Russell M. Nelson

Russell M. Nelson
edit data
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
April 7, 1984 (1984-04-07) – incumbent
Called by	Spencer W. Kimball
Apostle
April 12, 1984 (1984-04-12) – incumbent
Called by	Spencer W. Kimball
Reason	Deaths of LeGrand Richards and Mark E. Petersen[1]
Military career
1951-1953
Service/branch	United States Army
Rank	Captain
Unit	Army Medical Corps
Battles/wars	Korean War
Personal details
Born	Russell Marion Nelson (1924-09-09) September 9, 1924 (age 88) Brigham City, Utah, United States
Alma mater	University of Utah (B.A., M.D) University of Minnesota (Ph.D)
Occupation	Surgeon
Spouse	Dantzel White (1945–2005; deceased) Wendy L. Watson (2006–present)
Children	10

Russell Marion Nelson (born September 9, 1924) is a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and an internationally renowned cardiothoracic surgeon.^{[citation needed]} Currently, he is the fourth most senior apostle among the ranks of the church.

Medical career [edit]

A native of Salt Lake City, Utah, Nelson studied at LDS Business College while in his mid-teens and then worked as an assistant secretary at a bank.^[2] He attended the University of Utah, earning a B.A. in 1945 and an M.D. in 1947.^[3] Shortly thereafter, he began working with the team of doctors which created the first heart-lung machine. In 1951, the machine was used in the first open-heart operation on a human being. Four years later, Nelson was the first doctor in Utah to perform successful open-heart surgery using a heart-lung machine.

Nelson served a two-year term of medical duty in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, being stationed in Korea, Japan, and at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He served his residency in surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and at the University of Minnesota, receiving a PhD in 1954.^[3]

Nelson returned to Salt Lake City in 1955 and was initially on the academic staff of the College of Medicine at the University of Utah, where in November of that year he performed the first cardiac operation in Utah utilizing cardiopulmonary bypass. That operation was performed at the Salt Lake General Hospital (SLGH) on an adult with an atrial septal defect.

In March 1956, Nelson performed the first successful pediatric cardiac operation at the SLGH, a total repair of tetralogy of Fallot in a four-year-old girl. In 1959, he joined the staff of the Salt Lake Clinic, became associated with LDS Hospital, and continued to make major contributions to the development of the thoracic specialty, both in the clinical sciences and as the second director of the residency program.

Nelson's surgical volume was sufficiently large that it was a critical component of the residents' experience. He was an innovative and facile surgeon responsible for many improvements in cardiac operations. He also established a research laboratory at LDS Hospital.

By the late 1960s, Nelson's experience with artificial aortic valve implantation was such that he was able to report a large series of patients with an exceptionally low operative mortality.

In a unique combination of spiritual and professional obligations, Nelson performed heart surgery on LDS Church president Spencer W. Kimball.

Professional leadership acknowledgments [edit]

Nelson became involved with the administrative aspects of medicine and was elected president of the Utah State Medical Association. He was chair of the Division of Thoracic Surgery at LDS Hospital from 1967 to 1974 and director of the University of Utah Affiliated Hospital residency program in thoracic surgery from 1967 to 1984.

He was honored nationally by being elected president of the Society for Vascular Surgery and a director of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery.

Positions and awards [edit]

• President of the Thoracic Surgical Directors Association^{[citation needed]}
• President of the Society for Vascular Surgery^{[citation needed]}
• President of the Utah State Medical Association^{[citation needed]}
• Director of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery^{[citation needed]}
• Chairman of the Council on Cardiovascular Surgery for the American Heart Association^{[citation needed]}
• Chairman of the Division of Thoracic Surgery at the LDS Hospital^{[citation needed]}
• Vice-chairman of the board of governors at the LDS Hospital^{[citation needed]}
• "Citation for International Service", American Heart Association^{[citation needed]}
• "Heart of Gold Award", American Heart Association^{[citation needed]}
• "Golden Plate Award", American Academy of Achievement^{[citation needed]}
• "Distinguished Alumni Award", University of Utah^{[citation needed]}

LDS Church Service [edit]

In addition to his medical work, Nelson served frequently as a leader in the LDS Church. Before being appointed an apostle, he spent over six years (December 6, 1964 – July 11, 1971) as a stake president in Salt Lake City, during which time Joseph B. Wirthlin served as his second counselor. Nelson also served for eight years as the general president of the church's Sunday School, and four years as a regional representative.

Nelson was called to be an apostle by church president Spencer W. Kimball, to whom he had served as a personal physician for many years. Nelson was sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on April 7, 1984 in an LDS Church general conference. He was ordained apostle on April 12, 1984 by Gordon B. Hinckley. At the same conference, Dallin H. Oaks was also sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve. Nelson and Oaks filled the vacancies in the Quorum that were created by the deaths of LeGrand Richards and Mark E. Petersen.

As a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, Nelson is accepted by the church as a prophet, seer, and revelator.

