Thomas Monson, President of the Mormon Church, Dies at 90
Thomas S. Monson, who as president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 2008 enlarged the ranks of female missionaries, but rebuffed demands to ordain women as priests and refused to alter church opposition to same-sex marriage, died on Tuesday at his home in Salt Lake City. He was 90.
His death was announced on the church’s website.
Facing vociferous demands to recognize same-sex marriage, and weathering demonstrations at church headquarters by Mormon women pleading for the right to be ordained as priests, Mr. Monson did not bend. Teachings holding homosexuality to be immoral, bans on sexual intercourse outside male-female marriages, and an all-male priesthood would remain unaltered.
Mr. Monson displayed a new openness to scholars of Mormonism, however, allowing them remarkable access to church records. But as rising numbers of church members and critics joined the internet’s free-for-all culture of debate and exposé, his church was confronted with troubling inconsistencies in Mormon history and Scripture. The church even found itself at odds with an old ally, the Boy Scouts of America, which admitted gay members and gay adults as scout leaders.
On Mr. Monson’s watch, the church enlarged its global missionary force to 69,200 from 52,000 and, in what students of church affairs called a major achievement, doubled the number of young women in its missionary ranks, to 18,400, by lowering the minimum age for service, starting in 2012, to 18 from 19 for men and to 19 from 21 for women.
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“That sent shock waves through the church,” Richard Lyman Bushman, a Mormon scholar and Columbia University historian, told The New York Times for this obituary. At 21, he said, many Mormon women were married and not free for missionary work, while lowering the age to 19 let them become missionaries soon after high school.
“It changed the whole view of what women would do: that they would go just like the men,” Professor Bushman said. “There was a great surge of readiness. It changed their mentality.”
Two years of missionary work abroad or in the United States are a rite of passage and a duty for able Mormon men, a preparation for service in a church operated by its male laity. Women’s missionary service is 18 months and optional. The surge of female volunteers after the age limits were lowered suggested that many had long been eager to go.
“Sisters always had that little thought of serving a mission, but by the time 21 comes, you’re married or onto something else,” Shoushig Tenguerian, a student at Southern Virginia University, a private Mormon college, told The Times in 2012. “This age change changes everything.”
Despite persistent demands for change on another feminist issue, Mr. Monson — who as president was considered by adherents to be God’s “prophet, seer and revelator” — did not open the door to women in the priesthood, which, like the Mormon hierarchy, has been male since the church was founded in the early 19th century. Critics say the ban on female priests has no explicit basis in church Scripture, but efforts to overturn it were sometimes dealt with harshly.
Some Mormons faced sanctions for questioning church positions on women’s roles. Kate Kelly, a feminist Mormon lawyer, was excommunicated on a charge of apostasy in 2014 after founding the organization Ordain Women.
As the 16th president of the Latter-day Saints, succeeding Gordon B. Hinckley, Mr. Monson faced another test when church members, increasingly scouring online sources, found apparent contradictions between historical records and church teachings.
Although the church officially abandoned plural marriages in 1890, it was a defiantly polygamous theocracy in the mid-19th century. In a 2014 teaching, “Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo,” the church said that Joseph Smith, the church founder, had married as many as 40 women, some of them already married. It said that Smith was a reluctant polygamist, agreeing to multiple marriages only after an angel threatened him with a sword.
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Some critics said that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had previously contended that Smith had been happily married to only one woman, and that the new teaching — in the words of the website OnceDelivered.net, which identified itself as an expression of the Baptist faith — had used Scripture to “address the inconvenient truth of Smith’s polygamy.”
In recent years, the church allowed historians access to church documents and records to a remarkable degree. Some published their findings online and in printed volumes, although they were usually vetted by church leaders. In allowing such access, students of church policy said, Mr. Monson presided over an unprecedented era of openness about church history, while reassuring the faithful that theirs was the one true, unerring faith.
The church’s historic partnership with the Boy Scouts of America, which dated from 1913 and prepared Mormon boys for missionary work and adulthood as lay priests, was threatened late in Mr. Monson’s tenure. For a century, nearly all Mormon boys became scouts, and the church became scouting’s largest sponsor. By 2011, Mormon-sponsored packs and troops represented one-third of the nation’s 421,000 scouts.
