During this period he developed a reputation as a top-flight leader in the industry. President Monson would serve as president of the Printing Industry of Utah and later as director of the Printing Industries of America. When Salt Lake Community College conferred an honorary doctor of humane letters degree upon President Monson in 1996, it was noted that the church leader helped establish the college's first printing program when the institution, founded in 1948, was known as Utah Technical College.

A church call to preside over the Canadian Mission — he was 31 at the time — demanded a three-year respite from the printing world. But his eventual return to the Beehive State brought with it an offer to be the general manager of the Deseret Press. He accepted.

Thomas Monson was overseeing the Deseret Press in 1963 when he was called, at age 36, to the church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Still, his printing expertise and acumen have been enlisted in myriad ways in connection with the printing and publishing interests of the church. President Monson was the chairman of the Deseret News Board of Directors for 19 years and was chairman of the committee responsible for publishing the LDS scriptures, including the 1979 LDS version of the King James Bible and the 1981 triple combination (The Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price).

While serving as chairman of the church's Scriptures Publication Committee, he traveled to England to visit the Cambridge University Press where the LDS scripture editions were being printed. A dozen presses were running simultaneously. His printer sensibilities surfaced and he asked that a sheet be pulled from the press so he could examine it. He spotted an error on the page. Correcting the mistake would require stopping the entire line of presses.

"It wasn't a major error, but I wasn't going to let that go," said President Monson in 2005. He credited the Lord with directing his eyes in the direction of the press that was printing the sheet that contained the error.

President Monson spoke at a banquet in 2005 honoring the producers of the LDS version of the Bible and the Triple Combination. There he named five major contributions he felt he had made as a General Authority. One was the work carried out behind the Iron Curtain culminating in the construction of the Freiburg Germany Temple. The other four listed were all tied to printing and publishing: His chairmanship of the Scripture Publication Committee; the consolidation of the church printing in its own printing plant rather than commercial presses; the renegotiation of the Newspaper Agency Corp. (now Media One) contract between the Deseret News and the Salt Lake Tribune; and his leadership during the production and distribution of the current LDS hymn book.

jswensen@desnews.com