Eldred G. Smith

Eldred Gee Smith (January 9, 1907 – April 4, 2013) was the patriarch to the church of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1947 to 1979. From 1979 to his death he was the patriarch emeritus of the church. He was the oldest and longest-serving general authority in the history of the church, although he had not been active in that capacity from 1979 to his death. Early life and education Smith's father was Hyrum G. Smith, the presiding patriarch of the LDS Church from 1912 to 1932. The younger Smith graduated from LDS High School in Salt Lake City and later the University of Utah. He was trained and worked as an engineer, registered several patents, and enjoyed building and repairing clocks. From 1926 to 1929, he served as a LDS Church missionary in the Swiss-German Mission. Smith later served in several church positions, including high councilor and bishop of the 20th North Ward in Salt Lake City. From 1943 to 1946, Smith lived in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, while working on the Manhattan Project and served as president of the church's branch in Oak Ridge. LDS Church service At the time of Smith's birth, a new presiding patriarch was usually chosen based on the principle of patrilineal succession. The 25-year-old was unmarried and without a college degree when his father died in 1932, however. Believing that he was not ready, church president Heber J. Grant left the position vacant, and later appointed Eldred Smith's cousin, Joseph Fielding Smith, to be presiding patriarch in 1942. Joseph Fielding Smith's request to be released was granted by church president George Albert Smith in 1946. Eldred Smith was selected as the next presiding patriarch in 1947, marking the return of the office to the line of eldest sons descending from Hyrum Smith. By then he had married, started a family, and worked at several professions including cleaning and painting the ceiling of the Salt Lake Tabernacle. Smith later said of his first days as patriarch: "There is no way to prepare for it, no instructions, no counsel. When I was first ordained, I went into my office, closed the door and didn’t come out for two weeks. Then a young man came to the door asking for a blessing and so I gave it to him." During his tenure as presiding patriarch, Smith's primary duty was to travel to areas of the world where there were no patriarchs in order to bestow patriarchal blessings upon worthy Latter-day Saints.