But the church and the Boy Scouts found themselves at loggerheads in 2014, when scouting admitted gays for the first time, and a year later, when it accepted gay adults as scout leaders. Mr. Monson said nothing publicly, and the church did not withdraw its support for scouting, as a church lawyer had threatened to do in a 2000 Supreme Court hearing on exclusionary scouting practices. While calling homosexuality immoral, church policy said “nonpracticing” gays could have the same rights and privileges as other church members.
It was clear, however, that a rift over sexual orientation had been laid bare. For years, the church treaded lightly on the subject. In 2009, it supported a Salt Lake City ordinance banning discrimination against gays in jobs and housing.
But in 2015, Mr. Monson responded to the Supreme Court’s decision legalizing same-sex marriage with a letter read in Mormon churches saying that sexual relations outside heterosexual marriage were “contrary to the laws of God.” And, further drawing the line, the church declared same-sex couples to be apostates and restricted their children from baptisms and other rites.
“Restrictions on the children of gay parents who are faithful church members struck some Mormons as severe,” Professor Bushman said. “That was a tough one. It’s not just an abstraction — it affects people’s lives. It bothered a lot of Mormons.”
After the declaration, more than 1,000 people, many of them with deep ties to Mormonism, staged a rare public protest against the restrictions outside the church’s spired temple in Salt Lake City, and demanded that their names be stricken from the membership rolls. A church spokesman said later that 1,500 resignations had been received.
Mr. Monson posted a message for the wavering faithful on Twitter: “I plead with you to avoid anything that will deprive you of your happiness here in mortality and eternal life in the world to come.”
Thomas Spencer Monson was born in Salt Lake City on Aug. 21, 1927, the second of six children of George Spencer Monson and the former Gladys Condie. He grew up in a tight-knit extended Mormon family that lived in proximity and that often worked, vacationed and worshiped together. At 12, he began working in a printing business his father managed.
He graduated from West High School in Salt Lake City in 1944. After starting at the University of Utah, he joined the Naval Reserve in 1945. World War II ended months later, and after stateside training, his tour of duty ended in 1946. He re-entered the University of Utah, graduating in 1948 with honors and a bachelor’s degree in marketing, and earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Brigham Young University in 1974.
In 1948, he married Frances Beverly Johnson. She died in 2013. Survivors include their three children, Thomas and Clark Monson and Ann Dibb; eight grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren.
As is common in Mormonism, Mr. Monson’s life straddled the worlds of business and religion. A printer by trade, he was an advertising executive with The Deseret News in the 1940s, and rose in the 1960s to general manager of the Deseret News Press, a church-affiliated printing firm. He was a longtime director and board chairman of the Deseret News Publishing Company.
He rose steadily in the church, too. In the 1950s, he was the bishop of a ward, akin to a parish, of 1,000 Mormons, including 85 widows whom he visited regularly and 23 men serving in the Korean War to whom he wrote personal letters weekly. From 1959 to 1962, he was president of the church’s Canada mission, covering Ontario and Quebec.
In 1963 he became a member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles, the church’s second-highest governing body. The highest authority is the church president, followed by two counselors, positions based on seniority, which makes transitions free of politics but puts a mantle of age at the top.
Awaiting his turn for the presidency, he embraced humanitarian causes with Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups supporting homeless shelters, food banks, nursing homes and disaster relief efforts in the United States and abroad.
“We don’t ever meet on doctrinal matters,” he said. “It’s strictly on the social side.”
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The Reader Center is one way we in the newsroom are trying to connect with you, by highlighting your perspectives and experiences and offering insight into how we work.
Readers reacted strongly to our obituary for Thomas S. Monson, who served as prophet and head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for nearly a decade. In hundreds of messages to The New York Times and dozens of comments on the obituary, readers, including many Mormons, wrote that the obituary focused too narrowly on the politics and controversies of the Mormon Church and overlooked Mr. Monson’s contributions to the community.
Here are some of their comments, which have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
As a gay Mormon I can state that while President Monson’s policies were controversial to some, they do not reflect his life teachings, which focused on service and selfless love. That The Times only focused on the politics and not the teachings that defined him is disgusting. — Zachary, in a message to the Reader CenterHugo Chávez? Hugh Hefner? They had glamorous obituaries compared to this man, who dedicated his life to serving and helping others. — Jon Wilson, in a letter to the editorDecisions he made (not having women ordained to the priesthood or accepting gay marriage) were included without any fair explanation of his beliefs/Mormon beliefs regarding the subjects and without any context. I would accept it as normal that Mormon beliefs or church standards might be viewed as controversial and might be brought up in this obituary, but it was done without any taste. — Chantelle Wood, in an email to the newsroom
We drew questions from readers’ feedback, and William McDonald, our obituaries editor, responded to them.
