Russell Marion Nelson Sr. is an American religious leader, author, philanthropist, and former surgeon who serves as the 17th and current president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Previously a member of the LDS Church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for approximately 34 years, he was elected quorum president in 2015. In January 2018, following the demise of his predecessor Thomas S. Monson, Nelson assumed the role of Church President. Nelson, who was born and reared in Utah, obtained his medical degree from the University of Utah and his doctorate from the University of Minnesota. In 1951, he was a member of the research team that created the heart-lung machine, which was instrumental in the world’s first open-heart surgery using mechanical heart and lung takeover (cardiopulmonary bypass). Nelson enlisted in the U.S. Army Medical Corps and served for two years during the Korean War. Later on, he completed a year of surgical training at Massachusetts General Hospital. As a surgeon and medical researcher, he was a prominent character in the field of cardiothoracic surgery, and he was elected president of the Society for Vascular Surgery and the Utah Medical Association. Between 1971 and 1979, he served as the General President of the Sunday School of the LDS Church.
Youth and Early Life
Russell Nelson was one of four children born on September 9, 1924, in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Marion Clavar Nelson (1897–1990) and Floss Edna Nelson (née Anderson; 1893–1982). He had three siblings: Robert Harold (1931–2014), Marjory Edna (1920–2016), and Enid (1926–).
The father of Nelson was a journalist for the Deseret News. He became the manager of Gillham Advertising Agency in the future. Nelson’s parents were not active Mormons when he was small. However, they ensured that he routinely attended Sunday School. He was baptized and joined the LDS Church when he was 16 years old.
Nelson simultaneously attended LDS Business College and secondary school. He also obtained employment as a bank assistant secretary. He graduated from secondary school at the age of 16 and then enrolled at the University of Utah. He received his B.A. in 1945 and his M.D. in 1947. While still pursuing his bachelor’s degree, he enrolled in medical school and completed the four-year M.D. program a year early.
Nelson matriculated at the University of Minnesota for surgical training and doctoral studies after earning his medical degree. In 1951, he received his doctorate. In March 1951, he participated in the world’s first open-heart surgery using cardiopulmonary bypass, which required the use of the heart-lung machine he helped develop.
Nelson enlisted in the United States Army at the onset of the Korean War and served two years as a medical officer at army bases in Korea, Japan, and Washington, D.C. After departing the army, he spent a year as a surgical trainee and employee at Harvard Medical School’s Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
A profession as a surgeon
Russell Nelson joined the faculty of the University of Utah School of Medicine in 1955. Soon after, he created his own heart-lung bypass machine and used it to execute the state’s first open-heart surgery at the Salt Lake General Hospital (SLGH). The adult patient had an atrial septal defect. He was the director of the University of Utah’s thoracic surgery residency program for a considerable amount of time.
This initiated an illustrious career with numerous accomplishments. In March 1956, he performed the first effective pediatric cardiac operation at the SLGH, a full repair of “Tetralogy of Fallot” in a four-year-old girl. Nelson was one of the most prominent surgeons who treated patients with coronary artery disease. He also contributed significantly to the development of valvular surgery. In 1960, he performed one of the first restorations of tricuspid valve regurgitation on a Latter-day Saint stake patriarch, followed by Spencer W. Kimball, the future president of the LDS Church.
In 1965, Nelson declined to become the department chair of thoracic surgery at the University of Chicago. Instead, he began to focus on administrative aspects of medicine and was subsequently elected president of the Utah State Medical Association. He also served as the Chairperson of LDS Hospital’s Division of Thoracic Surgery.
In 1975, Nelson was awarded the prestigious position of president of the Society for Vascular Surgery. In addition, he was appointed director of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery. Nelson traveled to numerous nations in South America, Africa, China, and India as a physician and conference speaker.
In 1985, Nelson and his colleague Conrad B. Jenson performed surgery on the Chinese opera singer Fang Rongxiang.
In 2015, in collaboration with the American College of Cardiology, the University of Utah established the Russell M. Nelson M.D., Ph.D. Visiting Professorship in Cardiothoracic Surgery in his honor.
Nelson’s Religious Ceremony
Russell M. Nelson, a devout member of the LDS Church, has been actively involved in church matters while concurrently maintaining a busy career in medicine. After his first marriage in 1945, he served the church as a bishopric counselor and stake high council member. In 1964, he was appointed to the position of stake president in Salt Lake City, where he served until 1971. He served as the church’s Sunday School General President for eight years and as a regional representative for four years.
