Russell M. Nelson

Russell Marion Nelson Sr. (September 9, 1924 – September 27, 2025) was an American religious leader and surgeon who was the seventeenth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 2018 until his death in 2025. Before becoming church president, Nelson was a member of its Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for nearly thirty-four years and was the quorum president from 2015 to 2018. As church president, Nelson was recognized by the church as the prophet, seer, and revelator.

A native of Salt Lake City, Nelson attended the University of Utah for his undergraduate and medical school education. He then did his medical residency and earned a PhD at the University of Minnesota, where he was a member of the research team of Clarence Dennis that in 1951 pioneered the first human open-heart surgery using cardiopulmonary bypass. After serving in the U.S. Army Medical Corps during the Korean War, Nelson returned to Salt Lake City and accepted a professorship at the University of Utah School of Medicine. He spent the next twenty-nine years working in the field of cardiothoracic surgery. Nelson became a noted heart surgeon and served as president of the Society for Vascular Surgery and the Utah Medical Association.

Nelson served in a variety of lay LDS Church leadership positions during his surgical career, beginning locally in Salt Lake City and then as the church's Sunday School general president from 1971 to 1979. In 1984, Nelson and jurist Dallin H. Oaks were selected to fill two vacancies in the church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Living to the age of 101, Nelson was the oldest president in the church’s history.