Joseph Fielding Smith Jr. was an American religious leader and writer. He was the tenth president of the LDS Church.
Background
He was born on July 19, 1876 in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, the firstborn son of Joseph F. Smith, sixth president of the church, and Julina Lambson, midwife and prominent leader of Mormon women. Joseph Fielding's grandfather was the son of Hyrum Smith, who was the brother of Joseph Smith, founding prophet of the Mormons.
Because his father was burdened with church responsibilities, Joseph Fielding's youth was spent primarily with his mother and twelve brothers and sisters. He learned to cook, piece quilts, care for babies, harness the horse, and drive his mother to homes where women were ready to give birth. Even as a young boy, he read the Bible and the Book of Mormon in a spirit of faith, acceptance, and preparation.
Education
Joseph attended LDS High School and College in Salt Lake City. In 1951 he was awarded an honorary doctor of letters from Brigham Young University for "spiritual scholarship. "
Career
He worked as a department store clerk while attending school. At age eighteen he began serving as private secretary to his father. From 1899 to 1901, Smith served a proselytizing mission in England.
He began a lifetime career in the LDS church historian's office in Salt Lake City in 1902. He wrote and copied histories and documents, responded to requests for information, and served as librarian-archivist. Appointed assistant church historian in 1906, he wrote booklets on baptism for the dead, universal salvation, and genealogical research. He was the editor of the Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine (1910 - 1940).
In 1910, Smith was ordained an apostle (a member of the governing church council of twelve leading men). He was only thirty-three years old. Appointed church historian in 1921, he wrote a fundamental one-volume history of the church, Essentials in Church History (1922). Smith published a variety of books on doctrine, all based on a literal interpretation of the scriptures: The Way to Perfection (1931), The Progress of Man (1936) and others.
Excerpts from Smith's sermons and his printed responses to questions in the church's magazines were published in five volumes under the title Answers to Gospel Questions (1954 - 1966).
In 1970, as senior apostle, though ninety-four years of age, he became the president of the LDS Church and served as prophet until his death two-and-one-half years later. During his tenure as president, assisted by two energetic counselors, he directed a steady growth in missionary activity; dedication of the Ogden and Provo (Utah) temples; reorganizations in the church Sunday School system and department of social services; the consolidation of all general church magazines into three; and the appointment of a professional staff to direct the church's newly created historical department. In addition to his calling as an apostle and church historian,
Smith was also president of the Utah Genealogical Society (1934 - 1964), president of the Salt Lake Temple (1945 - 1949), and author of several hymns.
Smith died at Salt Lake City shortly before his 96th birthday.
He was an eager defender of the faith, an incessant reader of the Bible and the Book of Mormon, as well as the Doctrine and Covenants (a book of modern revelation. Smith's hard-hitting sermons emphasized that God is a personal being, the creator of all things, and the literal father of Jesus. He defended Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and the latter-day restoration. He was an uncompromising opponent of both "higher" and textual biblical criticism, which he thought found fault with God's recorded word. He defended the position that mankind was placed on the earth by God and was not a product of organic evolution.
Views
He insisted that the history of the church and its leaders be presented in a positive light.
Quotations:
In early 1961, Smith said: "We will never get a man into space. This earth is man's sphere and it was never intended that he should get away from it. The moon is a superior planet to the earth and it was never intended that man should go there. You can write it down in your books that this will never happen. "
Connections
On April 26, 1898, at the age of twenty-one, he married Louie Shurtliff, who had been a fellow high school student. The couple had two daughters before Louie's death in 1908.
He married Ethel Georgina Reynolds on November 2, 1908. They had nine children before Ethel died in 1937. The following year, on April 12, he married Jessie Ella Evans, an actress and operatic singer whose humor and colorful personality enriched his life while she also cared for his large family. She died in August 1971.