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Henry B. EyringAmerican religious leader, since 2008 first counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Date of Birth: 31.05.1933
Country:  USA |
Content:
Henry B. Eyring: Early Life and Education
Henry Bennion Eyring was born in Princeton, New Jersey, on May 31, 1933. His father, Henry Eyring, was a professor at Princeton University and later Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Utah and President of the American Chemical Society. His mother was Mildred Bennion. His father's sister, Camilla Eyring, was married to Spencer W. Kimball, making Henry B. a nephew of Kimball, who became the twelfth president of the LDS Church.
Eyring's family lived in Princeton until his early teens. Prior to World War II, they attended LDS meetings in a branch in New Brunswick, New Jersey, but due to wartime gasoline rationing, they received permission to hold meetings in their home, often with only the Eyring family attending. As a teenager, Eyring and his family moved to Salt Lake City, where his father had taken a position at the University of Utah.
Eyring served two years in the United States Air Force (USAF), stationed at Sandia Base in New Mexico. During his time in the USAF, he served as a district missionary for the LDS Church and worked as a liaison between the military and scientists. His primary duty was to analyze data from nuclear weapons tests. Upon completing his assignment, he briefed and met in person with a group of top generals.
Prior to his USAF service, Eyring earned a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Utah. He went on to receive both Master's and Doctor of Business Administration degrees from Harvard Business School before embarking on his career in academia.
Academic and Business Career
In the fall of 1962, Eyring began working as an assistant professor at Stanford University. He received his doctorate in business in the summer of 1963. That summer, Eyring also completed an internship with the RAND Corporation.
Eyring married his wife, Kathleen, the summer before he moved to Stanford, and their first year of marriage was spent living in various houses that his contractor father-in-law was remodeling. They then spent the next ten years living in a guest house that belonged to relatives. Among Eyring's associates at Stanford were Roger Saint and Ed Zschau. Eyring worked with Zschau in founding the computer company System Industries.
Eyring served as Assistant Professor of Business Administration at the Stanford Graduate School of Business from 1962 to 1971. He was also a visiting Sloan Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). At MIT, he took several courses in human behavior, including courses by Douglas McGregor (who died of a heart attack while Eyring was at MIT), Ed Schein, and Warren Bennis.
Eyring served twice as Commissioner of Church Education: from September 1980 to April 1985, and from September 1992 to January 2005, when he was succeeded by W. Rolfe Kerr.
LDS Church Service
In addition to other callings in the LDS Church, Eyring served as a regional representative, bishop, and member of the General Sunday School Board. Early in his tenure as a Stanford professor, Eyring served as an early-morning seminary teacher and later as bishop of the Stanford Singles Ward.
Eyring served as President of Ricks College from 1971 to 1977, as a counselor to Presiding Bishop Robert D. Hales from 1985 to 1992, and as a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy from 1992 to 1995.
Following the death of Church President Howard W. Hunter on April 1, 1995, Eyring was sustained as a member of the Church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and was ordained an apostle later that week.
Eyring was sustained as Second Counselor in the Church's First Presidency on October 6, 2007, filling the vacancy created by the death of James E. Faust on August 10, 2007. When the First Presidency was reorganized following the death of Gordon B. Hinckley, Eyring was called and ordained as First Counselor on February 3, 2008. The new First Presidency, with Monson as President, was announced on February 4, 2008.
As a member of the First Presidency, Eyring has dedicated temples in San Salvador, El Salvador; Gilbert, Arizona; Payson, Utah; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he also presided at the groundbreaking in 2011. He has also rededicated temples in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Mexico City, Mexico.
In 2014, following a meeting with Pope Francis, Eyring spoke at Humanum, an "International Interreligious Colloquium on the Complementarity of Man and Woman," held at the Vatican. It was the first meeting between the Pope and the highest authority in the LDS Church.
Family
Eyring and his wife, Kathleen Johnson, met at an LDSA social gathering held in Rye, New Hampshire, at the Rockingham Meetinghouse in the spring of 1960. Johnson was a Palo Alto native and was attending Stanford University. She had previously studied at the University of Vienna and the University of Paris during summers, and was at Harvard University the summer she met Eyring. Wilbur Cox, the president of the LDS Church stake (for which Eyring served as a counselor), went out of his way to facilitate Eyring's dating Johnson. After an intensive courtship that first summer, Eyring and Johnson continued to date, making several cross-country flights, until they became engaged early in 1961. They were married in the LDS Church's Logan Temple on July 27, 1962, with his uncle Spencer W. Kimball officiating.
They have six children (four sons and two daughters). Their sons include Henry J. Eyring, president of BYU-Idaho; and Matthew J. Eyring, Chief Strategy Innovation Officer of Vivint, a North American home automation company. Eyring is a cousin of former Michigan Governor George Romney, himself a convert to the LDS Church; his paternal grandmother was Romney's aunt.
