Adapted from The Ensign, January 1983, p.6
Nathan Eldon Tanner was born on 9 May 1898 in Salt Lake
City, the first of eight children born to Nathan William Tanner and Sarah
Edna Brown Tanner, Utahns who had gone to Canada by covered wagon to homestead
in Aetna, a tiny settlement near Cardston. His childhood was happy but
filled with many responsibilities. As the eldest of eight children, he
was expected to help on the farm and was often given responsibilities in
the care of his younger brothers and sisters. On one occasion, the
entire family was ill with smallpox. For three days and two nights
he had no sleep as he tenderly cared for the sick.
“An event that happened when he was about fifteen,”
wrote President Hugh B. Brown, “is
indicative of his character. He was thrown from his horse while herding
cattle. When he got to his feet, he discovered that three fingers on his
left hand were broken at the knuckle joints and were twisted back against
his hand, with the bones of the middle finger protruding through the flesh.
With characteristic pluck he grasped his fingers, straightened them, remounted
his horse, and rode to a doctor, who marveled at the boy’s spunk. The bones
were all correctly in place, and the doctor had only to stitch up the flesh.”
(Ensign, Nov. 1972, p. 14.)
Such spunk was doubtless responsible for many of
his life’s successes. Determined to obtain an education despite heavy responsibilities
on the farm, he completed nine grades of schooling in Aetna, attended high
school in Cardston, a night academy in Raymond, and later the Calgary Normal
School. In 1919, his first teaching position was combined with administration
when he became principal of a three-room school at Hill Spring. Here he
met and fell in love with one of the teachers at the school, Sara Isabelle
Merrill. They were married on 20 December 1919; when the Alberta Temple
was dedicated in 1923, they were among the first couples to be endowed
and sealed for eternity.
With a growing young family, Eldon supplemented his
teaching income by running a general store in Hill Spring; he also served
as a health officer and participated actively in the community. In 1929
the family moved to Cardston, where he was asked to be principal of a public
school and serve on the town council.
Heber G. Wolsey, former managing director of the
Church Public Communications Department, was a student in that Cardston
school where “Mr. Tanner” was principal and eighth grade teacher. On the
first day of class, Brother Wolsey recalls, the young educator entered
the classroom and said, “Boys and girls, we’ll be together for seven hours
a day for the next year. In that time I only want to teach you one thing.”
And then he walked to the board and wrote, in two-foot-high letters, THINK!”
“To supplement his teaching salary,” wrote Sister
Tanner, “he sold suits and insurance, milked cows, raised chickens and
a vegetable garden. When he was elected to the Alberta Legislature in 1935,
in the first Social Credit Government, he was chosen as Speaker of the
House. He had never even attended a session of legislature, and was now
to act as chairman of that august body of sixty-three members. We were
given an elegant suite of rooms in the legislative buildings, to use as
we liked, and … it seemed that he had fallen into the ‘lap of the Gods,’
but only he and I knew the hours, day and night, that he spent studying
parliamentary procedure. This was the beginning of jobs which he was given,
which he said were far beyond his ability to cope with. He has always had
favorite sayings and slogans. One was: ‘The heights by great men reached
and kept were not attained by sudden flight; but they, while their companions
slept, were toiling upwards in the night.’ And he tried to accomplish what
he set out to do by doing just that: By rising at five A.M. to teach himself
typing when he was running the store in Hill Spring; by searching the scriptures
at the same hour when he was made bishop and later called to the General
Authorities of the Church.”
Eldon’s perseverance and stability made him a valued
asset in both governmental and ecclesiastical circles. In 1936 he was appointed
Minister of Lands and Mines in the Provincial Cabinet, a position which
was later expanded to include two departments—Mines and Minerals, and Lands
and Forests. In this capacity he sponsored legislation to govern development
of natural resources, especially petroleum, which became the pattern for
other Canadian provinces to follow and helped to make Alberta the first
province free from public debt.
While acting as Minister in the Alberta government,
he earned the well-deserved nickname of “Mr. Integrity” because he refused
to compromise by accepting gifts of any kind and was strictly honest in
his dealings. That affectionate title followed him
through a lifetime of success based on principles of fairness and integrity.
After sixteen years of distinguished government service,
Eldon Tanner turned his energies to industry, serving first as president
of Merrill Petroleum, Ltd., and director of the Toronto Dominion Bank of
Canada. In 1954, answering an appeal from government officials, he agreed
to become president of Trans-Canada Pipelines, Ltd., and direct construction
of a $350 million, 2,000-mile pipeline across Canada from Alberta to Montreal.
Upon completion of the project one authority observed, “It was the greatest
undertaking since the building of the transcontinental railroad and was
accomplished in less than four years.”
Overshadowing his governmental and business concerns
were always the two most important interests of this remarkable man’s life:
family and the gospel. He and Sara reared five daughters. Twenty-four grandchildren
and fifty great-grandchildren have also joined the family.
