Mormon Mentality - Thoughts and Asides by Peculiar People » Changing Of The Guard In The Apostles

By Devyn S.

Dec. 5th, 2008 at 3:43 pm

With the recent passing of both President Hinckley and Elder Wirthlin, I did a little digging into recent deaths and ages of the Apostles. In the last 4 years we have lost President Hinckley, Elder Haight, Elder Faust, and Elder Wirthlin (Note added: thanks to Sam, I forgot Elder Maxwell) – all of whom were 87+ years old and some of my favorite Apostles. Of the remaining Apostles, Elder Perry is now the oldest at 86, with Elder Packer at 84, Elder Nelson at 84, President Monson at 81 and Elder Ballard and Elder Scott at 80. Of these longer tenured Apostles (20 years +), Elder Oaks is the youngest at 76. Within the newer Apostles, you have Elder Hales as the oldest at 76, Elder Eyring at 75, Elder Holland at 68, Elder Cook at 68, Elder Uchtdorf at 68, Elder Christofferson at 63 and Elder Bednar at 56. So to summarize, there are 6 that are 80+, 3 at 70+, 4 at 60+ and 1 50+.

I draw a couple of conclusions from this:

1. Elder Bednar is 30 years younger than many of the senior Apostles which is astounding to me that there is such a large age range. Sort of sets him up to be Prophet at some distant future day I suppose. Of course, when President Monson was called at age 32, President Smith and McKay were 50+ years older than him.

2. So we effectively have two very different groups in the 12, those born around the Great Depression, and those born around World War II effectively spanning two generations.

3. Of the current Apostles, only President Monson, Elder Perry and Elder Packer were Apostles for all of my effective life, while all of the others I can remember the conferences when they were called. It makes me sad to say good-bye to those Apostles I remember from my youth.

4. It seems we have had a changing of the guard in many ways over the last few years (5/15 new Apostles) as the Apostles as a group had served from 1994-2004 without anyone dying.

5. I feel like it takes me 5 years of listening to conference talks before I feel like I have a connection to a new Apostle, so I have yet to feel a connection to the newer Apostles.

6. It is strange to think that President Monson is in his 80′s as he was always so “young” to me…

7. The Church marches onward and no one person is irreplacable.

1. John Mansfield

Fri, Dec 5, 2008 @ 4:40pm

President Hinckley had some interesting things to say about this in the April 2006 conference. See “The Next Three Years” at Millennial Star.

2. John Mansfield

Fri, Dec 5, 2008 @ 4:45pm

It gets my attention that only one baby boomer is in the Quorum of the Twelve. I think he’ll be the only one, and all future apostles are currently under 45.

3. Sam

Fri, Dec 5, 2008 @ 4:55pm

Don’t forget Elder Maxwell passed in 2004 also. That makes a full third of the combined Quorum/First Presidency passing in the past 4-ish years. Truly a shifting, if not a change of the guards. It is sad to see these fine brethren pass on, but it is somewhat interesting to see all the new-ish faces.

Elder Wirthlin, Godspeed.

4. Devyn S.

Fri, Dec 5, 2008 @ 10:33pm

Thanks John – I had forgotten about that talk. Great point about the baby boomers – you really think all future apostles are under 45? That would mean the current group are going to live for at least another 10 years, wouldn’t it?

Sam – thanks, I made the edit. I knew I was missing someone, but could not remember who…

5. Devyn S.

Fri, Dec 5, 2008 @ 10:35pm

John – I went to the link – great post. You were somewhat prescient

6. Paroled from the Primary Presidency

Fri, Dec 5, 2008 @ 11:57pm

“The Church marches onward and no one person is irreplacable.”

Oddly enough, this is one of the amazingly comforting things about the LDS church for me. I like knowing that whatever calling I’m holding at a given time could easily be picked up by someone else and done just as well and (quite likely) better than I’m doing it! Some of my non-member friends have thought it’s odd that we don’t volunteer for specific positions at church but this allows us the oppoturnity to learn many different skills and lessons about ourselves. I also love the fact that you can be Branch/RS/EQ/YW/Primary President one Sunday and the following week find yourself serving in the library. To me, it’s not that calling that makes the person important but how they serve in that calling. Humility in a nursery worker is so much more appealing than pride in a Bishop!

7. Sarahcuda

Sat, Dec 6, 2008 @ 2:45am

best post on this site in some time, thanks for the research

sorry to hear you haven’t become a Bednar groupie (and you are right that we’ll be calling him President before too many decades pass…). i agree that his last couple of talks were dull-ish (esp the pickle talk), but his first two, tender-mercies and taking-offense were zingers imho.

it’s probably useful for us at this time to have church leaders who lived through the great depression…

blows my mind that eyring is 75, i would have guessed late 60s

8. annegb

Sat, Dec 6, 2008 @ 1:48pm

I’ve always had a special feeling for Elder Perry because he was called when I first became active. It was sort of a shock to realize that almost all of the apostles have been called then.

People who live clean lives are better looking than people who don’t, barring the celebrities who are able to put off their decline cosmetically. My baby sister is 6 years younger than I, but she looks a lot older because she smokes and she drank. Vices age us.

So it’s no surprise that 75 year old Elder Eyring looks ten years younger. Maybe it’s just that other people look older. Maybe I really look my age and my sister just looks older. Well, that was wandering a bit.

9. Devyn S.

Sat, Dec 6, 2008 @ 4:36pm

#6 PPP – great comment – it is comforting and also a blessing to know that no matter how much fun or misery your calling is, it will change.

#7 Sarahcuda – Thanks! I will have to reread those Bednar talks. You are right that having leaders with experience in the Great Depression is probably a good thing these days. Eyring does act and seem younger than 75.

#8. annegb – you crack me up!