A surgeon by trade, Elder Kent F. Richards finished performing a life-saving procedure on a young man rushed to the emergency room with a ruptured appendix. Richards set down his instruments, stepped back from the operating table and disrobed — first his mask, then the gown and lastly his gloves.

Richards sat down at the desk in the operating room and wrote post-op orders. The anesthesiologist began the task of waking the patient up. It was mid-May.

In terms of outward appearances, the routine was so similar to what Richards had done thousands of times before. But this post-op wrap up was different for Richards. His call to the Second Quorum of the Seventy in April general conference necessitated retirement.

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