In an April 2005 address to the worldwide membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, then-94-year-old Gordon B. Hinckley said that he'd never dreamed he would live so long. "My life reminds me of a sign that hung by a rusty staple to a run-down barbed-wire fence in Texas," Hinckley said. "It read, 'Burned out by drought. Drowned out by flood waters. Et out by jackrabbits. Sold out by sheriff. Still here!'"

Such humor and candor were characteristic of Hinckley, who died Sunday at 7 p.m. from causes incident to age after more than a decade at the head of the denomination founded by Joseph Smith on April 6, 1830, in Fayette, N.Y. He was 97.

Cody Clark

DAILY HERALD

Hinckley, the 15th LDS Church president, had been a trusted advisor to his last three predecessors, becoming Second Counselor in the First Presidency to Spencer W. Kimball on Dec. 2, 1982, and subsequently serving as First Counselor to both Ezra T. Benson and Howard W. Hunter.

At the time of Hunter's death on March 3, 1995, Hinckley, as senior member and president of the LDS Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, became the faith's presiding authority and was formally appointed its president nine days later.

A lifelong employee and later a General Authority of the LDS Church since completing a two-year LDS proselytizing mission in 1935 -- the lone exception being a brief interval during World War II when he was a supervisor for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad -- Hinckley was noted for shepherding the worldwide religion through a period of substantial growth, especially as regards its building of temples.

Temples, which can be entered only by faithful church members, are of central importance in LDS worship. Of the 124 temples in operation around the world, 77 were constructed during Hinckley's presidency, including 75 since June of 1997. In October of that year, Hinckley announced what many are likely to recall as the seminal initiative of his presidency, a plan to build small temples in remote parts of the world with low per-capita LDS membership.

"Are those who live in these places to be denied forever the blessings of the temple ordinances?" Hinckley said in an address to LDS priesthood membership. "While visiting such an area a few months ago, we prayerfully pondered this question. The answer, we believe, came bright and clear."

The 125th LDS temple, in Rexburg, Idaho, was also completed during Hinckley's tenure, but is not scheduled to be formally dedicated until Feb. 3.

Other key accomplishments include Hinckley's establishment of the Perpetual Education Fund, announced March 31, 2001, to assist in paying for the education of church members in impoverished nations, and the First Presidency's issuing of two important doctrinal statements.

The fundamental LDS belief in the importance of traditional two-parent families was reiterated in "The Family: A Proclamation to the World," first read by Hinckley in an address to the annual General Relief Society Meeting on Sept. 23, 1995. "The Living Christ: A Testimony of the Apostles," affirming the LDS belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ, was issued Jan. 1, 2000.

Hinckley was also noted for being a tireless traveler, visiting the LDS faithful in more than 70 nations, and for his openness in dealing with the media. He authored a book for national publisher Random House and famously granted interviews to Mike Wallace on "60 Minutes" and Larry King on "Larry King Live" (he appeared on the latter program four times).

Wallace later professed great admiration for Hinckley and spoke at the celebration of his 95th birthday. Following Hinckley's treatment for intestinal cancer in January, Wallace said of their first meeting that, "It was as though we became friends, instant friends, and we have been friends ever since."

On June 23, 2004, Hinckley received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor awarded by the United States, from President George W. Bush.

A Utah boy and lifelong Latter-day Saint

Hinckley was born June 23, 1910, in Salt Lake City, to Bryant S. and Ada Bitner Hinckley. Though he had eight elder siblings from his father's first marriage -- Bryant's first wife died in 1908 -- Hinckley was the first of five children born to Bryant and Ada.

Hinckley biographer Sheri L. Dew writes in her popular biography "Go Forward With Faith" that Hinckley was a "spindly, frail boy" who suffered from a variety of childhood ailments, including earaches, asthma and hay fever. His boyhood was marked by a closeness with brother Sherman, 16 months his junior and the young Hinckley's closest companion.

His academic interests turned to writing and literature in high school and, a few months after graduating from Salt Lake City's LDS High School in 1928, he enrolled at the University of Utah, where he studied English. Hinckley struggled to stay in school with the onset of the Great Depression the following year, but managed to pay his tuition and other costs by working for his father at the LDS Church-owned Deseret Gym.

