Hugh B. Brown
Born: 24 October 1883
Called as Assistant to the Twelve: 4 October 1953
Called to the Quorum of the Twelve: 10 April 1958
Called as Third Counselor in the First Presidency: 22 June 1961 (David O. McKay)
Called as Second Counselor in the First Presidency: 12 October 1961 (David O. McKay)
Called as First Counselor in the First Presidency: 4 October 1963 (David O. McKay)
Returned to the Quorum: 18 January 1970
Died: 2 December 1975
Called as Assistant to the Twelve: 4 October 1953
Called to the Quorum of the Twelve: 10 April 1958
Called as Third Counselor in the First Presidency: 22 June 1961 (David O. McKay)
Called as Second Counselor in the First Presidency: 12 October 1961 (David O. McKay)
Called as First Counselor in the First Presidency: 4 October 1963 (David O. McKay)
Returned to the Quorum: 18 January 1970
Died: 2 December 1975
Talks on Church WebsiteImage source: Improvement Era, June 1958
Image source: Improvement Era, December 1953
|
Image source: Relief Society Magazine, December 1953
Image source: Improvement Era, August 1961
Image source: Relief Society Magazine, December 1963
|
Biographical Articles
Improvement Era, December 1953, Hugh B. Brown, Assistant to the Council of the Twelve
Relief Society Magazine, December 1953, Elder Hugh B. Brown Appointed Assistant to the Council of the Twelve
Instructor, September 1954, Elder Hugh B. Brown Announced as Advisor to Sunday School
Improvement Era, June 1958, Hugh B. Brown of the Council of the Twelve
Improvement Era, August 1961, President Hugh B. Brown of the First Presidency
Relief Society Magazine, August 1961, Hugh B. Brown - of the First Presidency
Instructor, November 1961, Thank You, President Brown
Instructor, December 1961, Fear Not Death
Relief Society Magazine, December 1961, Hugh B. Brown Appointed Second Counselor in the First Presidency
Relief Society Magazine, December 1963, President Hugh B. Brown
Ensign, January 1976, Elder Hugh B. Brown (1883-1975) In Memoriam
Relief Society Magazine, December 1953, Elder Hugh B. Brown Appointed Assistant to the Council of the Twelve
Instructor, September 1954, Elder Hugh B. Brown Announced as Advisor to Sunday School
Improvement Era, June 1958, Hugh B. Brown of the Council of the Twelve
Improvement Era, August 1961, President Hugh B. Brown of the First Presidency
Relief Society Magazine, August 1961, Hugh B. Brown - of the First Presidency
Instructor, November 1961, Thank You, President Brown
Instructor, December 1961, Fear Not Death
Relief Society Magazine, December 1961, Hugh B. Brown Appointed Second Counselor in the First Presidency
Relief Society Magazine, December 1963, President Hugh B. Brown
Ensign, January 1976, Elder Hugh B. Brown (1883-1975) In Memoriam
Sperry, Sidney B. "Hugh B. Brown, Assistant to the Council of the Twelve." Improvement Era. December 1953. pg. 914, 983-985.
HUGH B. BROWN ASSISTANT TO THE COUNCIL OF THE TWELVE by Dr. Sidney B. Sperry DIRECTOR OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY Editor's Note: On October 4, 1953, members of the Church in General Conference in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, raised their hands to sustain Elder Richard L. Evans as a member of the Council of the Twelve Apostles, Elder Hugh B. Brown, Assistant to the Council of the Twelve, and Elder Marion D. Hanks to the First Council of the Seventy. Articles on Brother Brown and Brother Hanks are presented herewith. An article on Brother Evans is being held for the January issue. Henry Ward Beecher once said, "When the sun goes below the horizon, he is not set; the heavens glow for a full hour after his departure." And when Hugh B. Brown retired from Brigham Young University in April 1950, he left a spiritual and religious glow that has never been forgotten by the faculty members of that institution nor by the hundreds of Brother Brown's students. He will always be remembered as a Christian gentleman, and a greater tribute I cannot pay him. "Whoever," said Emerson, "is open, loyal, true; of humane and affable demeanor; honorable himself, and in his judgment of others; faithful to his word as to law, and faithful alike to God and man—such a man is a true gentleman." One cannot be in Hugh B. Brown's presence without being aware that one is in the company of a great man. He has the dignity, poise, and gentility that carry with them the instant respect and liking of his fellow men. When Brother Brown came to Brigham Young University in 1947, he already had to his credit an ordinary lifetime of service in civil, military, legal, and Church pursuits. During World War I he had served as a major in the Canadian army and saw great service in that bloody conflict. I well remember the stir he made among young and old alike when he came to Salt Lake City to make his home. He became president of Granite Stake, and many are the folk who even yet go out of their way to tell me of the love they have for "President" Brown. He was twice president of the British Mission, and one has only to speak to missionaries who served under him to realize the great influence and power for good he wielded in their lives. During World War II, Elder Brown acted as co-ordinator for LDS servicemen. He inspired and encouraged young soldiers to a degree that few men could match. Add to all of these accomplishments the fact that Brother Brown has practised law in both Canada and the United States and one begins to realize the diversity of his experience and talents. After working with servicemen at Brigham Young University for a season, Elder Brown was assigned by President Howard McDonald to work in the Division of Religion. Everyone with whom he worked learned to love and respect Elder Brown. One of his greatest characteristics was his genuine humility and full loyalty to those with whom he worked. The Lord has endowed Elder Brown with some extraordinary talents. One is his power of speech. In this respect he has the gift of Aaron. Another is his gift to inspire. This gift comes of course, as a result of a long life of devoted spiritual service. In the religion classroom few men can equal his ability, energy, and spiritual power. Hundreds of young students at Brigham Young University flocked to his classes to receive a spiritual rebirth. Not long ago a returned serviceman told me about an address delivered by Brother Brown in California to a large number of soldiers. He said the effect upon the men was electric. "Never," he continued, "have I come closer to the angels." Brother Brown has another gift that should be mentioned. That is his ability to be both leader and companion of young people. He is at once sympathetic and sensitive to their points of view and they trust and respect his judgment. Hugh B. Brown has reared a large, responsible family. Elder Hugh B. Brown was born in Salt Lake City, October 24, 1883, a son of Homer ML and Lydia J. Brown. In 1900 his family migrated to Canada. From there he was called to serve as a missionary in Great Britain from 1904 to 1906. In June 1908 he married Zina Young Card. He was ordained a bishop and later served as a member of the Alberta Stake high council. In 1921, when the Lethbridge Stake of Zion was organized, he was called to be its first president. Elder Brown served overseas in the Canadian forces during World War I, where he attained the rank of a major. He returned to make his home in Salt Lake City in. 1927. Here he was called as president of Granite Stake, serving from 1929 to 1935. He presided over the British Mission from 1937 to 1940 and spent the war years, 1942-46, as co-ordinator of LDS servicemen and was recalled before the end of the war as president of the British Mission. He then served four years, 1946-50, as