Many readers have pointed out that much of the obituary focused largely on the Mormon Church’s controversial and politically divisive issues. They say Mr. Monson’s life included strong community and humanitarian work as the leader of a large religious following and wish the obit had reflected more of that. How do you respond to those readers?
I think the obituary was a faithful accounting of the more prominent issues that Mr. Monson encountered and dealt with publicly during his tenure. Some of these matters — the role of women in the church, the church’s policy toward homosexuality and same-sex marriage, and more — were widely publicized and discussed, and it’s our obligation as journalists, whether in an obituary or elsewhere, to fully air these issues from both sides. I think we did that, accurately portraying Mr. Monson’s positions as leader of the church, and those of the faithful and others who questioned church policies.
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I think we also gave due credit to Mr. Monson’s achievements: his openness to new work by scholars of the church, “allowing them,” as we said, “remarkable access to church records”; his expansion of the church’s global missionary force and his doubling the number of young women in the missionary ranks; and his embracing humanitarian causes, often in collaboration with Jewish, Muslim and other Christian groups.
But I also acknowledge that many of those who found the obituary wanting feel we did not provide a more rounded view of Mr. Monson — perhaps his more human side. I’ll concede that what we portrayed was the public man, not the private one, or the one known to his most ardent admirers.
In 20/20 hindsight, we might have paid more attention to the high regard with which he was held within the church. I think by his very position in the church, all that was implied. But perhaps we should have stated it more plainly.
Still, on balance, I think the obituary makes clear that he was a man of strong faith and convictions, who stood by them even in the face of detractors, while finding ways to move the church forward.
In general, when publishing an obituary, how do you decide which points from a person’s life to highlight?
The general rule of thumb is that if someone “made news” of some sort during his or her lifetime, then his or her death is probably newsworthy, too. So we have to look at the points that defined an individual in the public mind — whatever made that person known to the wider public: achieving a scientific breakthrough, attaining political power, winning an Oscar, hitting a home run to win a World Series.
I would also add that when dealing with people in positions of power — whether as the head of a country, a corporation or a church — controversy comes with the territory, and to a large extent controversy, points of friction of some sort, is what makes news. A quiet day in the West Wing is not news; a president’s clash with the Senate majority leader is. So an obituary — which in many respects retells the news of yesteryear — is going to recall controversies, as it should.
We don’t stop there, of course; we also try to trace the arc of a life, from birth — in part to suggest what may have driven a person to succeed, to achieve, to find fame (or, in the case of the infamous, to upset the social order).
And we try to give a flavor of the man or woman — something of the personality and personal impact. But we’re careful not to perform the role of eulogist, simply singing someone’s praises. We don’t write tributes. We strive for warts-and-all biography, in short form.
Many Mormon readers did not think the obituary for Mr. Monson reflected the positive feelings that much of the Mormon community had for him. When writing an obit for a religious leader, is there an obligation to pay tribute in any way?
We’re not in the business of paying tribute. We’re journalists first and foremost. I think in tracing the life of a religious leader, it would almost go without saying that he or she had won the respect and admiration of those who put them in positions to lead. But we may well quote someone explaining that respect or admiration, if it would offer something substantive to readers’ understanding of an individual. In other words, we’re not going to quote someone saying simply, “Mr. Smith was a wonderful person.” But we will quote someone saying why he was.
In Mr. Monson’s obit, for example, we reached out to a scholar of the church, Richard Lyman Bushman, to shed light on President Monson’s move to lower the age under which women could be eligible for missionary work. We wrote: “It changed the whole view of what women would do: that they would go just like the men,” Professor Bushman said. “There was a great surge of readiness. It changed their mentality.”
The Times has a large, far-reaching and varied readership. When writing obituaries like this one, for a person whom our general audience may not be familiar with but who is well known to a particular group of people, how does the Obits desk think about our different audiences?