Hinckley's mother, Ada, died of cancer in 1930 (his father remarried again two years later), adding to the turmoil caused by Depression-era hardships.

In June 1932, he graduated the U of U with a bachelor's degree, having completed a minor in ancient languages in addition to majoring in English. Despite having no money -- a small amount saved toward graduate school was wiped out by a bank failure -- Hinckley accepted the call to fill an LDS proselytizing mission to England, where he served from 1933 to 1935.

After initially despairing of his assignment in a letter to his father, Hinckley developed a fondness for the country and its people and later said, "What a blessing it became to set aside my own selfish interests to the greater interests of the work of the Lord."

Not long after returning from England, Hinckley resumed his courtship, begun prior to his mission, of Marjorie Pay. The two were wed April 29, 1937, in the Salt Lake Temple, the start of a long and committed marriage -- they were within weeks of observing their 67th wedding anniversary when Marjorie died of "causes incident to age" on April 6, 2004.

The Hinckleys raised five children together and later welcomed 25 grandchildren.

Church employee and "acting president"

It was during the period after his mission and prior to his wedding that Hinckley commenced his lifetime of employment with, and service to, the religion of his youth. In August 1935, following an interview with then-LDS Church President Heber J. Grant and his counselors, Hinckley was asked, at age 25, to serve as executive secretary and sole employee of the newly formed Church Radio, Publicity and Mission Literature Committee under Stephen L. Richards.

The position included a monthly salary of $65, which Hinckley augmented by working as an LDS seminary teacher for an additional $35 a month.

In his lifetime, Hinckley saw the day-to-day operations of the church expand from the point where his initial hiring increased the number of paid positions at church headquarters to 11, to the point at which headquarters grew to occupy a 28-story skyscraper on North Temple Street in Salt Lake City.

After filling a variety of church assignments over 23 years, Hinckley was asked to serve as a special assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1958. Three years later, on Sept. 30, 1961, he became a member of the Quorum of the Twelve at age 51.

Hinckley continued to fill those responsibilities over the next two decades. After becoming second counselor to Kimball, whose health had greatly declined at the time of Hinckley's appointment in 1982, Hinckley developed a reputation for being the "acting president of the church," a label that resurfaced during the subsequent presidency of Benson.

Following Benson's death, Hinckley and Thomas S. Monson were retained as counselors during the brief, nine-month presidency of Hunter.

At the time of his own appointment as church president, with Monson and James E. Faust as counselors, Hinckley wrote that, "I hope that the Lord has trained me to do what He expects of me. I will give Him total loyalty, and I will certainly seek His direction."

His presidency began on a groundbreaking note when he became the first church president in 21 years to hold a news conference and take questions from reporters. Other milestones soon followed. During his first 10 years as president, Hinckley logged more than a million miles of travel. In that same time, the church distributed 51 million copies of the Book of Mormon and disbursed $641 million in humanitarian aid.

In addition to initiating a boom in temple construction, he oversaw a number of other notable building projects, including construction of the spacious Conference Center in Salt Lake City, and a seismic refit and renovation of the historic Tabernacle.

Described by family members as being intensely shy, Hinckley nonetheless forged a reputation for being among the most outgoing and accessible of church presidents. He was also noted for disliking to be revered or adulated in any way.

After reviewing an early, unfinished manuscript copy of "Go Forward With Faith," he famously complained to Dew, as recounted in the book's preface, that, "I am sick, sick, sick of reading about Gordon Hinckley."

On another occasion, after Russell M. Nelson gave a Hinckley-lauding address at the October 1997 General Conference, Hinckley, conducting the meeting, stepped to the pulpit and, keeping a straight face before a TV and radio audience of millions, challenged Nelson to a duel. Monson, the next speaker, promptly volunteered to be Hinckley's second.

Monson, 80, is expected to be named Hinckley's successor, but a release issued by church officials stated that no announcement will be made until after Hinckley's funeral, expected to take place "within the next few days." With Hinckey's passing, Monson and second counselor Henry B. Eyring, called in October to replace the late Faust, have resumed their positions in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, of which Monson is the presiding member.

Hinckley passed away in the presence of family members at his home in Salt Lake City. He is survived by his five children, 25 grandchildren and 38 great-grandchildren.

Cody Clark can be reached at 344-2542 or cclark@heraldextra.com.