: a time for reflection, guidance, and spiritual impressions. It is a time for members and friends of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to come together and learn more about Christ and His Gospel.
This year’s conference is different, though — it started with a Solemn Assembly. Yesterday morning, members around the world sustained a new First Presidency, with Russell M. Nelson as President of the Church, Dallin H.Oaks as First Counselor, and Henry B. Eyring as Second Counselor.
Elder Gary E. Stevenson, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, spent much of his address to the Church yesterday describing the personal and professional life of President Nelson, powerfully reminding members of a rich and multifaceted life beyond the new prophet’s Church service. A closer look at the lives of the new First Presidency reveals not just examples of Christian living, but a lifetime of experience, service, and excellence.
President Nelson: “A Heart Full of Service”
Russell Marion Nelson was born on September 9, 1924 in Salt Lake City, Utah. He worked as assistant secretary at a bank while still in high school (he graduated at 16), and attended the University of Utah for his undergraduate and medical school.
He received his Ph.D from the University of Minnesota, where he pursued joint surgical training and doctoral studies. While there, he helped pioneer technology behind the first human open-heart surgery 1951. He later put his skills to use as a Captain in the Army Medical Corps during the Korean War from 1951–1953.
As a heart surgeon, he operated on future Church president Spencer W. Kimball. In 1985, Nelson along with his colleague, Conrad B. Jenson, performed a quadruple bypass surgery on the Chinese opera performer Fang Rongxiang.
Nelson was honored nationally by being elected president of the Society for Vascular Surgery and a director of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery. He has traveled extensively as a medical doctor and spoken at conferences in Latin America, Africa, India, and China. In 2015 the University of Utah, along with the American College of Cardiology, created the Russell M. Nelson M.D., Ph.D. Visiting Professorship in Cardiothoracic Surgery.
Those who serve in the Church with President Nelson have spoken of his compassion. President M. Russell Ballard, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, said that after having heart bypass surgery in 1995, he awoke to learn that President Nelson had stayed with the surgeon throughout the during the entire procedure, much like an angel watching from the heavens.
“That’s the kind of affection he has for his brethren,” said President Ballard. He also recalled President Nelson checking on the late Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. “He would come over and feel his pulse and look him in the eye and get a report as to what happened overnight,” he said. “He was a physician filled with love for those whom he could serve.” According to President Ballard, he has lifted and sustained other quorum members with same level of care and kindness.
President Oaks: a Bold Man with Strong Faith
Dallin Harris Oaks was born on August 12, 1932 in Provo, Utah. He was given the name Dallin in honor of Utah artist Cyrus Dallin. Through his mother, President Oaks is related Martin Harris, one of the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon. Oaks was seven years old when he lost his father to tuberculosis, leaving his mother and grandparents to raise him.
“I was blessed with an extraordinary mother,” said President Oaks. “She surely was one of the many noble women who have lived in the latter days… She gave me a great deal of responsibility and freedom.”
After graduating from high school in 1950, Oaks attended Brigham Young University (BYU) and graduated in 1954 with a B.S. in accounting. While at BYU he occasionally worked as a radio announcer at high school basketball games. It was at one of these basketball games where he met June Dixon, a senior at the high school, whom he would eventually marry. They had six children before she passed away from cancer at the age of 65, including Dallin D. Oaks, a linguistics professor at BYU, and Jenny Oaks Baker, a violinist.
Oaks never served a mission due to his membership in the Utah National Guard and with the threat of being called up to serve in the Korean War — he had to be ready to be deployed. Oaks was twice considered for nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court: first in 1975 by Gerald Ford, who ultimately nominated John Paul Stevens, and again in 1981 by Ronald Reagan, who ultimately nominated Sandra Day O’Connor.
Oaks has served throughout the world in various callings with a bold persistence that inspires many, including the men he serves with in the Church.
“With all my heart I pledge my loyalty and support for President Nelson’s loving and inspired leadership,” President Oaks said in January when the new First Presidency was announced. “I rejoice in the opportunity to give my full efforts to bear witness of Jesus Christ and proclaim the truth of His restored gospel.”
President Eyring: Serving with Humility & Love
Henry Bennion Eyring was born on May 31, 1933 in Princeton, NJ. Until the start of World War II his family attended Church meetings at a branch in New Brunswick, New Jersey. With the gasoline rationing of the war, they received permission to hold meetings in their home, which often only consisted of the Eyring family.When a teenager Eyring and his family moved to Salt Lake City, where his father, a theoretical chemist, took a post at the University of Utah.
After receiving a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Utah Eyring spent two years in the U.S. Air Force, stationed at Sandia Base in New Mexico. While there, Eyring served as a district missionary for the Church. While in the Air Force, he analyzed data from nuclear weapons testing and served as a liaison between military officers and scientists.
He went on to earn both masters and doctoral degrees in Business Administration from the Harvard Business School, before embarking on a career in academia.
Erying met his wife, Kathleen Johnson at a YSA meeting in Rindge, New Hampshire in the spring of 1960. Johnson was a native of Palo Alto studying at Harvard University the summer she met Eyring. As they courted from a distance, Johnson made multiple cross-country trips until they were engaged early in 1961. They were sealed by Spencer W. Kimball in the Logan Temple the following year.
They are the parents of four sons and two daughters, including Henry J. Eyring, president of BYU-Idaho, and Matthew J. Eyring, the Chief Strategy Innovation Officer of Vivint, a home automation company.
President Eyring was set apart for the third time as a member of the First Presidency on January 14, 2018. Before serving as Second Counselor to President Russell M. Nelson, he served as First Counselor to President Thomas S. Monson and Second Counselor to President Gordon B. Hinckley.
In 2015, President Eyring met Pope Francis during an international religious summit on the family held in Vatican City. It was the first time that a pope and a top LDS general authority ever met.
President Eyring has dedicated several temples, including the San Salvador El Salvador, Gilbert Arizona, Payson Utah, Indianapolis Indiana, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania temples, as well as re-dedicating the Buenos Aires, Argentina and Mexico City Mexico temples.