On April 12, 1984, Gordon B. Hinckley ordained him an apostle. Following the deaths of Quorum members LeGrand Richards and Mark E. Petersen, Nelson was sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, along with Dallin H. Oaks.
He served as a member of the Church Boards of Trustees/Education, the governing body of the Church Educational System, from 2007 to 2015. He was subsequently elected as the executive committee’s chairman. Boyd K. Packer, president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the LDS Church, passed away on July 3, 2015. As a result, Nelson became the senior member of the Quorum of the Twelve and was subsequently ordained president of the Quorum.
Thomas S. Monson formally designated Nelson as quorum president on July 15, 2015.
His initial responsibility as quorum president was to oversee the church’s activities in Eastern Europe. He attended the first few meetings between LDS Church leaders and government officials while in Bulgaria. Additionally, Nelson traveled to the Czechoslovak Republic, Hungary, Poland, Ukraine, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo.
Nelson met with government officials and gave an interview to Yuzhnaya Stalitsa television as the first member of the Quorum of the Twelve to travel to Kazakhstan. He also traveled to China, where he established close professional ties with the local medical community.
Prior to his trip to the country, he attained an elementary level of Mandarin. Thomas Monson passed away on January 2, 2018, and it was consequently assumed that Nelson would succeed him as president. The church ordained and consecrated Nelson on January 14, 2018, and disclosed the news to the media and church members on January 16.
Nelson introduced several significant adjustments to the church’s policies. However, the majority of these changes had been extensively discussed before he became president, and a significant number merely represented the continuation of measures implemented by his predecessor.
Nelson disclosed during the April general conference that he intends to dissolve the ward-level high priest groups. In addition, he declared that home teaching and visiting teaching would be eliminated and the ministry programs would be renamed.
Nelson proposed permitting young women between the ages of 14 and 18 to serve as ministering sisters. In April 2018, he traveled the globe and encountered LDS believers in London, England; Jerusalem, Israel; Nairobi, Kenya; Harare, Zimbabwe; Bengaluru, India; Bangkok, Thailand; Hong Kong; and Laie, Hawaii.
On June 18, 2018, the church announced that the First Presidency has established a number of committees charged with creating a single hymnal for the church. It will be translated into numerous languages, with the same hymns in the same order in each translation.
Russell Nelson’s Awards
Russell M. Nelson was awarded the University of Utah’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 1997. In 2002, Nelson received the Heart of Gold Award from the American Heart Association. American Academy of Achievement presented him with the Golden Plate Award.
Nelson was awarded the Surgical Alumnus of the Year award by the University of Minnesota Medical School in 2014.
In 2018, he won the Governor’s Medal of Science: Lifetime Achievement Award at the Utah Technology Innovation Summit.
In June of 2018, the University of Utah established a cardiothoracic surgery chair in his and his late first wife Dantzel’s honor. He received honorary degrees from Brigham Young University in 1970 (Doctor of Science), Utah State University in 1989 (Doctor of Medical Science), and Snow College in 1994 (Doctor of Humane Letters).
Russell’s Personal Life
Russell M. Nelson and his first wife, Dantzel White, met while they were both students at the University of Utah. After three years of courtship, the couple wed on August 31, 1945, in the Salt Lake Temple. Together, they had ten children: Russell and nine daughters named Rosalie, Sylvia, Marsha, Wendy, Brenda, Emily, Laurie, Marjorie, and Gloria. Emily perished of cancer on January 29, 1995, when she was 37 years old.
On February 12, 2005, Nelson unexpectedly lost his first wife. Her age at the time of her unexpected demise was 78. He remarried the year after. Wendy L. Watson, a Canadian nurse, and educator, is his second wife. This ceremony also occurred at the Salt Lake Temple. This is Watson’s initial wedding. Over the years, Nelson has published several books, including a 1979 memoir titled “From Heart to Heart.”
Estimated Net Worth
Russell M. Nelson is one of the wealthiest Military Physicians and one of the most well-known Military Physicians. Russell M. Nelson has a net worth of $5 million, according to our analysis of Wikipedia, Forbes, and Business Insider.