professor of religion and co-ordinator of veterans' affairs at Brigham Young University. In 1950 he returned to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, where he served as president and manager of Richland Oil Development Company of Canada, Ltd. Brother and Sister Brown have the following sons and daughters: Zina Lydia Brown Brown, Zola Grace Brown Hodson, Lejune Brown Munk, Mary Myrtice Brown Firmage, Hugh Card Brown (deceased), Charles M. Brown, Margaret Alberta Brown Jorgensen, and Carol Rae Bunker. They have twenty-one grandchildren. He and his good companion through life must be counted successful parents. "As are families," says Thayer, "so is society. If well ordered, well instructed, and well governed, they are the springs from which go forth the streams of national great- ness and prosperity—of civil order and public happiness." Brother and Sister Brown have tasted much happiness in the rearing of their family, but they have also known sorrow in the loss of their son Hugh C, a pilot in the RAF, in World War II. The Browns are hospitable. They know the art of entertaining graciously, and many faculty members at the "Y" will remember with pleasure the entertainment they received at their home. At an age when most men would have been content to retire from active participation in business Elder Brown entered into gas and oil enterprises with high enthusiasm—and success. We were sorry to lose him at BYU but were glad to see him in action in the Canadian oil fields with men whose names ranked high in the world of petroleum. His restless spirit is happy when engaged in creative work on a large scale. But happy as he was in this work, the call of his Church was instantly obeyed. When President David O. McKay announced the name of Hugh B. Brown as an Assistant to the Twelve, all who knew him gladly raised their hand to sustain the choice because they knew him to be a worthy, broad - gauged servant of God. Brigham Young University joins the Church in saluting Elder Brown in his new calling. |
Elder Hugh B. Brown
Elder Hugh B. Brown with members of his family, photographed about February 1944:
front row, left to right, Elder Brown, Sister Zina Y. C. Brown, Mary B. Firmage, Edwin R. Firmage (son-in-law). Back row, left to right: Zola B. Hodson, Margaret B. Jorgensen, Clinton C. Jorgensen (son-in-law), Carol B. Bunker, Zina B. Brown, C. Manley Brown, Grace B. Brown (daughter-in-law), and Lejune B. Munk. Inset, Hugh C. Brown, who lost his life in World War II. |
Morris, George Q. "Elder Hugh B. Brown Appointed Assistant to the Council of the Twelve." Relief Society Magazine. December 1953. pg. 807-809.
Elder Hugh B. Brown Appointed Assistant to the Council of the Twelve Elder George Q. Morris Assistant to the Council of the Twelve ELDER Hugh B. Brown, sustained as an Assistant to the Twelve on the closing day of conference, October 4, 1953, enters into his new duties as a General Authority of the Church with a rich background of Church service in important and varied callings during the past fifty years. In these callings as a missionary; a bishop's counselor in the Cardston Ward for six years; a co-ordinator of servicemen in the European theater of war; co-ordinator of veterans service at the Brigham Young University; a president of two different stakes, Lethbridge and Granite; and twice president of the British Mission, he comes eminently qualified to render valuable service to the Church and to the people in his new calling. Owing to his wide and intimate contacts with the youth of the Church, as co-ordinator both to servicemen and veterans, as Professor of Religion at the Brigham Young University, as bishop's counselor, and as stake president, he has rendered great service to the youth of the Church and as speaker and counselor to youth has been widely sought. Born in Salt Lake City, October 26, 1883, the son of Homer M. and Lydia Jane Brown, Elder Brown passed his boyhood days in Salt Lake City until his middle teens when he went to Canada with his parents. There, at the age of twenty-one, he was called upon a mission to Great Britain, from which he was released in 1906. He served with distinction in the first World War, going overseas in command of a squadron of mounted riflemen, and returning home as a major in the Canadian Army. Upon his return from the war, Elder Brown took up the study of law and entered into the practice of his profession. Two years after Elder Brown's return from his mission, June 17, 1908, he was married to Zina Young Card, daughter of Charles Ora Card and Zina Young Card. Sister Brown's father was founder of Cardston, having gone with a group of pioneer settlers, in 1887, to Canada. Sister Brown's mother was a daughter of Brigham Young. Brother and Sister Brown had eight children, six daughters and two sons, all living and all married, except one son, Hugh C. Brown, who was lost in the Royal Air Force Combat Service in 1942. Sister Brown was born in Cardston. Alberta, and the family resided there after their marriage until 1921, when they moved to Lethbridge. Alberta. The Lethbridge Stake was organized in November of that year, it being the third stake in Canada, and the eighty-fourth stake in the Church, and Elder Brown was made its president. He continued his practice of law in Lethbridge until 1927, when the family moved to Salt Lake City, where Elder Brown was and is now a member of the Utah State Bar. In 1928, he became president of the Granite Stake, where he presided until 1936. In 1937, Elder Brown and Sister Brown and five of their children went to England, where he presided over the British Mission until 1940. Upon returning from the British Mission he became co-ordinator for the servicemen for the Latter-day Saint Church and a member of the Servicemen's General Committee. He returned to England in 1944 as president of the British Mission and co-ordinator in the European theater of war, looking after the interests of the Latter-day Saint men in the service in Europe. Upon his recent return to Salt Lake City, in 1946, he joined the faculty of the Brigham Young University in Provo where he taught and acted as co-ordinator of servicemen who were attending the "Y." In 1950, Elder Brown resigned this position and went to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, being retained by an oil company as attorney and later was made president and manager of the Richland Oil Company, Ltd., in which position he was serving at the time of the present call. Such has been the important and valued service rendered by Elder Brown in varied and important callings during the past years. He has served with integrity, distinction, and unfaltering devotion during all this period. His rich natural endowments and outstanding spiritual qualities, will enable him to render a consecrated and inspiring service to the Church, in his present calling. |
ELDER HUGH B. BROWN
ELDER HUGH B. BROWN AND SONS
Left, Hugh Card Brown, killed in 1942 while serving in the Royal Air Force; right, Charles Manley Brown, member of Brigham Young University faculty, now studying for his Ph.D. in education at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. SISTER ZINA CARD BROWN AND DAUGHTERS
Upper panel, at left: Zina Lydia (Mrs. G. P. Brown, Altadena, California); center, Sister Brown; at right, Zola Grace (Mrs. W. G. Hodson, Downey, California). Lower panel, left to right: Mrs. Lajune B. Munk (Alhambra, California); Mary Myrtice (Mrs. Edwin R. Firmage, Provo, Utah); Margaret Alberta (Mrs. Clinton L. Jorgenson, Long Beach, California); Carol Rae (Mrs. Douglas Bunker, Provo, Utah). |
"Elder Hugh B. Brown Announced as Advisor to Sunday School." Instructor. September 1954. pg. 277.