We do think about particular audiences. We understand that those audiences will be the ones that scrutinize our work most closely. If we make a factual error in an obit about a physicist, say, we’ll probably hear about it from colleagues in the field (and then correct the error).
We also understand that these audiences will be more sensitive than most to how we portray someone known to them. Some may have an agenda of some kind, wanting us to portray someone as they want that person to be remembered, perhaps in a light that best serves their interests.
We can’t bend to that, of course. We have to let the facts of the life paint the picture. In my experience, when we do that fairly and accurately, there are few complaints.
With obituaries for important religious figures, do we ask people with deep knowledge of the religion to review the pieces before publication? Do you have a sense of how many active members of the Mormon community were interviewed for this obit?
When writing the Monson obituary, we reached out to church representatives and scholars of the church and the Times’s chief religion correspondent.
Why do we refer to President Monson as “Mr.” in the obit rather than by his title in the Mormon Church, president? Some readers took offense to this.
No disrespect was intended. We might have referred to him as “President Monson” at least once, in keeping with our stylebook, but that book also says, “Mr. and Dr. are also appropriate.”
In any case, “Mr.” is a common honorific in our pages for ministers (we’re obliged to say “Mr. Jones” on second reference, not “Reverend Jones”) and even presidents of the United States (you’ll find plenty of “Mr. Trump”s in our pages).
Incidentally, I noticed that the Deseret News in Utah used “President” on each reference to Mr. Monson, but that The Salt Lake Tribune — like almost every other American publication — dispensed with any honorific altogether. To my ear, “Mr. Monson” sounds far more respectful than just “Monson.”
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Thomas Spencer Monson (August 21, 1927 – January 2, 2018) was an American religious leader, author, and the 16th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). As president, he was considered by adherents of the religion to be a "prophet, seer, and revelator." Monson's early career was as a manager at the Deseret News, a Utah newspaper owned by the LDS Church. He spent most of his life engaged in various church leadership positions and public service.
Monson was ordained an LDS apostle at age 36, served in the First Presidency under three church presidents and was the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles from March 12, 1995, until he became President of the Church on February 3, 2008.[1] He succeeded Gordon B. Hinckley as church president.[2][3]
Monson received four honorary doctorate degrees, as well as the Boy Scouts of America's Silver Buffalo and the World Organization of the Scout Movement's Bronze Wolf—both awards are the highest awards in each organization. He was a member of the National Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America, the organization's governing body.[4]
Monson was chairman of the Boards of Trustees/Education of the Church Educational System, and Ronald Reagan appointed him to the U.S. President's Task Force for Private Sector Initiatives. He married Frances Beverly Monson (née Johnson) in the Salt Lake Temple in 1948, and together they raised their three children. Frances died on May 17, 2013.[5][6]
Biography
Early life
Monson was born on August 21, 1927 in Salt Lake City, Utah, the son of George Spencer Monson (1901–1979)[7] and Gladys Condie Monson (1902–1973).[8] His Swedish paternal grandfather, Nels Monson, was born in Torhamn before coming to Utah at the age of 16.[9] The second of six children, Monson grew up in a "tight-knit" family, with many of his mother's relatives living on the same street and the extended family frequently vacationing together.[10] The family's neighborhood included several residents of Mexican descent, an environment in which Monson said he developed a love for the Mexican people and culture.[11] Monson often spent weekends with relatives on their farms in Granger (now part of West Valley City), and as a teenager, he worked at a printing business his father managed.[10]
From 1940 to 1944, Monson attended West High School in Salt Lake City. In the fall of 1944, he enrolled at the University of Utah. Around this time he met his future wife, Frances, whose family came from a higher social class on the east side of the city. Her father, Franz Johnson, saw an immediate connection because Monson's great uncle, Elias Monson, had baptizedhim into the LDS Church in Sweden.[10]
Early career
In 1945, Monson joined the United States Naval Reserve and anticipated participating in World War II in the Pacific theater.[1] He was sent to San Diego, California, for training, but was not stationed overseas before the end of the war. His tour of duty lasted six months beyond the end of the war, then he returned to the University of Utah. Monson graduated cum laude in 1948 with a bachelor's degree in business management.[12] Monson did not serve a mission as a youth. At age 21, on October 7, 1948, he married Frances Beverly Johnson in the Salt Lake Temple.[13] The couple eventually had three children: Thomas Lee, Ann Frances, and Clark Spencer.
