Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Template:Short description Template:Infobox Latter Day Saint biography Dieter Friedrich Uchtdorf (born 6 November 1940) is a German aviator, airline executive and religious leader. He is a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Called as an apostle in 2004, he served as Second Counselor to Thomas S. Monson in the church's First Presidency from 2008 until Monson's death on 2 January 2018.<ref name=firstpresrelease>Template:Citation</ref> Currently, Uchtdorf is the fourth most senior apostle in the ranks of the church.<ref>Apostolic seniority is generally understood to include all ordained apostles (including the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Seniority is determined by date of ordination, not by age or other factors. If two apostles are ordained on the same day, the older of the two is typically ordained first. See Succession to the presidency and Template:Cite journal.</ref>

Early life and education

Uchtdorf was born to German parents Karl Albert Uchtdorf and Hildegard Else Opelt in Moravská Ostrava (Template:Langx), which at the time was in the Nazi-occupied Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (now Ostrava, Czech Republic).<ref name="Church News 2008-08-19">Template:Cite news</ref> His father was a customs officer, who was conscripted into the German Army toward the end of World War II and sent to the western front.<ref name="Hope">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> When a young child, Uchtdorf traveled with his mother and three siblings through areas being bombed in a move to Zwickau in eastern Germany.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> He later said of this period: "We were refugees with an uncertain future... I played in bombed-out houses and grew up with the ever-present consequences of a lost war and the awareness that my own country had inflicted terrible pain on many nations during the horrific World War II."<ref name="historyofmormonism">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> As a result of his grandmother's encounter with a member of the LDS Church in a soup line, Uchtdorf's family joined the LDS Church when he was still young.<ref name = holland>Template:Citation</ref>

When Uchtdorf was about eleven, his father's political beliefs, incongruent with Soviet rule, earned him the label of "dissenter", thus putting their lives in danger.<ref>Russell M. Nelson, "President Dieter F. Uchtdorf: A Family Man, a Man of Faith, a Man Foreordained", Ensign, July 2008.</ref> They fled East Germany and resettled in U.S.-occupied West Germany. His sisters accomplished this by jumping from a moving train that happened to pass through West Germany, while Dieter and his mother climbed a mountain to avoid GDR guard checkpoints.

Uchtdorf started studying mechanical engineering at age 18 but later continued in business administration in Cologne and graduated from Institut pour l'Etude des Methodes de Direction de l'Entreprise (today the International Institute for Management Development) in Lausanne, with an MBA.<ref name="Biography">Template:Citation</ref> He received an honorary doctorate in international leadership from Brigham Young University during the April 2009 graduation ceremony.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Aviator

When Uchtdorf was conscripted into the newly formed Bundeswehr in 1959, he volunteered for the air force, at age 19, to become a fighter pilot.<ref name="Church News 2004-10-16">Template:Citation</ref> Due to an agreement between the West German and US governments, Uchtdorf trained as a fighter pilot in Big Spring, Texas,<ref name="Church News May 2009">Template:Citation</ref> where he excelled, earning the coveted Commander's Trophy (USAF) for being the best student pilot in his class.<ref name = holland/> After earning wings from both the German and US air forces, he served for six years as a fighter pilot in West Germany, leaving in 1965 to join Lufthansa. By 1970, at 29 years of age, Uchtdorf had reached the rank of captain with Lufthansa. He was appointed in 1975 as head of Lufthansa's new Arizona Training School in the US, and in 1980 he was made head chief pilot of cockpit crews, followed by appointment to senior vice president of flight operations in 1982.<ref name = holland/> He left Lufthansa in 1996, two years after being called as an LDS Church general authority.<ref name="Church News May 2009"/>

LDS Church service

Uchtdorf visiting the Accra, Ghana LDS mission in 2007

Uchtdorf served twice as a stake president in the LDS Church,<ref name="Church News 2004-10-16"/> presiding over the Frankfurt and the Mannheim stakes.

Uchtdorf was called as a general authority and member of the church's Second Quorum of the Seventy on 2 April 1994.<ref name="Church News 2008-08-19" /> On 7 April 1996, he was transferred to the First Quorum of Seventy.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> Uchtdorf became a member of the church's Presidency of the Seventy on 15 August 2002.<ref name=DN2008-02-04>Template:Citation</ref>

Apostle

Uchtdorf was sustained a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on 2 October 2004. He was ordained an apostle on 7 October 2004 by church president Gordon B. Hinckley. Uchtdorf and David A. Bednar were called to fill the vacancies created by the July 2004 deaths of quorum members David B. Haight and Neal A. Maxwell.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> Uchtdorf was the first church apostle ordained in the 21st century. As an apostle, Uchtdorf is accepted by the church as a prophet, seer, and revelator.

