Spencer W. Kimball

Spencer W. Kimball served as the 12th President of the Church between December 1973 and his death in November 1985. He was born in 1895 to Olive and Andrew Kimball and moved with his family as a young child to Arizona, where his father had been called to serve as a stake president. Spencer graduated high school in 1914 and, after serving a mission in the central United States, married Camilla Eyring and started work as a bank teller and later as a partner in an insurance and real estate business. Eight years after Camilla and Spencer had their fourth child, Spencer was called as a stake president over a large area of the southwestern United States. When the Gila River flooded in 1941 and devastated homes and farms, Spencer coordinated relief work and collaborated with Elder Harold B. Lee, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and future President of the Church, who directed the Church’s welfare program at the time.

In 1943, at the age of 48, Spencer was called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. For the next 30 years, he served an increasingly international Church and took special interest in areas of rapid growth and high receptivity to the gospel message. In 1946, Church President George Albert Smith extended to Elder Kimball the special assignment to “watch after the Indians in all the world,” whom Latter-day Saints at the time identified as descendants of Book of Mormon peoples.¹ In many sermons, Elder Kimball celebrated “the day of the Lamanite,” affirming how ancient covenant promises to the Book of Mormon prophet Lehi were being fulfilled among the indigenous peoples of the Americas and Pacific Islands.² While making frequent mission tours in North, Central, and South America, he sought collaborations that could bring religious, educational, and material support for Latter-day Saints who embraced Lamanite identity.³ His service also included counseling Church members who had confessed to serious transgression, and in 1969, he published The Miracle of Forgiveness, a widely read book on the subject of repentance.

Elder Spencer W. Kimball and Camilla Kimball boarding an airplane for one of many trips they made to South America in the 1960s.

For much of the time he served as a General Authority, Elder Kimball experienced health challenges in the public eye. An operation in 1957 for throat cancer removed one of his vocal chords, leaving him with an altered, deeper, and softer voice. He also suffered a series of heart attacks and, while serving as President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1972, underwent open-heart surgery performed by future Apostle and President of the Church Dr. Russell M. Nelson. Kimball’s resolute demeanor and visible work ethic despite such manifest physical strain amazed and inspired fellow Church leaders and Latter-day Saints at large.

The sudden death of President Harold B. Lee in 1973 stunned President Kimball, who felt humbled at the prospect of following such “a giant of a man” as President of the Church. “I am such a little man,” he said to Elder Boyd K. Packer soon after being ordained President of the Church, “for such a big responsibility!”⁴ And yet President Kimball kept such an active pace that he is remembered as a spirited leader who emphasized action and effort. In a training seminar for regional representatives, he delivered a forceful address that quickly caught the attention of Church members everywhere. “Are we complacent in our approach to teaching all the world?” he asked. “Are we prepared to lengthen our stride? To enlarge our vision?” He called upon “every able worthy man” to serve as a missionary, for leaders to enlarge the Church’s field of operation, and for Church members to take initiative in living the gospel.⁵ Missionary work boomed and growth of congregations and temples followed.⁶

President Spencer W. Kimball and Camilla Eyring Kimball before the sesquicentennial broadcast of general conference from the Peter Whitmer log cabin, Fayette, New York, April 1980.

During a press conference in 1973, President Kimball was asked about the restriction then in effect that prevented Church members of Black African descent from being ordained to the priesthood or from participating in temple endowments or temple sealings.⁷ He said he had given the matter a “great deal of thought, a great deal of prayer” and affirmed that any change would have to come by revelation from the Lord.⁸ For the next five years, he continued seeking the Lord’s help, frequently visiting the temple alone and counseling with other Church leaders. On June 1, 1978, in a meeting in the Salt Lake Temple with members of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve, President Kimball prayed for the Lord’s will regarding the restriction, and revelation flowed to the prophet. President Gordon B. Hinckley, who was present, later said “it felt as if a conduit opened between the heavenly throne and the kneeling, pleading prophet.”⁹ Unitedly, the First Presidency soon announced that every worthy man could be ordained to the priesthood and worthy members of the Church could participate in all temple ordinances.¹⁰ The 1978 revelation had an immediate effect on the Church as priesthood ordinations for men of Black African descent began, Black women and men entered temples, and missions expanded into new areas.¹¹

After his 90th birthday, President Kimball’s health began to worsen. During his final days, he spoke of his mother, whom he had lost at the age of 11. “My life is at an end now,” he told a nurse. “She’s so happy, oh so very happy.”¹² He passed away in November 1985. In the outpouring of condolences, many people shared how they cherished President Kimball’s tenderness, humility, hard work, and compassion.

For more information about the life of Spencer W. Kimball, see the Prophets of the Restoration videos on history.ChurchofJesusChrist.org or in the Gospel Library app.