Russell M. Nelson
Russell M. Nelson is a prominent leader within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known for his significant contributions both as a medical professional and a religious figure. Born on September 9, 1924, in Salt Lake City, Utah, he pursued a successful career as a world-renowned heart surgeon before transitioning to religious leadership. In 1984, Nelson became a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and in January 2018, he was appointed as the president of the Church, making him the seventeenth person to hold this position.
Throughout his tenure, Nelson has implemented numerous reforms aimed at modernizing church practices, enhancing inclusivity, and emphasizing the importance of Jesus Christ in the church's identity. He has traveled extensively, dedicating multiple temples and promoting the church's message worldwide. Notably, he has also addressed contemporary issues such as race relations and public health during the COVID-19 pandemic, advocating for vaccinations and mask-wearing.
Nelson's personal life includes a marriage to Dantzel White, with whom he had ten children, and later to Wendy L. Watson. He has a passion for languages, being fluent in several, including Mandarin. As he approaches his one hundredth birthday, his leadership continues to influence the church and its followers globally.
Russell M. Nelson
Religious figure
- Born: September 9, 1924
- Place of Birth: Salt Lake City, Utah
Significance: A world-renowned heart surgeon, Russell M. Nelson gave up his medical career when he joined the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1984. In 2018, he became the church’s seventeenth president and its prophet.
Background
Russell M. Nelson was born on September 9, 1924, in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Edna Anderson Nelson and Marion C. Nelson. He grew up in Salt Lake City during the Great Depression and went to work as an errand boy at his father’s advertising agency when he was ten. His mother was a guest soloist with the Tabernacle Choir, a chorus originally called the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, that has performed worldwide since its start in the 1870s.
During his childhood, Nelson played the piano and sang in choirs and school musicals. He developed an interest in chemistry and biology and the desire to help people during high school. At fifteen, he informed his parents he wanted to become a physician rather than join his father’s business. A year later, he was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
During his senior year of high school, Nelson took classes at Latter-day Saints Business College (now Ensign College). He graduated in 1941 from Salt Lake City’s East High—where he had been valedictorian—and then earned a bachelor’s degree in 1945 and a medical degree in 1947, both from the University of Utah.
Medical Career
During the Korean War (1950-1953), Nelson served two years as an army medical officer in Korea, Japan, and at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC. He then completed surgical residencies at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and the University of Minnesota. At the latter, he simultaneously entered a research-based doctoral program and received a Ph.D. in 1954. While doing his doctoral work in Minnesota, he was a member of the research team that developed the heart-lung machine, a device that enabled the world’s first open-heart surgery in 1951.
In 1955 Nelson joined the University of Utah School of Medicine as an assistant professor and the director of its Thoracic Surgery Residency Program. He built his own heart-lung machine and, in 1955, performed the first open-heart surgery in Utah.
Nelson later opened his own medical practice and became chairman of the Division of Thoracic Surgery at Latter-day Saints Hospital in Salt Lake City. He trained heart surgeons in China, India, the Soviet Union, and South America, and in 1972 performed open-heart surgery on Spencer W. Kimball, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Religious Work
Nelson has been a leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since the 1960s. From 1964 to 1971, he served as a stake president—a position in which he oversaw the church’s programs for a designated region. In June 1971, he became the general Sunday School president, a position he held through 1979 when he became a regional representative for the Kearns region and Brigham Young University.
On April 7, 1984, Nelson became a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the church’s second-highest governing body. He retired from his medical career in order to focus exclusively on his apostolic responsibilities, which involved bringing the church’s message to others. For the next three decades, Nelson traveled extensively to meet with church leaders and members and government officials in more than one hundred countries.
From 2007 to 2015, Nelson also served as a member of the Church Board of Trustees and Education. On July 15, 2015, he was named the president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, succeeding Boyd K. Packer. He served in this capacity until January 14, 2018, when he was named the president of the Church following the death of Thomas S. Monson. As president, he became a prophet, or someone who reveals God’s will and teachings.