Elder Hugh B. Brown Announced as Advisor to Sunday School In a letter from the First Presidency, dated June 25, 1954, announcement was made of the appointment of Elder Hugh B. Brown as one of the two advisors to the Sunday School. Elder Brown is no stranger to the Sunday School. From 1948 to 1950 he served as a member of the Sunday School General Board. Elder Adam S. Bennion and he will make a strong team of advisors. |
Elder Brown
|
Ashton, Wendell J. "Hugh B. Brown of the Council of the Twelve." Improvement Era. June 1958. pg. 392-393, 466-469.
Hugh B. Brown of the Council of the Twelve by Wendell J. Ashton "Go on, Dutch. Go on, put your hand in that hole and pull him out!" Blond and freckled "Dutch," only about ten and slim and agile as a whip, could hear the weasel stirring inside the hole. He and his older brother, Homer, had seen it go in. They had feverishly shoveled away the hole until they were an arm's length from the end. "Dutch" thrust in his farm-tough hand. He tugged it out. With it came the weasel, its teeth gripping deeply into the boy's finger. Homer's quick club finished the animal. Homer and other boys from the surrounding farms called the younger brother "Dutch" not because of his courage, although he had plenty of that. Give him a challenge and he would ride a burro backwards, wrestle an enraged ram, jump off the high bridge into the murky Jordan River, or push his hand into a weasel's hole. They called him "Dutch" because of his slow and odd speech. He could not pronounce "r's" and he had trouble with "g's." He said "bed" for "bread," "diri" for "girl," and generally distorted the English language. Some three score and four years later, the man who had been "Dutch" the boy, stood before a pulpit ap- proximately two miles east of the site of the family farm where he had tussled with a weasel. It was now Easter morning, April 6, 1958. The assemblage before him overflowed the great Salt Lake Tabernacle. Beyond its walls sat a television audience conservatively estimated at in excess of a million, besides an uncounted throng of radio listeners stretching across a continent and into the islands of the sea. Elder Hugh B. Brown had been chosen a latter-day apostle of the Lord. But neither he nor his vast audience, save for a few, knew it. He stood there, arrow straight, his warrior's visage crowned by wavy silver. He lifted his voice to tell the real meaning of Easter. The message of the resurrection rolled out as if from a mighty organ. Concluding, Elder Brown, as if inspired as Isaiah of old, bore personal testimony that he knew "from the center of my heart to the ends of my fingers and toes . . . that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God." After the meeting, Elder Brown, who had served as an Assistant to the Twelve for four and a half years, was told by President David O. McKay of his call to the apostleship. That afternoon, at the concluding session of the 128th annual general conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Elder Brown was sustained a member of the Twelve. Four days later he was ordained an apostle, a special witness for Christ, by President McKay. From the farm on the outskirts of Salt Lake City to that memorable Easter in the Tabernacle, the life of Hugh B. Brown has covered a lot of ground. He has excelled as a soldier, lawyer, businessman, teacher, and Church leader. But above all these he has been acclaimed as a preacher of righteousness, a modern Isaiah whose power has been felt across many lands, whose make-up is a rare blend of the practical and the poetic, of things of heaven and also of the good earth. Valeton's[1] description of the ancient prophet could have been written of Hugh B. Brown: "Isaiah . . . stood with his head in the clouds, and his feet on the solid earth, with his heart in the things of eternity and with mouth and hand in the things of time. . .." Elder Brown, in his official duties always looks as if he had just stepped from 10 Downing Street, residence of Britain's prime minister. He is poise and dignity itself. He has mingled with the mighty of several nations. Yet he knows what it is to feel the wet tails of rats moving over a tired face in the dark, dank trenches of war. He has a warmth and humor that sinks right through a threadbare coat or the bright sweater of a college youth. Hugh B. Brown, the statesman-missionary, has been a pillar in the broad, surging growth of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the past half century. Today there are 258 stakes in the Church where there were 84 when he became Lethbridge (Canada) Stake president in 1921. Today there are seven stakes in the area of Granite Stake in Salt Lake City over which he presided 25 years ago. Now there are more than 30,000 converts brought into the Church a year, compared with an estimated membership of 173,500 in 1883, when he was born. There are now more than 1,488,000 Church members. He laid the cornerstone for one (New Zealand) of three temples whose walls have risen in Switzerland, England, and New Zealand during the past five years as the Church grows like Jonah's gourd across ever-widening horizons. Elder Brown has contributed mightily to this growth, as bishop's counselor, high councilman, counselor in a stake presidency, British Mission president (twice), the Church's co-ordinator and adviser for Latter-day Saint servicemen in the United States and Great Britain during World War II, Sunday School general board member, and as a General Authority. Hugh B. Brown was born October 24, 1883, in a red brick, single story farmhouse on Redwood Road at approximately 39th South Street in greater Salt Lake City. That area was then known as part of Granger. He was the second son and fifth of fourteen children of Homer Manley and Lydia J. Brown. Hugh was born on one of two farms his father operated. But most of his boyhood was spent on the second farm, about four miles north on Redwood Road, in an area known as Lake Breeze. Here his father operated fifteen acres of orchard—apples, peaches, plums, and other fruit, along with the cows, horses, pigs, and chickens. Hugh B. Brown has often told friends that the greatest character he ever knew was his mother—tall and slender, with brown hair and blue eyes, an able executive and a devout Latter-day Saint. Her name was Brown before she was married. She was daughter of James S. Brown, who had marched with the Mormon Battalion and who, had been on the scene when gold was discovered near Sutter's Mill in California. James Brown also had a reputation as a speaker. Lydia Brown, despite the heavy chores with fourteen children of her own, liked to take each child alone on occasions for a chat. "The Lord has chosen you to be one of his servants," she would tell Hugh. "I expect big things from you. Now behave yourself." Hugh Brown, the barefoot boy who herded Jerseys and Holsteins in the salt grass near Salt Lake Valley's Jordan River, never forgot those words. His mother never used the switch on him. When he erred, she would say: "Hugh, I'm surprised at you. I'm disappointed." And the boy would go off and cry as if hit by a stick. When Hugh was fourteen, his father and elder brother journeyed to western Canada. They were gone two years, establishing a farm on the rolling plains near the towering Rockies in Alberta. Latter-day Saints had begun colonizing the area about a decade before. Meanwhile, young Hugh, his mother, and his younger brothers managed the family and farm in Salt Lake Valley. When Hugh was sixteen, the family joined his father in Canada, on a 1,000-acre farm at Spring Coulee, fifteen miles east of Cardston on the road to Lethbridge. Here the Browns' fourteenth child was born. (All lived to maturity.) The Browns moved to Cardston two years later. Hugh's father there bought an unfinished house foundation, and over it built a ten-room home of frame and stone. A wedding reception was held in the Brown home one day. On the program was a thirteen-year-old girl with golden ringlets that reached below her waist. Her