Helen Tanner Beaton remembered her father as a warm,
compassionate man who cared deeply about his family: “Daddy was branch
president in Edmonton, Cabinet Minister in charge of two major government
departments, and president of the Boy Scout Association. But he still got
up with us in the night if we were sick, prepared breakfast every morning,
and set up the washing machine and rinse tubs every Monday morning at 6:00
A.M. If we were new babies, he would get up and bring us to mother and
then he would take us back to bed. He did that for five girls.”
For many years of his life in Canada, President Tanner
was deeply involved in Scouting as a member of the Canadian Scout Committee
and as Provincial Scout Commissioner. He received the Silver Acorn and
the Silver Wolf awards, the latter being the highest honor given to a Scouter
in Canada. Yet he never lost sight of the young people themselves. Once
when asked why he was interested in the Boy Scouts when he had no sons,
he replied, “Well, I want to help boys to be worthy of my
daughters.”
From his youngest years, Eldon Tanner was committed
to Church service. In 1932 he became counselor to a bishop in Cardston;
two years later he was made bishop of the Cardston First Ward. He became
president of the Edmonton Branch in 1938, was later called to the high
council in the Lethbridge Stake, and in 1953 became the first president
of the Calgary Stake, which office he held until his call as an assistant
to the Quorum of the Twelve in 1960.
“The Calgary Stake was standing first in the Church,”
recalls Sister Tanner, “and now with the pipeline behind him it looked
as though everything was just going to be easy. We built our new home,
moving into it in May of 1960. On October 8, 1960,
President David O.McKay called
him in as a General Authority of the Church, which made all of his other
accomplishments seem trivial and unimportant.
“Now, indeed, he felt inadequate. None of his past
seemed to have prepared him for this tremendous task. True, he had been
bishop for six years and a branch president for fifteen, and a stake president
for seven years, but this work had been principally administrative. He
felt that his knowledge of the scriptures was scanty; his public speaking
had been mostly on political and technical lines.
“His … appointment to the Quorum of the Twelve made
him feel even more humble. However, I personally feel that all his past
life led up to this point. Every decision, small and great, that he has
made has been prayerfully considered with the Church in mind.”
The Tanners moved to Salt Lake City on 1 February
1961. As they made plans to furnish their newly purchased home, Eldon Tanner
was called to accompany President McKay and President Hugh
B. Brown to London to attend the dedication of the new Hyde Park Chapel.
Four days later, Elder Tanner was asked to prepare to remain in London
as president of the West European Mission.
Soon after he became a member of the Quorum of the
Twelve in October 1962, Elder Tanner was appointed president of the Genealogical
Society of the Church, in which assignment he served enthusiastically until
his call to the First Presidency in October 1963. At the death of President
McKay in January 1970, he was named Second Counselor to President Joseph
Fielding Smith. Following President Smith’s death in July 1972, he
became First Counselor to President Harold
B. Lee. President Lee’s death in December 1973 brought Spencer
W. Kimball to the presidency; President Tanner was sustained as his
First Counselor.
Part of his devotion to community included becoming
a citizen of the United States, which he did on 2 May, 1966. Questioned
later about the seeming “desertion” of his native Canada, his response
was that “we have responsibilities to the community in which we live. In
order to fulfill our obligations, we need to be practicing citizens of
the nation which shelters us.”
President Tanner’s sense of community complemented
his service as a General Authority. He was a member of the Salt Lake Area
Chamber of Commerce and the Salt Lake Rotary Club, a member of the boards
of directors of several Utah
corporations, and vice president of the Board of Trustees of Brigham
Young University and the Church Educational System. In 1978 his integrity
and accomplishments were cited by the Salt Lake Area Chamber of Commerce,
which saluted him as “a man of superior character, a successful businessman
with deep spirituality, a great leader esteemed by millions of people around
the world.”
Upon President Tanner’s death the First Presidency
issued the following statement:
“With the passing of President N. Eldon Tanner the
entire Church feels a tremendous loss. He has served as a Counselor to
four Presidents of the Church. He has carried much of the burden of administration
during these many years. His wisdom and
inspiration have been of incalculable benefit as the Church has moved
forward with its divinely appointed mission.
“None has been more steadfast in carrying the responsibilities
of high office. None has been more faithful in the execution of duty.
“His unflinching testimony of God the Eternal Father
and of the Risen Lord Jesus Christ has been a strength to millions over
the earth.
“Our close association has been a warm and beautiful
experience. Oh, how we shall miss him.
“He has likewise been a strength to the people of
this community and state, as well as to those of the entire nation and
the people of Canada. His acumen in business was internationally recognized,
as was his integrity, which became the hallmark of his character.
“As we mourn his passing our hearts reach out to
his bereft companion and children. May that peace which comes alone from
God comfort and sustain them.”
