The oldest president in Mormon Church history, Russell Nelson, died at his home in Salt Lake City over the weekend, church officials said Sunday. He was 101.
Nelson “passed away peacefully” just after 10 p.m. Saturday, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints said in a statement, without revealing a cause.
Tributes poured in throughout Sunday for the heart surgeon turned apostle. One noted how he had continued saving lives long after retiring from practice by championing the COVID vaccine. Another said that following Nelson’s example by expressing gratitude, seeking peace in a strained relationship, or telling someone they matter could “turn an ordinary day into a holy one.”
Nelson ushered in “profound change” during his tenure, the church said in its statement mourning the man known as the “beloved physician.” He expanded the church’s reach, visiting 32 countries and U.S. territories, and adding dozens of new temples. There were 182 temples when he started and 194 operational at his death, with another 170 either under construction or in the planning stages, The New York Times noted.
Before being called as an apostle, Nelson spent decades as an acclaimed cardiothoracic surgeon, helping develop the heart-lung machine used in open-heart surgery, and then performing Utah’s first successful such surgery in 1995.
Nelson had assumed the lifelong presidency of The Church of the Latter Day Saints in 2018 at age 93, after the death of his predecessor, Thomas Monson, at age 98. Before Nelson, the oldest president had been Gordon Hinckley, who died at 97, having served just before Monson.
Successor presidents are not chosen until after the funeral, so the person had not officially been named as of Sunday evening. However church protocol points to Dallin Oaks, the next longest-tenured member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the church’s governing body.
With News Wire Services
