Thomas Spencer Monson (1927-2018)

Biography
Thomas Spencer Monson is an American religious leader, author, and the 16th President of  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). As president, Monson is considered by adherents of the religion to be a "prophet, seer, and revelator." A printer by trade, Monson has spent most of his life engaged in various church leadership positions and public service.

Monson was ordained an LDS apostle at age 36, served in the First Presidency under three church presidents and was the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles from March 12, 1995, until he became President of the Church on February 3, 2008. He succeeded Gordon Bitner Hinckley (1910-2008) as church president.

Monson has received four honorary doctorate degrees, as well as the Boy Scouts of America's Silver Buffalo and the World Organization of the Scout Movement's Bronze Wolf—both awards are the highest awards in each organization. Monson is a member of the National Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America, the organization's governing body.

Monson is chairman of the Boards of Trustees/Education of the Church Educational System, and Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911-2004) appointed him to the U.S. President's Task Force for Private Sector Initiatives. Monson married Frances Beverly Monson (née Johnson) in the Salt Lake Temple in 1948 and they are parents to three children. Frances Monson died on May 17, 2013.

LDS Church Service

 * Ordained Bishop 1949 (age 22) - Sixth-Seventh Ward in the Temple View Stake,
 * Counselor in Stake Presidency - Salt Lake Temple View Stake - 1957
 * President of Canadian Mission 1959-1962
 * Ordained Apostle and sustained to the Twelve 1963
 * Second Counselor to Ezra Taft Benson 1985
 * Second Counselor to Howard W. Hunter 1994
 * President of the Twelve and First Counselor to Gordon B. Hinckley 1995
 * Sixteenth President of the Church 2008

Salt Lake Temple Wedding
This couple was married for time and eternity on 07-Oct-1948 in the Salt Lake Temple located in Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah. A temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church)  it is the largest LDS temple by floor area. Dedicated in 1893, it is the sixth temple completed by the church, requiring 40 years to complete.

In the fall of 1944, he enrolled at the University of Utah. Around this time he met his future wife, Frances, whose family came from a higher social class on the east side of the city. Her father, Franz Johnson, felt an immediate connection because Monson's great uncle had baptized him into the LDS Church in Sweden.

At age 21, on October 7, 1948, he married Frances Beverly Johnson (1927-2013) in the Salt Lake Temple. The couple eventually had three children:


 * 1) Thomas Lee Monson (1950)
 * 2) Ann Frances Monson (1954)  - Ann Monson Dibb was the second counselor to Elaine S. Dalton in the general presidency of the Young Women organization of LDS Church from 2008 to 2013.
 * 3) Clark Spencer Monson (1956)