Estimated read time: 9-10 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — President M. Russell Ballard, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died Sunday, according to church officials.
President Ballard, 95, died Sunday night. After a recent brief hospital stay, he returned to his home where he attended to duties as he was able to before passing away at approximately 11:15 p.m. surrounded by loved ones. He was 95. He had served as a member of the quorum since he was called on Oct. 6, 1985.
He is survived by his seven children, 43 grandchildren 105 great-grandchildren and one great-great grandchild. He is preceded in death by his wife, Barbara Bowen Ballard, who died in 2018.
Early life
Melvin Russell Ballard, Jr. was born Oct. 8, 1928, in Salt Lake City to parents Melvin Russell and Geraldine Smith Ballard.
He was the grandson of Elder Hyrum Mack Smith and Elder Melvin J. Ballard, both of whom also served in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. His ancestry also included Hyrum Smith — his great-great-grandfather — who was the brother of church president and founder Joseph Smith, and his great-grandfather was another former church president Joseph F. Smith.
President Ballard was a hardworking child, according to his sister, Ann Keddington.
"He always had a job, even when he was little," she told the Ensign magazine in 1986, after his call as an apostle.
President Ballard started by cutting lawns and took on more yard work responsibilities until he moved on to other jobs. Keddington remembered him as a "smiling, slender, wiry young man with a fun sense of humor," who was also a leader among his family and friends.
He met his wife, Barbara Bowen, in 1950 at a University of Utah dance. They courted 11 months before marrying in the Salt Lake Temple on Aug. 28, 1951. They had two sons and five daughters together: Clark, Holly, Meleea, Tamara, Stacey, Brynn and Craig.
"I knew from the beginning that I wanted to marry her, but she didn't share the same feelings. It was a little hard convincing her. I kid her now that getting her to agree to marry me was the greatest sales job I ever did," President Ballard once said of Sister Ballard.
Sister Ballard died Oct. 1, 2018, at age 86 after facing many health complications including Alzheimer's disease. President Ballard spoke at the church's general conference just six days later.
"How grateful I am to know where my precious Barbara is and that we will be together again, with our family, for all eternity,"
President Ballard said at the end of his talk, "May the peace of the Lord sustain us now and forever."
'A lifetime of service': Words of praise for President M. Russell Ballard spread after his death
Many leaders have shared gratitude for President M. Russell Ballard and his years of service in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the community.Education and career
An alumnus of East High School and the University of Utah, President Ballard was recognized by his fraternity brothers as someone who was uncompromising in his values. They often referred to him as "the bishop."
President Ballard worked in his father's car dealership, Ballard Motor Company, as the top-selling salesman, eventually taking over for his father. The dealership became the Edsel car dealer for Salt Lake City and was the most successful in the country.
Eventually, though, the Edsel failed and the Ford Motor Company, and dealers across the U.S., lost hundreds of millions of dollars.
From this experience, President Ballard said he learned about compassion for people who go through difficulties. It took years of hard work, but President Ballard helped his company fully recover from the losses.
President Ballard was also a prolific writer, publishing a dozen books through Deseret Book.
Church service
President Ballard served in many church capacities — many having to do with missionary work — beginning with his own mission to England as a young man. While serving there in 1949, he was called as the first counselor in the presidency over the British Mission.
He served as a bishop twice and also as the president of the Canada Toronto Mission beginning in 1974. He was called to the First Quorum of the Seventy in 1976. While serving in this capacity, he oversaw the quality of the church curriculum, official church publications and the church's missionary department.
From February 1980 to the time of his calling to the Quorum of the Twelve, he served in the Presidency of the Seventy.
Apostleship
President Ballard was sustained as an apostle on Oct. 6, 1985, following the death of Elder Bruce R. McConkie, whose passing left a vacancy in the church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
"It was an overwhelming call," President Ballard said in 1986. "Some of my associates in the Quorum of the Twelve tell me there is an ongoing feeling of humility and wonderment at the call."
He was sustained as the acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles by President Russell M. Nelson on Jan. 14, 2018, following the death of President Thomas S. Monson.
