Intensive experience as a young bishop dealing with a huge inner-city LDS ward that included dozens of widows and what he said was the "largest welfare load in the church," served as a foundation for understanding and developing the church's current outreach efforts to the poor locally and humanitarian aid globally.

Born Aug. 21, 1927, in Salt Lake City, the first son and second child of George Spencer and Gladys Condie Monson, he came into the world seemingly born for church leadership. When his father came to visit at the hospital shortly after his birth, George Monson told his wife about a new bishop for the Sixth-Seventh LDS Ward in the Salt Lake Pioneer Stake.

Her reply: "I have a new bishop for you!" referring to tiny Thomas, who less than 23 years later was called as bishop of that same LDS ward in May 1950. He grew up on Salt Lake City's west side and returned there to serve in local church leadership following a stint in the Naval Reserves, watching firsthand as world wars and the Great Depression took their toll.

He also served in the presidency of the Temple View Stake before being called as president of the Canadian Mission in 1959.

Even so, he enjoyed a childhood filled with extended family activities, some of which became lifelong hobbies — fishing, duck hunting — as well as summers in Provo Canyon and early exposure to the printing business, which would become his profession before full-time church service.

With a bachelor's degree in marketing from the University of Utah, he worked as an advertising executive for the Deseret News before moving on to management positions at Deseret Press. He later earned an MBA from Brigham Young University.

Even after his call to the Quorum of the Twelve, he maintained his affinity for the publishing business, and served as chairman of the Deseret News board of directors for 19 years.

President Monson met his wife, Frances Johnson, when both were students at the U. They were married in October 1948 in the Salt Lake Temple, and are the parents of three children.

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