Joseph Anderson (1889-1992)

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This page refers to the Latter-day Saint leader Joseph Anderson. For the U.S. Senator from Tennessee of the same name, see Joseph Anderson. For the Brigadier General, see Joseph R. Anderson.

Joseph Anderson (20 November 1889—13 March 1992) was a General Authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Having lived to the age of 102, Anderson holds the record for the oldest General Authority in Church history.

Anderson was born in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1889, the same year that Wilford Woodruff was sustained as President of the Church. Anderson was a secretary to the First Presidency of the Church between 1922 and 1970. On 6 April 1970, Church President David O. McKay released Anderson from his secretarial duties and called him to serve as an Assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. When that calling was abolished in 1976, Anderson was ordained a Seventy and became a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy. In 1978, Anderson became an emeritus General Authority and was relieved of his day-to-day duties as a Seventy. Anderson died in Salt Lake City at the age of 102. He is one of only two General Authorities of the Church to reach the age of 100, the second being former Presiding Patriarch Eldred G. Smith, who reached the age of 100 in 2007.

Anderson was married to Norma Ettie Peterson in 1915. The couple had five children.

[edit] Reference

• "News of the Church: Elder Joseph Anderson Eulogized", Ensign, May 1992, p. 105.