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In the April Conference of 1941 five men were called
as Assistants to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. J. Reuben Clark, Jr.,
of the First Presidency explained at the conference that they had been
called because of the rapid growth of the Church and the ever-expanding
demands upon the Quorum of the Twelve. A total of thirty-eight men served
the Church as Assistants to the Twelve before the office was merged with
the Seventy in 1976.
As General Authorities, Assistants to the Twelve
had the authority to minister throughout the Church and to fulfill assignments
as directed by the Quorum of the Twelve. They presided over, and spoke
at stake conferences; helped organize stakes; toured missions; and directed
missionary work in many parts of the world. Some were called as Apostles
although not members of the Twelve while others served holding the priesthood
office of High Priest.
A number of men who first served as Assistants to
the Twelve were later called to be members of the Quorum of the Twelve
Apostles: George Q. Morris, Boyd K. Packer, Marvin J. Ashton, L. Tom Perry,
David B. Haight, James E. Faust, Neal A. Maxwell, and Joseph B. Wirthlin.
Several others who had served as assistants to the Twelve also served in
the Quorum of the Twelve and later as Counselors in the First Presidency,
including Hugh B. Brown, N. Eldon Tanner, Marion G. Romney, and Gordon
B. Hinckley. And one, of course, President Gordon B. Hinckley, suceeded to the office of Pesident of the Church, becoming the Presiding High Priest in all the world.
An important 1835 revelation on priesthood describes
the Seventy as the quorum standing next in authority to the Twelve, and
under their direction, the Seventy share responsibility for the Church
throughout the world (D&C 107:25-26, 33-34). According to President
Spencer W. Kimball in 1976, the calling of the Assistants was "similar
to that envisioned by the revelations for the First Quorum of Seventy,"
but "the scope and demands of the work at that time [1941]" did not yet
justify the reconstitution of that quorum. After accelerating growth in
many parts of the world led to the organization of the First Quorum of
Seventy in 1975, the nearly two dozen Assistants then serving became members
of that quorum in 1976.
NAME SELECTOR
Marion G. Romney (1941-1951)
Thomas E. McKay (1941-1958)
Clifford E. Young (1941-1958)
Alma Sonne (1941-1976)
Nicholas G. Smith (1941-1945)
George Q. Morris (1951-1954)
Stayner Richards (1951-1953)
ElRay L. Christiansen (1951-1975)
John Longden (1951-1969)
Hugh B. Brown (1953-1958)
Sterling W. Sill (1954-1976)
Gordon B. Hinckley (1958-1961)
Henry D. Taylor (1958-1976)
William J. Critchlow, Jr. (1958-1968)
Alvin R. Dyer (1958-1967; 1970-1976)
N. Eldon Tanner (1960-1962)
Franklin D. Richards (1960-1976)
Theodore M. Burton (1960-1976)
H. Thorpe B. Isaacson (1961-1965; 1970)
Boyd K. Packer (1961-1970)
Bernard P. Brockbank (1962-1976)
James A. Cullimore (1966-1976)
Marion D. Hanks (1968-1976)
Marvin J. Ashton (1969-1971)
Joseph Anderson (1970-1976)
David B. Haight (1970-1976)
William H. Bennett (1970-1976)
John H. Vandenberg (1972-1976)
Robert L. Simpson (1972-1976)
O. Leslie Stone (1972-1976)
James E. Faust (1972-1976)
L. Tom Perry (1972-1974)
J. Thomas Fyans (1974-1976)
Neal A. Maxwell (1974-1976)
William Grant Bangerter (1975-1976)
Robert D. Hales (1975-1976)
Adney Y. Komatsu (1975-1976)
Joseph B. Wirthlin (1975-1976)
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