During his first two years as president, Nelson engaged in several international ministry tours and visited more than thirty countries in Southeast Asia, the Pacific, Central and South America, and several US territories. He dedicated eight temples and announced his intent to dedicate at least twenty-seven more. He also announced several revelations that modified church teachings and practices significantly; for example, he lessened the amount of in-church Sunday worship time, adopted medical exclusions for service missions and other missionary work, and reorganized priesthood quorums and youth programs. He also declared that church members should no longer use the terms “Mormon” or “LDS” to describe the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, desiring to emphasize the importance of Jesus Christ by using the church’s full name only. In April 2020, Nelson issued a new proclamation on church canon and history that reaffirmed prophet Joseph Smith restored the church Jesus originally set out to form after it fell it apostasy. This proclamation, one of only six in the church's history, was made on the 200th anniversary of Smith’s First Vision.
Impact
As an apostle, Nelson implored church members to hold fast to the church’s core teachings and resist anything that would dilute their faith. This was evident in a 2016 sermon in which he defended a new policy that designated persons in a same-sex marriage as apostates, or rejecters of the faith, and compared them to “servants of Satan.” The children of apostates could not be baptized or participate in other religious rites until they reached eighteen.
As a prophet, however, Nelson abolished the labeling of same-sex marriage partners as apostates and revised the policy to allow children of same-sex marriages to be baptized. He also gave women a greater role in church activities by allowing them to serve as witnesses for baptisms. His work to build temples in other countries and his extensive travel—he logged 55,000 air miles in his first year as president alone—has highlighted his goal to expand the church’s international reach. Nelson has made other reforms as well. He has openly fought to make the church a more tolerant body especially in terms of race relations. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Nelson openly supported the wearing of masks and receiving vaccines, topics that caused some backlash from more conservative members of the church. In 2022, he became both the oldest president and oldest apostle in the church's history; in 2024, the church commemorated his one hundredth birthday with a livestream that was broadcast internationally.
Personal Life
Nelson and Dantzel White married in 1945 and had nine daughters and one son before Dantzel’s 2005 death. In 2006, Nelson married Wendy L. Watson. Nelson is fluent in many languages, including Mandarin.
Bibliography
Avant, Gerry. “LDS Apostle Elder Russell M. Nelson Turns 90.” The Church News, 9 Sept. 2014, www.thechurchnews.com/archives/2014-09-09/lds-apostle-elder-russell-m-nelson-turns-90-38334. Accessed 12 Oct. 2024.
Flake, Lawrence R. Prophets and Apostles of the Last Dispensation. Brigham Young University, 2001. BYU Religious Studies Center, rsc.byu.edu/prophets-apostles-last-dispensation/russell-marion-nelson. Accessed 12 Oct. 2024.
Fletcher, Peggy. “After 5 Years Under Russell Nelson, is the LDS Church Healthier Today Than When He Took Charge?” The Salt Lake Tribune, 17 Jan. 2023, www.sltrib.com/religion/2023/01/15/after-5-years-look-russell/. Accessed 12 Oct. 2024.
Graham, Ruth. "The Leader of the Mormon Church Turns 100." New York Times, 9 Sept. 2024, www.nytimes.com/2024/09/09/us/russell-nelson-mormon-church-100.html. Accessed 12 Oct. 2024.
Johnson, Valerie, and Grace Carter. “President Nelson Became the Prophet 2 Years Ago. What Has Happened Since Then?” The Church News, 13 Jan. 2020, www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2020-01-13/nelson-2-years-president-church-latter-day-saints-videos-ministry-temples-general-conference-policy-171700. Accessed 12 Oct. 2024.
Pond, Matt. “Meet Our New Prophet, President Russell M. Nelson.” BYU-Idaho Scroll, 20 Jan. 2018, www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/friend/2018/03/meet-our-new-prophet?lang=eng. Accessed 12 Oct. 2024.
"President Russell M. Nelson 100th Birthday Commemoration." Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 9 Sept. 2024, newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/event/president-russell-m-nelson-100th-birthday-commemoration. Accessed 12 Oct. 2024.
Stack, Peggy Fletcher, et al. “LDS Leader Russell Nelson Issues Proclamation, Names Temples in Middle East, Mainland China.” The Salt Lake Tribune, 5 Apr. 2020, www.sltrib.com/religion/2020/04/05/lds-leader-russell-nelson/. Accessed 12 Oct. 2024.
Walch, Tad. “Keeping Up with President Russell M. Nelson: ‘It’s Going to Be a Busy Year.’” Deseret News, 2 Apr. 2019, deseret.com/2019/4/2/20669981/keeping-up-with-president-russell-m-nelson-it-s-going-to-be-a-busy-year. Accessed 12 Oct. 2024.