After college he rejoined the Naval Reserve with the aim of becoming an officer. Shortly after receiving his commission acceptance letter, his local bishop asked him to serve as a counselor in the bishopric.[13] Time conflicts with bishopric meetings would have made Navy service impossible. After discussion with church apostle Harold B. Lee (his former stake president), Monson declined the commission and applied for a discharge. The Navy granted his discharge in the last group processed before the Korean War.[14] Lee set him apart six months later as a bishop—mentioning in the blessing that he likely would not have been called if he had accepted the commission.[15][14]
Monson briefly taught at the University of Utah,[16][17] then began a career in publishing. His first job was with the Deseret News, where he became an advertising executive. He joined the advertising operations at the Newspaper Agency Corporation at its formation in 1952. One year later, Monson transferred to the Deseret News Press, beginning as sales manager and eventually becoming general manager.[18] While at Deseret News Press, Monson worked to publish LeGrand Richards's A Marvelous Work And A Wonder. He also worked with Gordon B. Hinckley, the LDS Church's representative on publications, with whom he would later serve in the First Presidency.
Local church leadership
On May 7, 1950, Monson became an LDS bishop at age 22, serving for five years in two wards. He had previously served as ward clerk, ward Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association superintendent.[18] At the time, Monson's Salt Lake City ward contained over 1,000 people, including 85 widows whom he visited regularly, and he continued visiting these widows after completing his service as bishop.[19] He brought them gifts during the Christmas season, including poultry he had raised himself.[20] Monson eventually spoke at the funerals of each of these women.[2][21] Also during his time as bishop, 23 men from his ward served in the Korean War. He wrote weekly personal letters to each serviceman.[22] During his service as bishop of the 6th-7th Ward, sacrament meeting attendance in the ward quadrupled.[23]
In June 1955, at age 27, Monson became a counselor to Percy K. Fetzer in the presidency of the Salt Lake Temple View Stake.[24] He was replaced as bishop of the 6th-7th ward the following month. In the stake presidency, Monson oversaw the stake's Primary, Sunday School, MIA, athletics and budget, until he was moved to Holladay, Utah, in June 1957.[25] In Holladay, Monson was assigned to a ward building committee, to coordinate ward members' volunteer service to build a meetinghouse.[26]
Mission president in Canada
In 1959, at age 31, Monson became president of the church's Canadian Mission (consisting of Ontario and Quebec), and served until 1962. Monson's third child, Clark, was born during his mission presidency.[27]
As there were no local stakes in Canada at the time, Monson was responsible for both the missionaries and all LDS Church operations in the area. When he became mission president, he oversaw 130 missionaries and 55 church branches divided into 9 districts.[28] During his tenure, the number of missionaries peaked at 180.[29] Historically, most districts and branches in the area had been presided over by full-time missionaries, but Monson placed local members as presidents of branches and districts soon after arriving.[30]
Monson initiated French-speaking proselytizing efforts in Quebec.[31] He directed increased missionary work to immigrants from the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Italy, Soviet Union and Hungary.[32] Jacob de Jager, a future LDS general authority, was among the immigrant converts. Monson encouraged members to remain in eastern Canada, instead of migrating to Utah or Alberta as many members had done before, to help build the church's presence.[33] To help encourage members to stay in Canada, increase the perception of permanence, and better reach potential converts, he started a major construction program for new meetinghouses. Until then, most branches had used rented halls.[34]
Efforts made during Monson's service came to fruition when a stake was organized in Toronto on August 14, 1960. However, most of the mission's area remained in districts. A more complete presence in Ontario would not come until the dedication of the Toronto Ontario Temple in 1990, which Monson attended as a member of the First Presidency.[35]
Return to Utah
Immediately after returning from Canada, Monson was called to the high council of the Valley View Stake in Holladay. Two months later he was made area supervisor over nine stake missions (Winder, Wilford, Monument Park, Monument Park West, Hillside, Highland, Parleys, Sugarhouse, and Wasatch). Eight of these stakes were in Salt Lake City or its east-side suburbs, with the Wasatch Stake based in Heber City.[36] He also joined the church's Priesthood Genealogy Committee, and later the Priesthood Home Teaching Committee.[18]
Monson resumed his work with the Deseret News as assistant general manager of the Deseret News Press, mainly doing non-newspaper printing. A month later he was made the general manager of the Deseret News Press. At the time, it was the largest printing plant in the United States west of the Mississippi River.[37] Monson remained in this position until 1963, when he was called as apostle.