fair skin was as pretty and smooth as the petals on a bride's gardenia. Her name was Zina Young Card, and she coyly gave a reading. Hugh then told his mother a secret: "Some day I'm going to marry that girl!" When Hugh returned from his mission to Great Britain several years later, the girl with the ringlets had moved to Salt Lake City. Further, she was "serious" with another fellow. Hugh Brown made three trips to Utah: "First, to tell her my intentions; second, to convince her; and third, to marry her." He did, on June 17, 1908, in the Salt Lake Temple. President Joseph F. Smith performed the ceremony. On the journey from Canada to the ceremony, Hugh was almost drowned while riding-swimming a horse across the swollen St. Mary's River near Cardston. Zina Card Brown is a granddaughter of Brigham Young. Her father, Charles Ora Card, drove an ox team across the plains and was the pioneering father of the Mormon colonies in western Canada. Zina's mother, Zina Young Card, mothered the Saints' colony in Alberta. She was a woman of culture and kindness in whose home Church Authorities and national leaders in business and government were entertained. Through all his trials and triumphs, Hugh B. Brown has found Zina loyally at his side. "She continued to believe in me at times when I did not believe in myself," he once confided to a friend. They have been blessed with six daughters and two sons. After fifty years together, Zina still addresses her husband as "Darling." Hugh Brown farmed in Canada. There are those who recall his riding the sulky plow over Alberta's black soil with a book in his lap—the Bible or Shakespeare, Milton, Keats, or another favorite. In Canada he also managed the Cardston Mercantile Company and a hotel. He took some pre-legal training at the University of Utah and was later admitted to the Law Society of Alberta as a student-at-law and was articled with David H. Elton, barrister and solicitor in Lethbridge. After five years, he was admitted to the bar in Calgary as a barrister and solicitor, when he was thirty-seven. Meanwhile Hugh Brown answered a call to his country's colors. In 1910, he was asked to raise a Canadian militia among the Mormon men of Alberta. He did, and three years later he was given the rank of major. He was commander of the squadron of cavalry when World War I erupted in 1914. Hugh B. Brown had one of the finest mounted squadrons in the entire British army. There was a solid row of twenty dapple grays, another of blacks, another of sorrels, and a fourth twenty of bays—each troup with a mounted lieutenant in front. Major Brown rode a big, high-stepping sorrel called Steamboat. "His example of manly courage and righteous actions continued with us as a source of great strength while we were in combat in France," wrote Archibald F. Bennett, 2 one of his men. Perhaps the most moving address Hugh B. Brown ever gave was at a military camp in Petawawa, Ontario, in the summer of 1918, when World War I neared a climax. Major Brown had brought 1,500 recruits by train from western Canada. Among them were some toughs, including former jail inmates. At Petawawa, the group was ordered to remain temporarily. German submarines were causing trouble off the east coast. Already there were 4,500 men stationed at the camp. The Brown group made it 6,000. No leaves were permitted. Shortly after midnight a sergeant awakened Major Brown in his tent. "There is a riot in camp," the sergeant yelled. "The men are ripping up tents and threatening to set fire to the camp." Major Brown was the ranking officer on the scene. He sent for the other officers. About thirty of them reported at his tent. They were armed with pistols. "Put down your guns, men," the major ordered. "We're going out there unarmed." The officers stepped out into a milling, shouting mob. Some were drunk. Hugh B. Brown climbed atop a table. Then he began to talk. It was now about 2 a.m. A tent peg struck him on the back of the head. He kept talking. A small group gathered around him and listened. He pleaded to the men's loyalty. He told of the futility of mob rule. Others continued the tumult of terror. As Major Brown kept talking, his audience kept growing. By 5 a.m. order had returned to the camp. Next day, approximately seventy-five ringleaders were brought before Major Brown. He told them there would be no charges if they would be men and thereafter "play ball." Major Brown himself received a reprimand during World War I. He was stationed at Shorncliff, near England's white cliffs of Dover. In Britain he had been giving servicemen their final training before going into combat in France. A general peeped into Major Brown's tent. He saw the major seated on the tent floor with enlisted men. "Brown, you'll never maintain the respect of your men if you get down with them like that," the general roared. Major Brown had been holding an MIA meeting with Mormon men in the camp. Following the war, Elder Brown returned to Alberta, where in 1921 he became first president of Lethbridge Stake. He resumed his law practice, and later moved to Salt Lake City. There he became affiliated with the law firm of J. Reuben Clark, Jr., Preston D. Richards, and Albert E. Bowen. He also became president of Granite Stake. Later he served the State of Utah and federal government in positions of responsibility, and in 1934 was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States Senate. Always ready to place a Church call first, in 1937 Hugh B. Brown returned to Britain as mission president. He was there when World War II broke out, and helped evacuate the missionaries from England and other European countries. Thousands of Latter-day Saint youths during World War II were stirred to nobler living by Elder Brown, serving as a Church coordinator of servicemen. In 1944, he was called to return to Britain as mission president. He crossed the Atlantic aboard a Greek freighter in a convoy. Amid the ruins of battered London, he often heard the whine of enemy buzz bombs. In it all he was an inspiring leader of the Saints, a man whose eloquence moved many of Britain's leaders, including members of the cabinet. Returning from Britain, he became an instructor at Brigham Young University. In 1950 he returned to private law practice. It took him back to Canada, and when his call came in 1953 to be an Assistant to the Twelve, he was president and general manager of an oil company in Edmonton. If you ask Hugh B. Brown where his heart has been most during these many achievement-crowded years, he will tell you: in his home. There, in the living room, is a huge painting of towering redwoods, streaked by shafts of sunlight. They seem to symbolize a man who has weathered much and who stands tall, well rooted, and strengthened, too, by light from on high. There is the big easy chair, where Elder Brown's grown children still come to his side for a story, counsel, and humor. There is his large bedroom with walls lined with the bright jackets of many books. There is the lamp over the bed where he often reads until 6 a.m. There at home is Zina, his sweetheart of half a century. The day after Hugh B. Brown was ordained an apostle, a member of Great Britain's Parliament visited Salt Lake City. He was Llewellyn Williams, a black-haired, fortyish Welshman and former clergyman. He dined with the Browns and a few others that evening. As "good nights" were spoken, the British lawmaker grasped Hugh B. Brown's hand warmly, held it, and whispered: "Pardon me, sir, but you are a man after my own heart." There are thousands around the world, in and out of the Church, who would say the same of Elder Brown: "... a man after my own heart!" [1] See page 487 for references. |
Hugh B. Brown
Zina Card Brown
Zina B. Brown
Zola B. Hodson
LaJune B. Munk
Mary B. Firmage
Hugh C. Brown
C. Manley Brown
Carol L. Bunker
Margaret B. Jorgenson
Elder Brown with his son, Hugh C. who was killed in World War II.
|
Tanner, Nathan Eldon. "President Hugh B. Brown of the First Presidency." Improvement Era. August 1961. pg. 570-573, 610.
