In 1952, his career in print media took a turn, as he accepted a position at the Deseret Press. During that time, he remembered working with Elder LeGrand Richards, whose book, "A Marvelous Work and a Wonder," was printed by the press and became a best-seller among Latter-day Saints.

Elder Richards would never accept any royalty payment for the book, turning down "literally hundreds of thousands of dollars." He said the church leader "never regretted the decision and kept that book underpriced on the market as long as he lived."

After serving as a bishop for five years, President Monson was called as second counselor in the Temple View stake presidency, where he served until his call in 1959 as president of the Canadian Mission with headquarters in Toronto.

When called as a mission president, he and his wife had two young children, Thomas Lee and Ann Frances, and they were expecting a third, Clark Spencer. It was one time in their married life when his church assignments allowed them to spend more time together than they had been accustomed to, he would say later.

When their children were young, Sister Monson usually stayed home while her husband was away, often for weeks at a time. "People used to ask me what I did when he was so busy as a general authority," she later told the Church News.

"I'd tell them that I hadn't known much else, since from the earliest days of our marriage, Tom was busy with church service." She kept herself busy serving church auxiliaries and rearing their three children. "I learned quite early to stand on my own feet."

Upon release as a mission president in 1962, President Monson was named manager of the Deseret News Press and worked on committee assignments with the church in addition to serving on the Valley View Stake high council.

He was sustained a member of the Quorum of the Twelve on Oct. 4, 1963, at age 36, replacing Elder N. Eldon Tanner, who was called as a counselor in the First Presidency.

Among his many earlier assignments with the Twelve, he served as chairman of the missionary executive committee; a member of the correlation executive committee; and as area adviser of Europe and Europe West mission areas.

Before 1996, some general authorities were also active in business, serving on various corporate boards. President Monson served on the board of the Deseret News Publishing Co. for 31 years, 19 of those as president, and as vice president of the Newspaper Agency Corp.

He also served for many years as a board member for several other businesses, as a member of the Utah Board of Regents, a trustee of the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge and the National Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America.