Apostleship
Monson was sustained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles at general conference on October 4, 1963. He was the youngest man called to the Quorum of the twelve in 53 years, 17 years younger than the next youngest member, Gordon B. Hinckley.[38] He was ordained and set apart on October 10, 1963, by Joseph Fielding Smith.[39]
From 1965 to 1968, Monson oversaw church operations in the South Pacific and Australia.[40] During this time he organized the first LDS stake in Tonga.[41]
With his business background, he helped oversee many church operations, including KSL Newsradio and Bonneville International. He was chairman of the Scripture Publication Committee in the 1970s that oversaw publication of the LDS Church edition of the King James Bible, and revised editions of church scriptures containing footnotes and guides. He also oversaw the church's Printing Advisory, Missionary Executive,[42] and General Welfare committees. While an apostle, he continued his education and received a master of business administration degree from Brigham Young University in 1974.[18]
Monson later oversaw church operations in Eastern Europe and helped the church gain access in the Soviet bloc. In 1982, he organized the first stake in East Germany and was instrumental in obtaining permission for the LDS Church to build a temple in Freiberg, East Germany, which was completed in 1985.[43]
Other organizations
In the mid-1950s Monson was the secretary of the Utah State Roller Club, a group of pigeon breeders.[44] Monson was a member of the National Executive Board of Boy Scouts of America starting in 1969. From 1969 to 1988 Monson was on the Mountain Bell Board of Advisors. From 1971 to 1977, he served on the Utah State Board of Higher Education and the Utah State Board of Regents. He was a member of the board of directors of Commercial Security Bank, chairing the bank's audit committee for 20 years.[when?] In 1993, when the bank was purchased by Key Bank, Monson joined the Board of Directors of Key Bank. In 1981, Ronald Reagan appointed him to the Task Force on Private Sector Initiatives,[45] serving until its completion in December 1982.[46]
Monson resigned most of his positions in 1996 when church leadership determined all the general authorities should leave all business boards of directors, excepting the Deseret Management Corporation.[47] From 1965 until 1996 Monson was a member of the Deseret News Publishing Company board of directors. He became chairman of the board of directors in 1977.[48]
First Presidency
Following the death of church president Spencer W. Kimball in 1985, newly selected church president Ezra Taft Benson asked Hinckley and Monson to serve as his First and Second Counselors. Monson and Hinckley also served as counselors to Benson's successor, Howard W. Hunter.[49] When Hinckley succeeded Hunter in 1995, Monson became his first counselor. He served until Hinckley's death on January 27, 2008. As the second most senior of the apostles behind Hinckley, Monson simultaneously served as President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles; Boyd K. Packer (then third in seniority) served as Acting President during that time.[50]
LDS Church president
Monson became the 16th president of the LDS Church on February 3, 2008, succeeding Hinckley, who had died seven days earlier. Monson selected Henry B. Eyring and Dieter F. Uchtdorf as his first and second counselors, respectively.[2] When Monson was born, there were fewer than 650,000 church members in the world, most of them living in the western United States. At the time he became the church's president, there were over 13 million members worldwide, with the majority living outside the United States and Canada. As of October 2012, 31 temples announced by Monson were either under construction or in planning.[51][52]
Monson and his counselors met with President George W. Bush on May 29, 2008, during Bush's visit to Salt Lake City.[53] He and apostle Dallin H. Oaks met with U.S. President Barack Obamaand Senator Harry Reid in the Oval Office on July 20, 2009, and presented Obama with five volumes of his personal family history records.[54] Monson did not attend a meeting other church leaders, including Eyring and Uchtdorf, had with Obama during his visit to Utah in April 2015. A church spokesperson indicated the absence was in order to save Monson's strength for the church's general conference the following weekend.[55]
On May 23, 2017, the LDS Church said Monson would no longer be attending meetings at the church's offices on a regular basis, because of limitations incident to age.[56][57] With his birthday on August 21, 2017, Monson became the seventh[58] president of the LDS Church to be a nonagenarian.[59] Consistent with the May 2017 statement, the LDS Church announced on September 28, 2017, that Monson would not attend the church's upcoming general conference, due to age-related limitations.[60]
