“Sheri L. Dew Second Counselor, Relief Society General Presidency,” Ensign, May 1997, 109
Sheri L. Dew
Second Counselor, Relief Society General Presidency
Growing up on a sprawling grain farm in Kansas taught Sheri L. Dew a lot about hard work and harvest. “I drove a tractor almost as soon as I could reach the pedals,” she remembers. “I know how to set an irrigation tube, and I helped with the harvest. I learned the law of the harvest without even knowing I was learning it. On the farm you learn early that you reap what you sow.”
Sister Dew has worked hard and reaped blessings. She practiced long hours and was a star basketball player in high school. She also worked hard at playing the piano. An accomplished musician, she traveled on three USO tours to Alaska, Europe and the Mediterranean area, and the Orient as an accompanist during her college years.
A graduate of Brigham Young University, she spent four years at Bookcraft as an assistant editor, then became associate publisher of This People magazine. For nine years, she has worked at Deseret Book, the last four as vice president of publishing. She also had the opportunity of writing biographies of President Benson and President Hinckley.
Born on 21 November 1953 in Ulysses, Kansas, she says, “I grew up thinking there was such a distinction between the country kids and the town kids. I am innately very shy, and I have struggled with that challenge for years. My work has helped because I’ve had to interview people from all walks of life. But most of all, I’ve learned there’s quite a connection between how we feel about the Lord and how we feel about ourselves.”
A former stake and ward Relief Society president and member of the Relief Society general board, Sister Dew feels the Lord has helped her in her callings. He has also helped her grow and thrive as a single sister in a family-oriented Church. “If there’s any message in the fact that a never-married woman has been called to the Relief Society general presidency,” she says, “it is that all women, regardless of their status or situation, are welcomed, loved, and valued.”
“The gospel of Jesus Christ is for everyone,” she says. “We are all significant parts of the whole. I never think of myself as single; I think of myself as Sheri, a member of the Lord’s Church.”