President Hugh B. Brown of the First Presidency BY NATHAN ELDON TANNER, ASSISTANT TO THE TWELVE AND PRESIDENT OF THE WEST EUROPEAN MISSION Through the Prophet and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and with the approval of the Council of the Twelve Apostles, the Lord again has recognized Elder Hugh B. Brown as one of the great and noble spirits who, like Abraham, was chosen before he was born. Throughout his life, President Brown has dedicated his energy, his talents, and every effort to the building up of the kingdom of God here on the earth. In so doing, he has prepared himself most admirably for this high and holy calling which is the ultimate honor which can be bestowed on an individual by the President of the Church. As Elder Brown has moved forward from one important position to another, much has been written about his life and the contributions he has made. One of the richest blessings in my life is to have had the opportunity of growing up so close to and under the influence of President Brown, for whom I have the greatest love. This close association with him makes me want to share with others some of the more intimate events of his life. His mother's influence has piloted him throughout his life. To him, and all who knew her, she was a queen among women. Her unlimited confidence in his destiny and his ability to realize his potential have been a constant source of strength and courage to him as he has gone forward in his life. She it was who taught him how to pray and awakened in him an ever-increasing faith. The following bits of her mother wisdom have helped to shape his life: "There is nothing you can't do if you will prepare and behave yourself." "The Lord and I expect great things of you." "Happiness does not consist of getting something, it consists of becoming H something." "Unless you are willing to put everything you have into the gospel, you are not worthy of it." The love, the admiration, and respect which his brothers and sisters and their families feel for him reflect his keen and sympathetic interests in each of them. I still cherish letters which he took the time to write to me from different parts of the world while he was serving in the army, away at school, and in the mission field, and recognize the influence they exerted in my life. Even today when the accelerated growth of the Church has increased the demands made upon the General Authorities, he still finds time to extend a helping hand or an encouraging word to nieces, nephews, brothers and sisters, grandchildren and great grandchildren, and to all who need his help. During my mother's three years of illness, prior to her passing, he never missed an opportunity to drop in and exchange bits of humor and offer words of encouragement. No tribute to President Brown would be complete without mention of Sister Brown. Fifty-three years they have been sweethearts. He has often confided, "She had faith in me when I had lost faith in myself." As a granddaughter of President Brigham Young, and daughter of Charles Ora Card, colonizer of Southern Alberta and for whom Cardston was named, she learned early what was expected of the handmaidens of the Lord. I was in their home the day that President Brown left for overseas duty during World War I, and I shall always remember her courage and devotion as she bade him good-by. Although she was soon to bear him their fourth child, her grief and anxiety at their parting were well concealed as she smiled admiringly into his eyes and buckled his sword to his belt. Many years later when he was called to preside over the British Mission, it became necessary for him to precede his family into the field. "If it is the will of the Lord, I can do it," seemed to be her motto, and she crossed the Atlantic with their family of young children at a later date. It seemed many years would pass before they made an Atlantic crossing together, for when World II was declared, she and the children were required to return to the states while President Brown remained in Britain to evacuate the missionaries. The effect of such faith, love, and devotion cannot be measured nor appreciation of it expressed. It has ever been so, the chosen of the Lord must serve an apprenticeship in suffering even as Job, Paul, and Christ himself. President Brown has served his well. His first real trial came while he was filling his first mission (to Great Britain at the age of 22. He had suffered for weeks with a severe case of kidney stones and President Grant, who was president of the mission at that time, told him he was prepared to give him an honorable release and suggested that he return home. Elder Brown answered, "If you will give me a blessing, I will not need to go home." President Grant gave him a blessing, and Elder Brown was made well and completed a successful mission. It was in Lethbridge, Canada, in 1926 that the first attack of tic douloureux struck him. According to the medical profession this disease causes the most excruciating pain of any known malady. Neither its cause nor its cure are known. For nineteen years he suffered intermittent attacks, all the time carrying on his regular law practice and serving as president of the Lethbridge Stake, later as president of the Granite Stake, and still later as president of the British Mission. While in Great Britain it became imperative that he go to the Mayo Clinic for surgery. The operation was termed successful insomuch as his life was preserved, but the removal of the segment of the cable nerve caused a paralysis of the right side of his face, including half his tongue. Though this condition, which still exists, has been a great handicap, he has met it and carried on uncomplainingly. He still gets a twinkle in his eye as he recalls the time when President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., asked him at the close of a sermon, "Hugh, if you can do that well with just half a tongue, what would you do with a whole one?" Though he has had many other discouraging experiences, he refused to become discouraged, and, remembering the words of his mother, "Sometimes we are called upon to validate our faith in the crucible of suffering;" he has always called upon the Lord to give him the faith and courage to carry on. His is the philosophy that if you choose to go from one mountain peak to another, you must also travel the valleys in between and prepare for the darkness and marshes and other entanglements. The light of the gospel is that beacon which will see you safely through. President Brown is beloved throughout the Church. Perhaps it is the youth who claim him as their own. As Servicemen's Co-ordinator for the Church for a period of five years he visited all camps in the United States and most of the camps in Canada and Great Britain, bringing courage, hope, and inspiration to tens of thousands of our young men when they needed it most and which, according to their own testimonies, kept many of them from going astray and brought happiness to their lives. As President of two stakes, as adviser and instructor at BYU, and as a General Authority visiting stakes and missions throughout the world, he has touched the lives of tens of thousands of young people. His talents, his high ideals, his sense of right, and his keen sense of humor, his faith in the young people, and his interest in the solution of their problems all endear him to them and place him high as their champion. To his children and his children's children, he is an ideal, but a very human, loving, and understanding one. No problem is too trivial for him to consider. While they respect and admire him, he is also their pal, and there is seemingly little difference in their ages as they exchange loving banter. His love for them is exhibited as tenderly as their mothers'. Another experience which is characteristic of his life happened during the early days in Cardston when an attempt was made by the Canadian Government to organize a militia in that area. An officer was dispatched to call for recruits, but neither his appearance, his personality, nor his tactics evoked much confidence from the Mormon boys of the prairies. He returned to headquarters with the report that the Mormons were not loyal to the crown and should be expelled from the province. Whereupon, Senator W. A. Buchanon, who was then a member of the House of Commons and knew the Mormons, arose to the floor of the House and said that such was not the case. He