This biographical sketch adapted primarily from
the LDS Biographical Encyclopedia and the Encyclopedia of Mormonism.
Thomas Evans McKay, Assistant to the Twelve,
President of the Swiss and German Mission, and president of the Ogden
Stake, Weber county, Utah, was born Oct. 29, 1875, in Huntsville, Weber
county, Utah, the son of David McKay and Jennette Evans and brother of
President David O. McKay. He was raised
and schooled in Huntsville and graduated from the University of Utah in
1899.
After being baptized by his father Oct. 23, 1883,
he was ordained successively to the offices of Deacon, Teacher, Priest,
Elder and Seventy. He labored on the Weber Stake Sunday School Board, together
with Supt. Thomas B. Evans, and in 1900 he filled a mission to Switzerland
and Germany. After laboring in Stuttgart three months and in Munich three
months, he presided over the Frankfort conference thirty months.
Before going on his mission he was principal of the
Pingree School in Ogden, and after his return to Utah he taught two years
in the Weber Academy; later he taught two years in the Agricultural College,
after which he served as superintendent of the Weber county schools.
When the original Weber Stake was divided into three
Stakes in 1908, Elder McKay was ordained a High Priest by Elder George
F. Richards on July 26, 1908 and chosen to act as second counselor to President
Thomas B. Evans. In 1909-1912 he filled a second mission to Europe, this
time presiding over the Swiss and German Mission, with headquarters in
Zurich, Switzerland. After returning from that mission he again acted as
second counselor to Pres. Evans of the Ogden Stake and later as first counselor,
and when President Evans died in March, 1919, Bro. McKay was chosen as
president of the Ogden Stake.
President McKay [was] also active in secular matters
and has held many positions of honor and responsibility. Thus he served
for some time as recorder of Weber county and in 1919 he represented Weber
county in the Utah State legislature.
In 1912 (Sept. 11th) Brother McKay married Faun Brimhall,
daughter of Geo. H. Brimhall and Flora Robertson. Mrs. McKay was born May
16, 1889, in Spanish Fork, Utah. Three children blessed this marriage,
namely, Flora Jennette, Faun and Thomas B.
Pres. McKay [was] a farmer and stock raiser.
Elder McKay was one of the original five men who
were called to serve as an Assistant to the Twelve when that position was
created in 1941 being sustained April 6, 1941 and set apart May 23, 1941
by President Heber J. Grant. He served
in that calling until his death January 15, 1958 in Salt Lake City, Utah
at the age of eighty-two.
