Joseph Anderson (Mormon)

Joseph Anderson (20 November 1889 – 13 March 1992) was the secretary to the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1922 to 1970 and was a general authority of the church from 1970 until his death. Having lived to the age of 102, Anderson holds the record for the oldest general authority in LDS Church history.

Anderson was born in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory in 1889, the same year that Wilford Woodruff was sustained as President of the Church. Anderson graduated from the Weber Stake Academy (now Weber State University) in 1905. A few years latter he served as a missionary in Germany and Switzerland. [Flake, Lawrence R. "Joseph Anderson" in Garr, Arnold K, Donald Q. Cannon and Richard O. Cowan, ed. "Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History" (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2000) p. 25]

Anderson became secretary to the First Presidency of the church in 1922. On 6 April 1970, church president Joseph Fielding Smith released Anderson from his secretarial duties and called him to serve as an Assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. When that calling was abolished in 1976, Anderson was ordained a Seventy and became a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy. In 1978, Anderson became an emeritus general authority and was relieved of his day-to-day duties as a Seventy. Anderson died in Salt Lake City at the age of 102.

Anderson is one of only two general authorities of the church to reach the age of 100, the second being former Presiding Patriarch Eldred G. Smith, who reached the age of 100 in 2007.

Anderson married Norma Ettie Peterson in 1915. The couple had five children.

Notes

References

* [http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=ce3394bf3938b010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&hideNav=1 "Elder Joseph Anderson Eulogized"] , "Ensign", May 1992, p. 105.

External links

* [http://gapages.com/anderj1.htm Grampa Bill's G.A. Pages: Joseph Anderson]