President monson biography for kids

Editor's note: President Thomas S. Monson passed away January 2, 2018.

President Thomas S. Monson has served as the 16 President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since February 3, 2008. He had served as a Counselor in the First Presidency of the Church since November 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 November 10, 1985, as Second Counselor to President Ezra Taft Benson. He was sustained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on October 4, 1963, and ordained an Apostle on October 10, 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 a 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 received the Honorary Doctor of Business from the University of Utah in May 2007. In May 2009 he received an Honorary Doctorate of Communication from Utah Valley University and an Honorary Doctorate of Public Service from Southern Utah University. In April 2010 he received an Honorary

Once you were his friend, you never lost him, nor he lost you. He has never forgotten his boyhood chums or family members. Our neighborhood on Fifth South, we pretty well played in the streets. He was a bit of an athlete when he was a young fellow. He played basketball. But he was a self-starter; he didn't have to be told everything. He was 100% when he decided to do something. When he was going to get my bottle ready, he would put the milk in a little old pan on the stove that wobbled and keep putting his finger in it to see that it was warm yet. He'd pray an awful lot, and that was one thing that we were aware of. He'd pray for the food; he'd pray for things that happened. And I noticed him, many times, he would take a hat off and say a prayer, even when he was out on the stream fishing. When President Monson was a very young bishop -- I think one of the youngest in the Church, he was 22 years old -- he obtained a Heinrich Hoffmann portrait of the Savior, and he has had that picture of the Savior with him everywhere he has ever gone since. And it's still in his office today. He loves the Master and he follows the path of the Master. He walks the path of the Master. One of his favorite scriptures probably says it best; he is always "on the Lord's errand." Thomas Spencer Monson was born on a Sunday morning, August 21, 1927, at the old St. Mark's Hospital on Second West, in Salt Lake City. His parents, G. Spencer and Gladys Condie Monson, were of hardy Swedish, English, and Scottish ancestry and made a loving home for Tom, his two brothers, and three sisters. In 1927, there were just over 600,000 Latter-day Saints. Most of them living in the American West. Heber J. Grant was President of the Church, and in three years the Church would celebrate its 100th anniversary. Tom grew up on Salt Lake City's west side, in the midst of a close family of grandparents, au

President Thomas S. Monson, the 16th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from Febuary 2008 to January 2018, would have turned 91 years old today. Here is a snapshot of the nine decades he spent in service to the Lord and his fellow men.

Early years

In 1928, just as the Church was printing and distributing its very first Handbook of Instruction, Thomas Spencer Monson was celebrating his first birthday near Vivian Park in Provo Canyon where his family frequently spent their summers.

At age 11, in 1938, young Tom Monson was beginning to understand the importance of caring for others. According to his biography , Tom and his friends were entirely focused on caring for birds at the time — particularly pigeons. He had his own pigeon coop and took great pride in caring for them and, eventually, showed them in county and state fairs. Caring for birds was a hobby he would carry with him throughout his life.

Ten years later, at the age of 21, Tom Monson was just beginning to start a family of his own. He graduated from the University of Utah in August of 1948 with a degree in marketing and a minor in economics. A few months later, on Oct. 7, 1948, Thomas Monson married his sweetheart, Frances Johnson, just weeks after his youngest sister, Barbara, was born.

Professional life

After working his way up to sales manager for the press division at Deseret News Press, Thomas Monson was named president of the Printing Industry of Utah and joined the board of the Printing Industries of America in 1958. At 31, he and his wife, Frances, had two children and had just moved into a new home in the Holladay area of the Salt Lake valley. Tom continued to raise pigeons and chickens on their property and frequently won ribbons for his birds at county and state fairs.

Ministry

In 1968, five years after being called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, then-El