Mormon leader remembered as caring, approachable
SALT LAKE CITY — For more than 50 years, Thomas S. Monson served in top leadership councils for the Mormon church — making him a well-known face and personality to multiple generations of Mormons.
A church bishop at the age of 22, the Salt Lake City native became the youngest church apostle in a half century when he was named to the post in 1963 at the age of 36. He served as a counselor for three church presidents before assuming the role of the top leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in February 2008.
Monson, 90, died Jan. 2 at his home in Salt Lake City, church spokesman Eric Hawkins said.
As president of the nearly 16 million member faith, Monson was considered a prophet who led the church through revelation from God in collaboration with two top counselors and members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
The next president was not immediately named, but the job is expected to go to the next longesttenured member of the church’s governing Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Russell M. Nelson, per church protocol.
Monson’s presidency was marked by his noticeably low profile during a time of intense publicity for the church, including the 2008 and 2012 campaigns of Mormon Mitt Romney for president. Monson’s most public acts were appearances at church conferences and devotionals, as well as dedications of church temples.
Monson also will be remembered for his emphasis on humanitarian work; leading the faith’s involvement in the passage of gay marriage ban in California in 2008; continuing the church’s push to be more transparent about its past; and lowering the minimum age for missionaries.
Mormons considered Monson a warm, caring, endearing and approachable leader, said Patrick Mason, associate professor of religion at Claremont Graduate University in California. He was known for dropping everything to make hospital visits to people in need. His speeches at the faith’s twice-yearly conferences often focused on parables of human struggles resolved through faith.
He put an emphasis on the humanitarian ethic of Mormons, evidenced by his expansion of the church’s disaster relief programs around the world, said Armand Mauss, a retired professor of sociology and religious studies at Washington State University.
Monson often credited his mother, Gladys Condie Monson, for fostering his compassion. He said that during his childhood in the Depression of the 1930s, their house in Salt Lake City was known to hobos riding the railroads as a place to get a meal and a kind word.
“President Monson always seemed more interested in what we do with our religion rather than in what we believe,” Mauss said.
Growth continued under Monson
A World War II veteran, Monson served in the Navy and spent a year overseas before returning to get a business degree at the University of Utah and a master’s degree in business administration from the church-owned Brigham Young University.
Before being tabbed to join the faith’s church’s governing Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Monson worked for the church’s secular businesses, primarily in advertising, printing and publishing, including the Deseret Morning News.
Monson married Frances Beverly Johnson in 1948. The couple had three children, eight grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren. Frances died in 2013 at the age of 85.
One of the most memorable moments of Monson’s tenure came in October 2012, when he announced at church conference that the minimum age to depart on missions was being lowered to 19 from 21 for women; and to 18 from 19 for men.
The change triggered a historic influx of missionaries, and proved a milestone change for women by allowing many more to serve.
Taking the lead from the previous president, Gordon B. Hinckley, Monson also continued the church’s push toward being more open about some of the most sensitive aspect of the faith’s history and doctrine.
A renovated church history museum reopened in 2015 with an exhibit acknowledging the faith’s early polygamous practices, a year after the church published an essay that for the first time chronicled founder Joseph Smith’s plural wives.
The growth and globalization of the church continued under Monson, with membership swelling to nearly 15.9 million, with more than half outside the United States.
The Mormon church was founded in 1830 in upstate New York by Joseph Smith, who claimed he was visited by God and Jesus while praying in a grove of trees and was called to found the church. Members are known as Mormons because of the keystone scripture, the Book of Mormon.