SALT LAKE CITY -- Even as Mormon faithful prepare to bury their prophet Saturday, they're looking ahead to a new era with Thomas S. Monson at the helm of their 13 million-member church. Hinckley's longtime friend and confidante, Monson is known as a storyteller and empathetic leader who knows the church's hierarchy from the inside out.

Some Mormons wonder whether the next president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will share the humor and humanity of Gordon B. Hinckley, who died Sunday at 97.

Will Monson, who is likely to become the 16th LDS president, continue Hinckley's outreach to other faith communities? Will he travel as widely? How will he deal with the world's media when they ask tough questions?

Despite being an LDS leader since he was 36, the 80-year-old Monson has worked in the shadows of his charismatic predecessor. He is known for homey parables about helping widows during the Depression or being a bishop in the 1950s, but what else?

Monson is an affable, open-minded leader who was an ally in interfaith activities, said Archbishop George H. Niederauer of the Catholic Diocese of San Francisco.

"Whenever we had questions or concerns about the community, we would walk down to his office," said Niederauer, Utah's Catholic bishop until February 2006. "He always made time for us."

John W. Gallivan goes one step farther in describing Monson's outreach.

"More than being tolerant of persons of other faiths, he abides by the golden rule of 'Live and let live,' " said Gallivan, retired publisher of The Salt Lake Tribune.

Gallivan tells how Monson once rode the Concorde, the supersonic plane capable of crossing the ocean in a couple of hours. Upon deplaning in New York City, every passenger received a gift -- a half pint of whiskey.

Other Mormons might have poured it down the drain, as drinking alcohol is against the LDS health code. But Monson took it straight to Gallivan.

"He said he was sure I would get more use of it than he would," the newsman said.

Gallivan worked alongside Monson for 30 years as partners in Newspaper Agency Corp., the company that handles advertising, production and distribution of the Tribune and the LDS Church-owned Deseret Morning News. Monson represented the Deseret News at the time and the two never quarreled about business, Gallivan said. "Tom Monson is a man of integrity, possessed of a great sense of humor. It's a sense of the eternal fitness of things."

Emma Lou Thayne, a Mormon poet who sat on the newspaper's board with Monson for 17 years, agrees.

"He mostly got along well with people. He likes people a lot, and that shows," Thayne said. "It gets returned to him."

Whenever an issue about women or families troubles Thayne, she goes to see her old pal and ends up spending two hours when she intended a 10-minute chat.

"He remains open to my ideas," she said.

Thayne, however, said Monson will operate differently than Hinckley did. "His background is in business, which is how he is oriented."

Monson and billionaire philanthropist Jon Huntsman Sr. are fishing buddies and close friends.

The two became close in 1981 when President Ronald Reagan appointed Monson to serve on the President's Task Force on Private Sector Initiatives, on the interfaith committee. At the time, Huntsman, the founder of a worldwide chemical conglomerate and father of Utah's governor, was serving as an LDS mission president in the Washington, D.C., area.

"I worked closely with President Monson and with all other religious leaders, Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, Jewish. They all liked and respected his leadership," Huntsman said.

Huntsman believes Monson will continue Hinckley's legacy of reaching beyond Mormonism's borders.

"He's as comfortable at the Cathedral of the Madeleine as in the (LDS) Tabernacle," Huntsman said. "He finds comfort in all faiths, encourages and inspires leaders of all faiths. (During his presidency), we will see a tremendous interaction with leaders of other denominations around the world."