Assigned in August 2007, Nelson is currently a member of the Church Boards of Trusteees/Education, the governing body of the Church Educational System. He serves as the chairman of the executive committee of the Church Boards of Trusteees/Education.^[4]

Eastern Europe [edit]

After Thomas S. Monson's call to the First Presidency in 1985 Nelson was assigned as the apostle to oversee the work of church in Eastern Europe. In this assignment, he worked closely with Dennis B. Neuenschwander and Hans B. Ringger.^[5][6] Nelson was involved in the first meetings between LDS Church leaders and the government officials of Bulgaria,^[7] Romania and the Soviet Union, and worked to continue LDS expansion and recognistion efforts in Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland.

In August and September 2010 Nelson journeyed to the dedication of the Kiev Ukraine Temple. He then went to LDS meetings in several European countries. He pronounced blessings upon Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bosnia Herzegovina and Kosovo while visiting each of those countries as addendums to Thomas S. Monson's 1985 dedication of Yugoslavia for the preaching of the gospel.^[8]

Nelson's only son, Russell M. Nelson, Jr., served as an LDS missionary in Russia. In 2011 Nelson returned to Russia to organize the first LDS stake in that country, headquartered in Moscow.^[9]

Central Asia [edit]

In 2003 Nelson became the first LDS Apostle to visit Kazakhstan.^{[citation needed]} While there he dedicated that country for the preaching of the gospel.^[10]

China [edit]

When he was general president of the Sunday School, Nelson attended a meeting where Spencer W. Kimball urged those present to learn Chinese. Nelson took up this challenge and became fluent in Mandarin.^[11] He developed ties with the medical community in China and made several trips there to train surgeons. In 1985 Nelson was the first person ever made an honorary professor of Shandong Medical College.^[12] In 1995 Nelson went to Beijing, along with Neal A. Maxwell and other LDS Church leaders, on an official invitation of Li Lanqing who at the time was Vice Premier of China.^[13]

Family [edit]

Nelson married Dantzel White on August 31, 1945 in the Salt Lake Temple. They have 9 daughters and a son.^[14] Dantzel died unexpectedly at the Nelson home in Salt Lake City on February 12, 2005. She was survived by her husband and nine of her children. She was preceded in death by one daughter.

On April 6, 2006, Nelson married Wendy L. Watson in the Salt Lake Temple. Watson, originally from Raymond, Alberta, Canada, is the daughter of the late Leonard David Watson and Laura McLean Watson. At the time of the marriage, Watson was a professor of marriage and family therapy in the School of Family Life at Brigham Young University (BYU). Watson retired from her career on May 1, 2006. She received her R.N. in Calgary, Alberta, Canada,^{[citation needed]} her B.A. from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa,^{[citation needed]} her M.Sc. from BYU,^{[citation needed]} and her Ph.D. from the University of Calgary.^{[citation needed]} She served as chair of BYU Women’s Conference for 1999 and 2000,^{[citation needed]} and is the author of several books and addresses recorded on CD, including Rock Solid Relationships and Things Are Not Always as They Appear. Her marriage to Nelson is her first.

Works [edit]

Books

• Nelson, Russell M. (2010), Wise men and women still adore him, Deseret Book, ISBN 978-1-60641-835-2, OCLC 672405152 
• —— (2009), Hope in our hearts, Deseret Book, ISBN 978-1-60641-201-5, OCLC 426253825 
• —— (1998), Perfection pending: and other favorite discourses, Deseret Book, ISBN 978-1-57345-405-6, OCLC 39256877 
• —— (1998), The magnificence of man and Truth--and more, Deseret Book, ISBN 978-0-87579-985-8, OCLC 40197958 
• —— (1995), The gateway we call death, Deseret Book, ISBN 978-0-87579-953-7, OCLC 31901270 
• —— (1993), Lessons from mother Eve: a mother's day message, Deseret Book, ISBN 978-0-87579-734-2, OCLC 32969712 
• —— (1988), The power within us, Deseret Book, ISBN 978-0-87579-154-8, OCLC 18164244 
• —— (1987), Motherhood, Deseret Book, ISBN 978-0-87579-087-9, OCLC 20469710 

See also [edit]

• Church Educational System
• Council on the Disposition of the Tithes
• Michael T. Ringwood

Notes [edit]

References [edit]

• Elder Russell M. Nelson, "Leader Biographies: Official Biographies for leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints", Newsroom (LDS Church) 
• University of Utah School of Medicine Alumni Association
• Gardner, Marvin K. (June 1984). Elder Russell M. Nelson: Applying Divine Laws. Ensign, p. 9
• Church News, July 17, 1971, p. 7.
• Church News, July 3, 1971, p. 3.
• Heart to Heart, an Autobiography, p. 344.

External links [edit]

• "General Authorities: Elder Russell M. Nelson", lds.org
• Grampa Bill's G.A. Pages: Russell M. Nelson
• Nelson on Special Witnesses of Christ