NEWSFLASH! President Eyring is Now the 1st Counselor in the First Presidency of President Thomas S. Monson!

President Henry B. Eyring
New 2nd Counselor in the First Presidency of the LDS Church.

Kelly Bingham
October 7, 2007

Salt Lake City -- Henry B. Eyring was sustained as 2nd Counselor to LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley on October 6, 2007 during the morning session of 177th Semi Annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. President Eyring fills the vacancy in the First Presidency after the death of President James E. Faust on August 10, 2007.

"My main feeling is gratitude that the Lord would have the trust to allow me this opportunity for me to serve, and that President Hinckley and President Monson would have enough trust for me to serve," said President Eyring. "It has been a time when I have felt the hand of the lord helping and sustaining me, with a feeling of personal inadequacy as I face this momentous responsibility."

President Eyring was born May 31, 1933, Princeton, New Jersey. He served two years in the U.S. Air Force. He is married to Kathleen Johnson Eyring, and has reared six children. He received his Bachelor's Degree in Physics from the University of Utah, and his Masters Degree and PhD in Business Administration from Harvard Business School. His career in academia has included an association professorship of business at Stanford University, and a Sloan Visiting Faculty Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He has served in the church as a bishop, a regional representative, and a member of the Sunday School General Board. He was also commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of Education for Church Educational System, and as president of Rick's College (now BYU-Idaho). In April 1985 he was called as a first counselor in the Presiding Bishopric of the Church. In October of 1992, he was sustained as a General Authority in the First Quorum of the Seventy. He was ordained as an Apostle in the Quorum of the Twelve in April 1995, after the death of Church President Howard W. Hunter left a vacancy in the quorum.

"We are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of the living God, who are generous and in every way want to extend every happiness someone is willing to accept. Our faith is in that testimony," said President Eyring. "I know there is a loving Heavenly Father and He hears prayers and He will reach out. There is a Lord, Jesus Christ and when we go to The Father in the Name of Jesus Christ oh The Father hear us; and we are able to be blessed because of the atonement of Jesus Christ in ways that are marvelous. We invite all to come and partake of those blessings to the degree they would like to take."

Read President Eyring's latest Conference talk.

Watch a news conference held October 6, 2007 for President Henry B. Eyring and Elder Quentin L. Cook.

(last updated 10/11/2007 10:54PM MST)