promised that if he were permitted to contact the proper source, he could assure them a full contingent. He wrote to President Edward J. Wood and encouraged him to send some of his most devoutly enthusiastic members to train as officers. This was done, and President Brown was one of them. These LDS officers had no trouble at all in securing the needed quota of recruits. They were anxious to follow leaders who inspired their confidence and whom they could emulate. So you see, President Brown's entrance into the military life actually was an extension of his missionary work. To President Brown we offer our love and devotion and our prayers for wisdom and strength to meet the challenge of this new calling. To our Heavenly Father, we bow in humble gratitude that he has blessed him with trials and the strength to overcome them, which was necessary in the preparation of his servant. Indicative of his humility and his desire to be worthy of his forebears, his associates, and his posterity is a poem, "I Would Be Worthy," which he wrote in his book Eternal Quest: I WOULD BE WORTHY I thank thee, Lord, that thou hast called me "son," And fired my soul with the astounding thought That there is something of thee in me. Impel me to be worthy. I am grateful for a covenant birth; For noble parents and an ancestry who beckon me To heights beyond my grasp, but still attainable If with stamina and effort I cultivate their seed-- And prove that I am worthy. I am grateful for a companion on this Eternal Quest, Whose roots and birth and vision match my own; Whose never-failing faith and loyalty have furnished light in darkness, And re-steeled fortitude. May her faith in me Inspire me to be worthy. I am grateful for the cleansing power of parenthood, With its self-denial and sacrifice—prerequisites to filial and parent love; For each child entrusted to our care, I humbly thank thee; If I would associate with them eternally, I know I must be worthy. I am grateful for the one who was recalled in youth, For his love and loyalty and sacrifice. May the memory of his clean and manly life keep resolute the hope That I may renew companionship with him—and thee; For this I would be worthy. I am grateful for the children of my children. And, in anticipation, for others yet to be. Keep alive, I pray, within my bosom, a sense of obligation unto them, To pass a name unsullied as it came. To become an honored sire, O make me worthy! I am grateful for the lifting power of the gospel of thy Son; For the knowledge thou hast given me of its beauty, truth, and worth. To attain its promised glory, may I to the end endure, And then, forgiven, let charity tip the scales and allow me To be considered worthy. —Hugh B. Brown |
President Hugh B. Brown, formerly of the Council of the Twelve Apostles, called as a member of the First Presidency on June 22, 1961.
Zina Young Card Brown, wife and sweetheart of President Brown of over fifty-three years.
President Hugh B. Brown at his desk in the Church Office Building counseling those who seek his advice.
HIGHLIGHTS IN THE CAREER OF PRESIDENT HUGH B. BROWN
October 24, 1883 Born, Salt Lake Valley, the son of Homer M. and Lydia J. Brown. 1900 Moved to Alberta, Canada, with parents. 1904-1906 Filled a mission in England. June 17, 1908 Married Zina Young Card in the Salt Lake Temple. 1910-1914 Served with Canadian Militia. 1915-1918 Served with Canadian Overseas Forces, with rank of Major. 1921 Admitted to Alberta Law Society as barrister and solicitor. 1921-1927 Served as president of Lethbridge Stake. 1927 Moved to Salt Lake City and admitted to Utah State Bar. 1929-1935 Served as president of Granite Stake. 1937-1940 Served as president of British Mission. 1942-1946 Served as co-ordinator for LDS Servicemen. 1944-1946 Served as president of British Mission. 1946-1950 Member of faculty, Brigham Young University. October 4, 1953 Called as an Assistant to the Council of the Twelve. April 6, 1958 Called as a member of the Council of the Twelve. June 22, 1961 Called as a member of the First Presidency. |
Josephson, Marba C. "Hugh B. Brown - of the First Presidency." Relief Society Magazine. August 1961. pg. 500-503.
Hugh B. Brown—of The First Presidency Marba C. Josephson Associate Managing Editor, The Improvement Era TO the Church generally and to non-Church members, the name and person of President Hugh B. Brown have come to signify greatness. This greatness is not alone from his striking personality but also from his greatness of character which shines from him, even in repose, and fairly blinds those who see him in action. He is a silvery tongued orator, who has the advantage of being a clear, direct thinker, one who lets his heart as well as his brain direct what he says. President Brown himself wrote: ''Men live best when they neither deny themselves the verdict of the head nor the intimations of the heart, but seek a working harmony of both.'' His life of activity in the Church has been long and noteworthy. From the time he filled a mission to Great Britain in 1904 to igo6, he has been kept busy in Church assignments. He served as bishop's counselor, high councilman, counselor in a stake presidency, stake president in both Lethbridge (Canada) and Granite (Salt Lake City) Stakes, and as British Mission president from 1937 to 1940 and again from 1942 to 1946. Concurrently he served from 1942 to 1946 as coordinator for the Latter-day Saint servicemen. Following his return from Great Britain in 1946, President Brown became a member of the faculty at Brigham Young University, where he taught until 1950. In 1953 Elder Brown was selected an Assistant to the Twelve. On April 6, 1958, he was called to the Council of the Twelve. He is rounding out his Church service as a member of the First Presidency, to which exalted position he was appointed June 22, 1961. A born administrator, a real executive, he became noted for the organization and execution of his assignments. All learned to revere him and to love him. Like Nephi of old, President Brown can say he was born of goodly parents. . . ." They did not have riches as the world counts them, but they had wealth of the spirit, which they imparted in rich abundance to their fourteen children, all of whom lived to maturity. Hugh B. Brown's mother was Lydia J. Brown, daughter of James S. Brown of Mormon Battalion fame. She expected much of her children, gave them her full confidence, and was usually rewarded by their devotion and their exemplary conduct. Born on Redwood Road near 39th South, Salt Lake City, Utah, young Hugh early learned the value of hard work. The second son and the fifth child of the family, he knew what it was to rise early to pick fruit, milk cows, and do farm chores from sunup to sundown. Hugh B. Brown also learned to shoulder additional responsibility when his father and his older brother left the farm to try their fortunes in Canada. For two years Hugh helped his mother and the younger family members direct the work on the farm. Then the family journeyed to Canada to join the father and older brother. It was probably during this time that Hugh felt particularly close to his mother—a relationship that persisted throughout the years until her death, June 3, 1935- He has stated on many occasions that she was the greatest character he has ever known. And surely she must have been—to bear fourteen children—the last one in Canada— under all the rigors of a strenuous pioneer life. His father also was a man to be admired: diligent, faithful, hard working. He was a patriarch of Granite Stake when he passed away on February 1, 1936, at the home of his son Hugh in Salt Lake City. IN his own family life, President Brown has striven to cement what God joined in the Salt Lake Temple, June 17, igo8, when he took as his wife Zina Young Card, the sweetheart of his youth. To their home came six lovely daughters and two handsome sons. President Brown's devotion to his wife as well as to his parents set the example to his family to ''Honour thy father and thy mother. . . ." In 1958 when Brother and Sister Brown were to tour the European Mission, their joy extended to include three of their daughters who accompanied them. As his daughter Mary Firmage stated, it was a highlight of their lives—not only to travel with their parents, not only to see the countries of Europe, but also to see the devotion of their father and mother and experience the tenderness with which they treated each other after fifty