Drawn toward ancestors and pioneers
Following his call as an apostle, President Ballard said he felt "a great closeness" to his ancestors, including the first president of the church, Joseph Smith, who was his great-great uncle.
"I'll often sit in my office wrestling with assignments I have, thinking about how to better do things, and gain a great deal of strength looking at their countenances and realizing they're not very far away," he said.
President Ballard spoke with KSL in 2016 about his pioneer heritage, prior to being the grand marshal at Utah's Days of '47 Parade. He said that reading the history of the early Mormon pioneers "regardless of what religion they may have been believing in" can give people an appreciation of the hard work and trials pioneers went through.
President Ballard also helped with several church history preservation projects, including the Ensign Peak Park and Nature Trail sites in Kirtland, Ohio, This is the Place Heritage Park and the Smith farm and church in Topsfield, Massachusetts.
Additionally, he helped with the 1997 Sesquicentennial Celebration of the 1847 pioneer trek to Utah and later dedicated a plaza in Salt Lake City honoring soldiers who served in the Mormon Battalion. He received the Junius F. Wells Award in 2007 for his work to help preserve historically significant Mormon sites.
In October 2019, President Ballard went on a ministry tour of New England with Elder D. Todd Christofferson, where they congregated with members in the area and visited sites of early church history, including Sharon, Vermont, the birthplace of Joseph Smith.
He said he felt a personal charge from his ancestors, Joseph and Hyrum.
"I think I hear them say, 'Get going, boy and do something worthwhile. Tell the world what's happened,'" President Ballard said in a video produced by Church News, his voice catching with emotion.
In 2021, Gov. Spencer Cox designated July 23 as "President M. Russell Ballard Day" to honor President Ballard's work to preserve Utah and pioneer history.
Cox said there is "one person in this state that has done more to keep that spirit" alive than anyone else, "and that is President Ballard," reported the Deseret News.
Ministry
Throughout his church service, President Ballard spoke of members' duty to be missionaries and humanitarians.
"The Savior's words are simple, yet their meaning is profound and deeply significant. We are to love God and to love and care for our neighbors as ourselves," he said in an October 2012 General Conference talk. "Imagine what good we can do in the world if we all join together, united as followers of Christ, anxiously and busily responding to the needs of others and serving those around us — our families, our friends, our neighbors, our fellow citizens."
President Ballard was the only apostle to go with President Nelson to meet with the Pope in a private meeting in March 2019. All 15 members of the church presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles were in Rome to attend the Rome Italy Temple dedication.
In October 2019, President Ballard said the United States and other nations "are at another crossroad" and invited members of the church to pray for the U.S., its leaders and residents, and to, in turn, invite their neighbors and friends to pray for the country as well.
"I plead with you this evening to pray for this country, for our leaders, for our people and for the families that live in this great nation founded by God," he said. "Remember, this country was established and preserved by our founding fathers and mothers who repeatedly acknowledged the hand of God through prayer."
During the April 2023 General Conference, President Ballard reflected on what matters most, including developing a relationship with God and Jesus Christ, maintaining family relationships and following the promptings of the Spirit.
He said one lesson he learned from his wife, Barbara, is that: "What matters most is what lasts longest."
In November 2023, soon after general conference, President Ballard announced he had spent time in the hospital due to respiratory issues.
President Ballard spoke extemporaneously at general conference on Oct. 1 because of poor eyesight, for which he gave a self-deprecating explanation.
"My eyes aren't what they used to be," he said. "I went and saw the eye doctor, and I said, 'I can't see the teleprompter.' And she said, 'Well, your eyes are old. They're not going to change.'"
"So I'll do the best I can," he said.
He then bore a tender testimony of Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon and the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ.
President Ballard said it has been a "wonderful blessing" to serve as a general authority for the last 50 years.
"I think it's one of the most glorious and wonderful things that anybody in this world can know — that our Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ have revealed Themselves in this latter day and that Joseph has been raised up to restore the fulness of the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ," he said.
"President Ballard was never indecisive," President Nelson said. "He knew exactly what the Lord taught and how it could be applied in one's personal life and bring joy and happiness."
