Spencer W. Kimball

Spencer Woolley Kimball (born March 28, 1895 in Salt Lake City , Utah , † November 5, 1985 in Salt Lake City, Utah) was the 12th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints .

Life

Family and career

Spencer W. Kimball was the son of Andrew Kimball and Olive Woolley Kimball. His father was called to serve as stake president of the Thatcher , Arizona Church , so the family moved there in 1898. His mother died in 1906. In 1907 his father married Josephine Cluff. In 1914, Spencer Kimball was called to the Swiss-German mission. Because of the outbreak of World War I, his calling was changed, he served instead in the Central States Mission in the USA until 1916. On November 19, 1917, he married Camilla Eyring (sister of the respected chemist and metallurgist Henry Eyring ). After studying briefly at the University of Arizona, he entered the banking business as a clerk in 1918.

In 1924, Spencer Kimball's father died. In 1927 Spencer became President and Head of Kimball-Greenhalgh Realty and Insurance Company. His professional career ended in 1943 after being called and ordained an Apostle by President Heber J. Grant .

In the following years he repeatedly suffered from serious illnesses, including heart disease in 1948, from which he recovered. In 1957 he had one and a half vocal cords removed for laryngeal cancer, and in 1972 he underwent heart surgery.

Presidency

Following the death of Harold B. Lee , Spencer W. Kimball was ordained President of the Church on December 30, 1973.

The most prominent event of his tenure was the departure from the “whites only” rule and the admission of all men, regardless of race, to the priesthood on June 8, 1978. During his tenure, 21 temples were consecrated. He personally consecrated the first four of them in Washington , São Paulo (Brazil), Tokyo (Japan) and Seattle.

In 1976 Kimball presided over an area conference in the Dortmund Westfalenhalle . In 1977 he toured Poland and the GDR, making him the first President of the Church to visit countries behind the Iron Curtain .

In response to the increasing internationalization and growth of the Church, he began the formation of the Quorum of the Seventy in 1975 and established area presidencies in 1984 that preside over defined geographic areas with their stakes . In 1980 he changed the order of worship. Instead of Sunday school on Sunday morning and a sacrament meeting in the afternoon as well as additional lessons during the week, the services and lessons were shortened to three hours in a block on Sunday, mostly in the mornings.

In 1976, two revelations were added to the canonical scriptures, first as part of the Precious Pearl , and later as sections 137 and 138 of the Doctrine and Covenants . A new edition of the Triple Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price in one volume, with revised and expanded keywords, notes, and cross-references, was published in 1981 after the Church published its own annotated edition of the Kings James Translation of the Bible in 1979. A new translation of the triple combination into German by Immo Luschin also took place under his presidency and was published in 1981.

After a long illness, Spencer W. Kimball died on November 5, 1985 in Salt Lake City.

Remarks

1. ↑ See Official Declaration 2 in the Doctrine and Covenants
2. ↑ Most of the information is taken from the teachings of Presidents of the Church in Spencer W. Kimball (2006), pp. Xiii through xvii

predecessor	Office	successor
Harold B. Lee	President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints 1973 - 1985	Ezra Taft Benson

Web links

Commons : Spencer W. Kimball  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files