Gordon B. Hinckley - Long legacy

Mormons are regular people, President Gordon B. Hinckley said during a

1995 interview on "60 Minutes" that thrilled American church members

who longed for their neighbors to see them as normal.

The moment he told Mike Wallace "We are not a weird people" was the

high-profile zenith of what scholars inside the church and out say was

a successful 73-year effort, first as the leader of the church's

publicity committee and later for almost a quarter century as its de

facto president, to change how others viewed the church.

Along the way, he changed Mormon culture, altering the way members of

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints talk, the way they

worship and, in doing so, scholars say, was instrumental in seeing that

they were accepted into mainstream America.

"What really made a difference that he personally engineered was the

church's engagement with the wider world," said Philip Barlow, the

Leonard Arrington Chair of Mormon History and Culture at Utah State

University. "He was the face of Mormonism for a long time because he

was acting or de facto president of the church for nearly 25 years. His

skill with the media and his personality has led to an engagement with

the world that I think might be history-changing."

As the church grew to 13 million members from 730,000 in 1934, when

President Hinckley took over as secretary of the Radio, Publicity and

Mission Literature Committee of the church, the man who had aspired to

be a journalist created or oversaw the messages the church presented to