President Gordon B. Hinckley, world leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was ordained and set apart as the 15th President of the Church on Sunday, March 12, 1995.
He had earlier served 14 years as a counselor in the First Presidency, the top governing body of the Church, and as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for 20 years prior to that.
His Church service has been extensive. He was called as a member of the Sunday School General Board in 1937, two years after returning home from missionary service in Great Britain. For 20 years, he directed all Church public communications. In 1951 he was named executive secretary of the General Missionary Committee, managing the entire missionary program of the Church, and served in this capacity for seven years. He was president of the East Millcreek Stake in Salt Lake City when he was called as a General Authority in the capacity of an Assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on April 6, 1958.
President Hinckley was named to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on Oct. 5, 1961. On July 23, 1981, he was called into the First Presidency to serve as Counselor and on Dec. 2, 1982, was named Second Counselor to President Spencer W. Kimball. He served as First Counselor to President Ezra Taft Benson from November 1985 to May 30, 1994. On June 5, 1994, he was called as the First Counselor to President Howard W. Hunter. He was also ordained and set apart as the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
As a member of the First Presidency, he has had a major role in administering both the ecclesiastical and temporal affairs of the Church, whose more than 10 million members are spread over some 160 nations and territories. His Church assignments have taken him around the world many times, and he has dedicated more temples than any other leader in the history of the Church. He is the first Church President ever to travel to Spain, where in 1996 he broke ground for a temple in Madrid, and to Africa, where he met with thousands of Latter-day Saints in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.
He has given numerous interviews to major news media, including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the CBS 60 Minutes television news magazine, which featured him and the Church in 1996 on an Easter Sunday show seen by more than 20 million. In September of 1998 he was the guest on the popular CNN cable television program Larry King Live.
President Hinckley was born June 23, 1910, in Salt Lake City, Utah, a son of Bryant Strigham and Ada Bitner Hinckley. One of his forebears, Stephen Hopkins, came to America on the Mayflower. Another, Thomas Hinckley, served as governor of the Plymouth Colony from 1680 to 1692.
His first job was as a newspaper carrier for the Deseret News. After attending public schools in Salt Lake City, the future Church leader earned a bachelor of arts degree at the University of Utah and then accepted a call from the Church to spend two years as a full-time missionary in Great Britain. He served with distinction and ultimately was called to be an assistant to the Church Apostle who presided over all the European missions.
Upon being released from missionary service in the mid-1930s, he was called by then Church President Heber J. Grant to organize what has become the Church's public affairs program.
President Hinckley's major assignments during two decades of service as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles included the supervision of Church units in Asia, Europe, and South America. His Church committee assignments as a general officer have been in such areas as temples, missionary work, welfare services, priesthood, and members in the military service. He also served as chairman of the executive committee for the observance of the Church's 150th anniversary in 1980.
In addition to his Church duties, President Hinckley has been active in community and business affairs, serving as chairman and board member of a number of business corporations. In 2004, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civil award, by President George W. Bush. He has been the recipient of a number of educational honors including: the Distinguished Citizen Award, from Southern Utah University; Distinguished Alumni Award, from the University of Utah; and honorary doctorates from Westminster College, Utah State University, University of Utah, Brigham Young University, and Southern Utah University. He has received the Silver Buffalo Award of the Boy Scouts of America and has been honored by the National Conference (formerly the National Conference of Christians and Jews) for his contributions to tolerance and understanding in the world.
He has served as chairman of the executive committees of the Board of Trustees of Brigham Young University and of the Church Board of Education. The Church Educational System includes not only Brigham Young University's Utah and Hawaii campuses, but Brigham Young University-Idaho in Rexburg, Idaho, LDS Business College in Salt Lake City, elementary and secondary schools in developing countries, and hundreds of seminaries and institutes of religion serving several hundred thousand high school- and college-age youth.
The Church leader is known for his writing and speaking skills, which he began developing as a young boy growing up in the Church. He honed those talents as a missionary preaching regularly from a portable stand in London's Hyde Park and further refined them as a Church authority. He has written and edited several books and numerous manuals, pamphlets, and scripts.
President Hinckley married Marjorie Pay in the Salt Lake Temple in 1937. They have five children. Sister Hinckley passed away April 6, 2004.

President Thomas S. Monson has served as a Counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since Nov. 10, 1985. Most recently, on March 12, 1995, he was set apart as First Counselor to President Gordon B. Hinckley. Prior to that, on June 5, 1994, he was called as Second Counselor to President Howard W. Hunter, and on Nov. 10, 1985, as Second Counselor to President Ezra Taft Benson. He was ordained an Apostle and called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on Oct. 4, 1963, at the age of 36.