Uchtdorf is the eleventh apostle of the LDS Church to be born outside the United States.<ref>"LDS apostles born outside the United States", The Salt Lake Tribune, 3 October 2004. Retrieved on 30 March 2020.</ref> He is the first German apostle in church history and was the first born outside of North America since the death of John A. Widtsoe in 1952.

While in Slovakia on 12 May 2006, Uchtdorf offered a prayer dedicating the land "for the preaching of the gospel", an LDS Church leadership custom usually observed at the time missionaries arrive in a new country. Although missionaries had been in what is now Slovakia for over a century,<ref>Template:Citation</ref> since the split with the Czech Republic, this dedication was specific for the new country.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Counselor in the First Presidency

On 3 February 2008, Uchtdorf became the Second Counselor to Thomas S. Monson in the church's First Presidency.<ref name="Church News 2008-08-19" /><ref name= DN2008-02-04 /><ref>Template:Citation</ref> He is the second non-English native speaker to have served in the First Presidency.<ref>The other man who served in the First Presidency who did not have English as his native tongue was Anthon H. Lund, who was from Denmark. Marion G. Romney, although born in Mexico, had American parents and English was his native language.</ref> After joining the First Presidency, Uchtdorf became a naturalized US citizen;<ref>Matt Canham, "Mormon leader: Obama's immigration plan matches LDS values", The Salt Lake Tribune, 9 March 2013.</ref> he has remained a citizen of Germany.<ref>Tad Walsh, "LDS Church reaffirms stance on immigration", Deseret News, 15 April 2013.</ref>

While serving in the First Presidency, Uchtdorf dedicated the Tegucigalpa Honduras,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Quetzaltenango Guatemala,<ref>ChurchofJesusChristTemples.org article on Quezaltenango Temple</ref> Manaus Brazil,<ref>Mormon Temples.org article on Manuas Temple</ref> Fort Lauderdale Florida,<ref name=FtLauderdale>Template:Citation</ref> Cordoba Argentina,<ref name=Dedication>Template:Citation</ref> Trujillo Peru,<ref>Template:Citation</ref> Tijuana Mexico,<ref>Template:Citation</ref> Fort Collins Colorado,<ref>Template:Citation</ref> and Tucson Arizona<ref>Template:Citation</ref> temples. Uchtdorf has also participated in the dedication of many other temples as a member of the Twelve and the First Presidency.

In May 2016, Uchtdorf traveled to the Czech Republic to create the first stake in that nation.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

At the time of Monson's death on 2 January 2018, with the dissolution of the First Presidency, Uchtdorf returned to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, along with Monson's First Counselor, Henry B. Eyring. When the First Presidency was subsequently reorganized under new church president Russell M. Nelson, Uchtdorf was not retained as a counselor in the First Presidency and continued his service in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

While not unprecedented in church history, the last time a new church president did not retain a counselor who served in the First Presidency under his predecessor was in 1985. Uchtdorf, who had taught as a member of the First Presidency that church members should neither seek or decline callings, that they should lift where they stand, and that at the end of each assignment, subsequent changes should be graciously accepted, posted his support for the new leaders, especially referencing his willingness to resume his ministry as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.<ref>Template:Citation news</ref>

Quorum of the Twelve

Following his return to the Quorum of the Twelve after the reorganization of the First Presidency, the church announced new assignments for Uchtdorf on January 22, 2018. These assignments had been noted by Nelson in the news conference where the new First Presidency was announced. The assignments include chairman of the church's Missionary Executive Council, chairman of the Correlation Executive Council, and being the primary contact for the church's Europe and Europe East areas.<ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Political donations

In March 2021, public records showed 23 different donations which were made under Uchtdorf's name in 2020 and 2021. These donations were made to Joe Biden's presidential campaign, Democratic candidates in the Georgia Senate race, and other Democratic political funds. If made solely by Uchtdorf, this would be contrary to the LDS Church's political neutrality policies. Uchtdorf issued a statement noting the donations were made from a shared online family account and that having the contributions show in his name was an oversight.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Family

Uchtdorf and his wife, Harriet Reich Uchtdorf, were married on 14 December 1962 in the Swiss Temple. They are the parents of two children and have six grandchildren.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Works

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See also

• Church Educational System
• Council on the Disposition of the Tithes
• Uchtdorf, a village in Germany

References

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External links

• General Authorities and General Officers: Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf
• Dieter F. Uchtdorf on Special Witnesses of Christ