Death
Monson died of natural causes at the age of 90 on January 2, 2018, in Salt Lake City.[35][61] The following day, the LDS Church announced that a public viewing would be held on January 11, in the church's Conference Center, with funeral services scheduled the following day, also in the Conference Center.[62]
Legacy
Temple dedications
As President of the Church, Monson dedicated fourteen (and rededicated four) LDS Church temples: Rexburg Idaho Temple, 2008;[63] Curitiba Brazil Temple, 2008;[64] Panamá City Panamá Temple, 2008;[64] Twin Falls Idaho Temple, 2008;[64] México City México Temple, re-dedication, 2008; Draper Utah Temple, 2009; Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple, 2009;[65] Vancouver British Columbia Temple, 2010;[66] Gila Valley Arizona Temple, 2010;[67] Cebu City Philippines Temple, 2010;[68] Kyiv Ukraine Temple, 2010;[69] Laie Hawaii Temple, rededication, 2010;[70] Kansas City Missouri Temple, 2012;[71]Calgary Alberta Temple, 2012;[72] Boise Idaho Temple, rededication, 2012;[73] Gilbert Arizona Temple, 2014;[74] Ogden Utah Temple, rededication, 2014;[75] and Phoenix Arizona Temple, 2014.[76]
As a counselor in the First Presidency, Monson dedicated seven church temples: Buenos Aires Argentina Temple, 1986; Louisville Kentucky Temple, 2000; Reno Nevada Temple, 2000; Tampico México Temple, 2000; Villahermosa México Temple, 2000; Mérida México Temple, 2000; and Veracruz México Temple, 2000.[18] Monson attended the dedication of many other LDS Church temples as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve and the First Presidency.
Volunteer work
He was president of the Printing Industry of Utah and a former board member of the Printing Industries of America. A Life Scout and Explorer crew member in his youth, Monson served in several adult Scouting leadership capacities: merit badge counselor, member of the Canadian LDS Scouting Committee, chaplain at a Canadian Jamboree, and a member of the General Scouting Committee of the LDS Church. He was also a proponent of the Scouting for Food drive, and he served on the national executive board of the Boy Scouts of America from 1969 to his death. He also represented the Boy Scouts of America as a delegate to the World Conferences in Tokyo, Nairobi, and Copenhagen.[46]
Political involvement
In June 2008, Monson and his counselors in the First Presidency sent a letter to local congregations in California, urging them to support Proposition 8 by donating their time and resources, stating that, "Our best efforts are required to preserve the sacred institution of marriage."[77] In the 2012 Utah voter list he was listed as a registered Republican voter.[78]
Awards and recognition
In 1966, Monson was honored as a distinguished alumnus by the University of Utah.[79] His first honorary degree, an Honorary Doctorate of Laws, was conferred in April 1981 by Brigham Young University.[18] He received a Doctor of Humane Letters from Salt Lake Community College in June 1996, an Honorary Doctor of Business from the University of Utah in May 2007,[1] and an honorary doctorate degree in Humanities from Dixie State College in May 2011.[80]
Monson received the Boy Scouts of America's Silver Beaver award in 1971 and Silver Buffalo award in 1978, the latter being the highest honor of the BSA. In October 1993, during the Priesthood Session of the church's general conference, Monson also received the Bronze Wolf, the highest honor and only award of the World Organization of the Scout Movement,[81] and was recognized for his contributions when a leadership complex at the Summit Bechtel Reserve was named for him.[82] The citation for this award says,[46]
In connection with the LDS Church's centennial celebration as a chartered sponsor, the BSA announced that the Leadership Excellence Complex, located at The Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve in West Virginia, would be renamed the Thomas S. Monson Leadership Excellence Complex and also awarded him Scouting's Honor Medal in 2013 for saving the life of a girl who was drowning when he was 12 years old.[83] The Salt Lake chapter of Rotary International honored Monson at its international convention with its Worldwide Humanitarian Award in 2008.[18]
In Slate.com's "80 Over 80," a list of the most powerful octogenarians, Monson placed first in 2009, and first again in 2010.[84] In 2011, Gallup listed Monson as one of "Americans' 10 Most Admired Men".[85]
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