President Monson served as president of the Church's Canadian Mission, headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, from 1959 to 1962. Prior to that time he served in the presidency of the Temple View Stake in Salt Lake City, Utah, and as a bishop of the Sixth-Seventh Ward in that stake.
Born in Salt Lake City, on August 21, 1927, President Monson is the son of G. Spencer and Gladys Condie Monson. He attended Salt Lake City public schools and graduated cum laude from the University of Utah in 1948, receiving a degree in business management. He did graduate work and served as a member of the College of Business faculty at the University of Utah. He later received his MBA degree from Brigham Young University. In April 1981, Brigham Young University conferred upon President Monson the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa. He was given the honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, by Salt Lake Community College in June 1996. He is a member of Alpha Kappa Psi, an honorary business fraternity.
President Monson served in the United States Navy near the close of World War II. He married Frances Beverly Johnson on October 7, 1948, in the Salt Lake Temple. They are the parents of three children: Thomas Lee Monson, Ann Frances Monson Dibb, and Clark Spencer Monson. They have eight grandchildren.
Professionally, President Monson has had a distinguished career in publishing and printing. He became associated with the Deseret News in 1948, where he served as an executive in the advertising division of that newspaper and the Newspaper Agency Corporation. Later he was named sales manager of the Deseret News Press, one of the West's largest commercial printing firms, rising to the position of general manager, which position he held at the time of his appointment to the Quorum of the Twelve in 1963. He served for many years as chairman of the board of Deseret News Publishing Co. President Monson is a past president of Printing Industry of Utah and a former member of the board of directors of Printing Industry of America.
With his broad business background, President Monson served for many years as a board member of several prominent businesses and industries. He currently serves as a trustee of Brigham Young University and the Church Board of Education.
Since 1969 President Monson has served as a member of the National Executive Board of Boy Scouts of America.
President Monson has held membership in the Utah Association of Sales Executives, the Salt Lake Advertising Club, and the Salt Lake Exchange Club.
For many years, President Monson served as a member of the Utah State Board of Regents, the body which governs higher education in the State of Utah. He also served as an officer in the Alumni Association of the University of Utah.
In December 1981, President Monson was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to serve on the President's Task Force for Private Sector Initiatives. He served in this capacity until December 1982, when the work of the task force was completed.
President Monson was awarded the University of Utah's Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1966. He is also the recipient of the Boy Scouts of America's Silver Beaver Award (1971), its prestigious Silver Buffalo Award (1978), and international Scouting's highest award, the Bronze Wolf (1993). In 1997 he received the Minuteman Award from the Utah National Guard, as well as Brigham Young University's Exemplary Manhood Award. In 1998 he and Sister Monson were each given the Continuum of Caring Humanitarian Award by the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph Villa.

James E. Faust was set apart as Second Counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on March 12, 1995. He earlier had served in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles since September 1978. He had previously served four years as an Assistant to the Twelve and was sustained as a member of the Presidency of the First Quorum of the Seventy on Oct. 1, 1976.
His present assignments include vice chairman of the Church Board of Education; the board of trustees of Brigham Young University; the Welfare Services Executive Committee; and Deseret Management Corporation.
Prior to becoming a General Authority, President Faust served the Church as a bishop, high councilor, stake president, and regional representative.
His General Authority assignments have included: managing director of the Melchizedek Priesthood MIA, zone adviser over South America, president of the International mission, executive director of the Church Curriculum Department, editor of the Church magazines, vice chairman of the Welfare Committee, and chairman of the Public Affairs Committee.
He was born July 31, 1920, in Delta, Utah. He attended school in the Granite District of Salt Lake City, Utah, and enrolled at the University of Utah in 1937. He participated as a member of the track team in 1938 and ran the quarter-mile and mile relay.
His college career was interrupted first to serve as a missionary for the Church in Brazil and later by World War II, during which he served in the U.S. Army Air Force and was discharged as a first lieutenant.
In 1945 he reentered the University of Utah by enrolling in the law school, from which he graduated in 1948 with a B.A. and Juris Doctor degree.
He began the practice of law in Salt Lake City and continued until his appointment as a General Authority in the Church in 1972.
He served as a member of the Utah Legislature from 1949 to 1951, as an advisor to the American Bar Journal, and was president of the Utah Bar Association in 1962-63. He received the Distinguished Lawyer Emeritus Award of the Utah Bar Association in 1995.
He was a member of the Utah State Constitutional Revision Commission. He is also a former vice president of the board of directors and chairman of the executive committee of the Deseret News Publishing Company.
In August of 1997 he received an honorary doctorate degree from Brigham Young University. He was awarded honorary citizenship of the city of São Paulo, Brazil in April of 1998.
He is married to the former Ruth Wright of Salt Lake City; they are the parents of two daughters and three sons.