Gordon B. Hinckley - Member of First Presidency

Member of First Presidency

On July 23, 1981, Hinckley became a counselor in the First Presidency. As the 1980s progressed, the health of President Spencer W. Kimball and his aging counselors N. Eldon Tanner and Marion G. Romney led to Hinckley's being the only healthy member of the First Presidency. When Tanner died in 1982, Romney succeeded him as first counselor and Hinckley succeeded Romney as second counselor in the First Presidency. Because of the ill health of Kimball and Romney, Hinckley had increased responsibility for much of the day-to-day affairs the First Presidency oversees in running the church.

The Mark Hofmann document forgeries, bombings, and investigation occurred during this time. "The news interest was global" and "the whole episode achieved epic proportions." Several books describe the arrangements for acquiring supposed historical documents for the church by Hinckley and others. For example, the Stowell forgery implicating Joseph Smith in gold digging was purchased for $15,000 by Hinckley on behalf of the church from Hofmann on the promise of confidentiality. However, two years later Hofmann leaked its existence to the "Mormon intellectual underground." Upon inquiry, church spokesman Jerry Cahill denied that the church possessed the document. Hinckley corrected Cahill and released the letter to scholars for study. The document initially assumed authentic was later found to be a forgery.

After Kimball's death in November 1985, then-former President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles Ezra Taft Benson became president of the church and named Hinckley his first counselor. Thomas S. Monson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, was named second counselor. For several years all three members of the First Presidency were able to perform their duties. In the early 1990s, however, Benson developed serious health problems that removed him from public view, leaving Hinckley and Monson to carry out many of the duties of the First Presidency until Benson died in 1994.

After Benson’s death, Howard W. Hunter became President and retained Hinckley and Monson as counselors in the First Presidency. At the same time, Hinckley became President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles by virtue of seniority.