years of marriage. But this trip was nothing new—so far as travel was concerned. Zola Hodson, another daughter, states: ''We children have such happy memories of the family trips together. They were not hurried, for we enjoyed everything as we went along. I remember one day we saw a huge turtle in the road as we were traveling, and Daddy stopped and picked it up, made a crate for it, and carried it with us on the rest of the trip." President Brown and his wife Zina have practiced the art of courtship throughout their married life. On special occasions such as on Zina's birthday or Mother's Day, President Brown will place on a breakfast tray a single rose—red roses are his favorite for his sweetheart — and will carry it to Zina's bed—a token of his undying love. The first rose of his garden has always been for his wife. And the wife of his youth, the light of his life, has rewarded him with encouragement in the face of discouragement, with faith in his abilities, and with complete devotion in her service to him. She stands at the door to blow a farewell kiss to him as he leaves for his duties of the day, and he always turns to ''catch it." She takes extra time to "primp" a little before his return. Home evenings were made much of in the Brown household, according to Zola. Singing around the piano, faith-promoting stories, and the fun of being together as a family made home nights long to be remembered. When the gas was turned low in the grate, the family would beg their father for a story. And he would point out the dogs and cats and witches racing across the low flames as he spun his tales. Often he would say, "This reminds me of the time the purple cow got caught on the point of the new moon," and they would be off again. FOR one who had such keen concern for his family when they were young, he has heeded the advice he has given others: "In-laws get off the boat" (Hugh B. Brown, You and Your Marriage, page 138). He is still equally concerned, but his advice is given in such a manner that, as his daughter Mary said, "You would think it was your own conclusion that was reached," which, of course, it is. That is the kind of leader President Brown has always been — in Church assignments as well as in his family relationships—gently but knowingly leading others to reach their own conclusions. There was one occasion that was particularly difficult for him because Brother Brown had foresight and knew the outcome from the beginning. His namesake, Hugh, told his father at the outbreak of World War II that he felt he should go back to England, where he had served a mission, and join the Roval Air Force to help protect the people whom he had learned to love. With a full heart. President Brown recognized his son's choice and gave him a father's blessing. He knew at the time that Hugh was going to his death, which occurred in 1942. A family man, President Brown has also been a public man: a teacher, an officer in the Canadian army, an attorney both in Canada and in the United States. In these positions he has worked closely with people. And they have been stirred by ''his great spiritual strength, his knowledge of, love for, and closeness to our Heavenly Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost," as his secretary of over seven years states. In every calling which he has occupied he has lived up to the convictions which he developed as a lad, encouraged by his father and mother to be a true Latter-day Saint. Since his call to the leading councils of the Church, October 4, 1953, President Brown's offices have been open to those who have sought help, particularly in their marital relations. He has continued to be in constant demand for marriage counseling. His great heart and mind will continue to bless the distressed in all situations following his appointment as a member of the First Presidency. He has always recognized the human equation—and will continue to do so. This brief tribute to President Brown could not end without mentioning one of the characteristics that has endeared him to the thousands who have been blessed with knowing him: It is his unfailing sense of humor. It has probably helped him keep on an even keel when things have been darkest. With a twinkle in the eye and a smile on the lip, he has coined maxims that all would be better for knowing: ''Snap judgment, like a bear trap, may catch the one who baits it." "Life is a journey, not a camp." "It is no use trying to shine your lamp if you do not take time to fill it." “The quality of one's intelligence may be related to his sense of humor." "A used mind is one item that has more value than a new." "Some of us do not need a bushel to hide our light; a thimble would suffice." "Opportunity is always within the reach of the arm of preparation." One of his aphorisms that President Brown lives by, is to "Take on mental nourishment every day." As a young law student, even then with a family to support, he arose at four o'clock in the morning to study; this has been his practice ever since—if he cannot get time during the day to stretch his mind with reading, he will use any hour of the twenty-four. He knows the value of study and reflects this value in all of his dealings in life. |
PRESIDENT HUGH B. BROWN
ZINA YOUNG CARD BROWN
Wife of President Brown |
"Thank You, President Brown." Instructor. November 1961. pg. 390.
Thank You, President Brown With his appointment to the First Presidency on June 22, 1961, Hugh B. Brown was necessarily released as adviser to the General Board of the Sunday School. He served as a member of the General Board of the Deseret Sunday School Union from 1946 to 1950, and he was adviser to the Sunday School while an assistant to and a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, from 1954 to 1961. His wise guidance and unselfish help to the officers, membership and staff of the General Board has been of inestimable value. He is a great friend and supporter of the Sunday School cause throughout the world, and his influence will continue to inspire this organization in his new calling. To his strength has been added the strong support of his wife, Zina. May he continue to be blessed with strength and inspiration from the Lord; and, now as a member of the First Presidency of the Church, may he continue to enjoy the full support and loyalty of all officers and teachers of the Sunday School. BIOGRAPHICAL EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF HUGH B. BROWN Born in Salt Lake Valley to Homer M. and Lydia J. Brown, Oct. 24, 1883 • Moved with family to Alberta, Canada, 1900 • Missionary in England, 1904-1906 • Married Zina Young Card in Salt Lake Temple, June 17, 1908 • Served with Canadian Militia, 1910-1914 • Officer in Canadian Overseas Forces, 1915-1918 • Admitted to Alberta Law Society as barrister and solicitor, 1921 • President of Lethbridge Stake, 1921-1927 • Moved to Salt Lake City and admitted to Utah State Bar, 1927 • President of Granite Stake, 1929-1935 • President of British Mission, 1937-1940 • Coordinator for LDS Servicemen, 1942-1946 • President of British Mission, 1944- 1946 • Member of Brigham Young University faculty, 1946-1950 • Member of Deseret Sunday School Union Board, 1946-1950 • Assistant to the Council of the Twelve, Oct. 4, 1953 • Council of the Twelve, April 6, 1958 • First Presidency of the Church, June 22, 1961 • Children: Hugh C. Brown (deceased). Dr. C. Manley Brown, Mrs. Zina L. Brown, Mrs. Zola B. Hodson, Mrs. LaJune B. Munk, Mrs. Margaret B. Jorgensen, Mrs. Mary B. Firmage, Mrs. Carol B. Bunker. Sister Brown, the former Zina Young Card, has endeared herself to untold numbers of people over the years. She is a helpful neighbor, an inspiration to missionaries, a faithful Church worker, a charming hostess, a gracious friend, and a dedicated mother of eight children. She indeed is a strength to her husband in his calling to serve God as a counselor in the First Presidency of the Church. TIME-TESTED TRAITS OF PRESIDENT HUGH B. BROWN by a Friend He is a man with a radiant personality. He is an inspiring teacher of youth and a wise and trusted counselor of all ages. He is a choice neighbor and friend. He is a dynamic leader. He is a man of great ability and proven integrity. He is humble, prayerful, teachable. His sermons have the vigor and freshness of a mountain stream. He possesses a true sense of values and places first things first. He is a pillar of strength in the Church. |
President Brown at his desk.
Sister Brown
|
Burton, Marshall T. "Fear Not Death." Instructor. December 1961. pg. 404-405.
Fear Not Death Compiled by Marshall T. Burton President Hugh B. Brown "I am persuaded that the reason many men are afraid of death is because they are afraid of the unknown. They say, and rightly, that we know really very little about the pattern and detail of what is over there. The Lord hasn't revealed very much about the details of that life, but that there is such a life He has made plain through repeated revelation. . . One reason that some men are afraid of death is that they say that no one has come back to tell what happens there. They say, 'I am afraid to go because while I know what is happening here, I don't know what is going to be.' When I hear a man speak like that, I think and sometimes ask him, 'How much did you know about this world before you came into it? Were you afraid to come?' "According to the scriptures, we shouted for joy at the prospects, although I am sure we knew something of the risk involved. We were not afraid in one sense, for we had some knowledge. However, when we entered that prenatal state where our bodies were being formed, we began to forget what we had learned in a pre-existent state, and in that state just before our mortal birth, if someone could have talked with us as unborn babes, and had said to us individually, 'You are to be born into another world shortly,' I am quite sure if the little child could speak or think, he would have shrunk back and said, 'I don't want to be born into another world, I am happy here under the heart of my mother. Separate me from her, and I must die. Don't ask me to be born into an unknown world. I fear it.' I think perhaps that is what a child would say. The remarkable thing is that when the child is born—and if it had not been born in due course, it would have died, and the mother, too, perhaps—he finds an environment suited to him. He finds that during the months of preparation he has been developing certain functional organs which were not needed in that prenatal state, but which immediately began to operate when the child breathed the first breath of life; the lungs and other organs of the body began to function. "Now I wonder, brethren and sisters, whether in a very real sense this earth life is not a prenatal state. Prenatal meaning before birth. I personally am very sure that that is true. This is a preparatory state. If that is true, then we are now, perhaps, largely, unconsciously, developing certain, shall we call them spiritual organs, which we do not fully utilize, but which when we are born into that next life will begin to operate and function. We shall find there as we have found here that preparation was made for our coming, not only in the environment, but in ourselves. What we call death is but a birth and a beginning, and we need not fear this change.[1] [1] From an address at the funeral of Christen Jensen, Aug. 21, 1961. Printed here by permission of the family. |
President Brown
|
"Hugh B. Brown Appointed Second Counselor in the First Presidency." Relief Society Magazine. December 1961. pg. 799-801.
President Hugh B. Brown Appointed Second Counselor in the First Presidency PRESIDENT Hugh B. Brown, Counselor in the First Presidency, was appointed, ordained, and set apart as Second Counselor in the First Presidency, on October 12, 1961. This distinguished honor and sacred responsibility came to President Brown following years of devoted and inspired service to the Church in many capacities. He has long encouraged, comforted, and blessed the members of the Church, and has inspired and directed young men and women in fields of service and spiritual development. President Brown was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, October 26, 1883, the son of Lydia Jane and Homer M. Brown. In his young manhood he went to Canada with his parents, and at the age of twent3'-one, he was called upon a mission to Great Britain. Among his later callings to service in the Church have been the appointment as the first President of Lethbridge Stake; President of Granite Stake; twice President of the British Mission, Co-ordinator for Church servicemen in World War II, and a member of the faculty of Brigham Young University, where, in addition to his teaching responsibilities, he acted as co-ordinator for servicemen who were attending the University. In 1953 Elder Brown was sustained as an Assistant to the Council of the Twelve; in 1958 he was sustained a member of the Council of the Twelve; and in June 1961, he was sustained as a Counselor in the First Presidency. President Brown's beloved wife, Zina Y, Card, whom he married in the Salt Lake Temple in 1908, has been a gracious and devoted helpmate to her husband, and an inspiration and blessing to the women of the Church. At the time he accepted the calling to be a member of the Council of the Twelve, President Brown said: ''My beloved wife Zina Card Brown is more responsible for my being here than I am. . . . Zina believed in me when I did not believe in myself.” President and Sister Brown are the parents of two sons arid six daughters. One son, Hugh Card Brown, was killed in 1942, while serving in the Royal Air Force. The lovely daughters are all mothers and homemakers. The wide and distinguished participation of President Brown in civic affairs, under two Governments ( Canada and the United States ) , and his considerable training and experience in law and business, his commission as a major in the British Army, and other exacting responsibilities, have given him a background ill the temporal concerns of people which greatly increases his capacity as a leader, a counselor, and as a man of rectitude, strength, and devotion — a great man in the counsels of men. It is the blessed privilege of the women of the Church to sustain and uphold President Brown in this high calling to the First Presidency, and to accept in gratitude his leadership of inspiration and deep and seasoned wisdom. |
ZINA YOUNG CARD BROWN
(Wife of President Hugh B. Brown) ZINA LYDIA BROWN
(Mrs. G. P. Brown) ZOLA GRACE BROWN HODSON
(Mrs. W. G. Hodson) HUGH C. BROWN
MRS. LAJUNE BROWN MUNK
MARGARET BROWN JORGENSON
(Mrs. Clinton O. Jorgenson) MARY MYRTICE BROWN FIRMAGE
(Mrs. Edwin R. Firmage) CAROL RAE BROWN BUNKER
(Mrs. Douglas Bunker) DR. CHARLES MANLEY BROWN
|
"President Hugh B. Brown." Relief Society Magazine. December 1963. pg. 884-886.
President Hugh B. Brown On Friday morning, October 4, 1963, at the opening session of the 133d Semi-Annual Conference of the Church, President Hugh B. Brown, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, was sustained as First Counselor to President David O. McKay to fill the vacancy in the Quorum of the First Presidency caused by the sudden death of President Henry Dinwoodey Moyle, September 18, 1963. President Brown is well known and beloved throughout the Church. When he was appointed and sustained as a member of the Council of the Twelve at the April 1958 General Conference, Elder Harold B. Lee, in writing of Elder Brown's new appointment for The Relief Society Magazine, expressed the appreciation of many others also familiar with the great gifts and accomplishments of Elder Brown: "Seldom has there been a man whose vast service in the Church has affected the lives of so many for good, and the saints with one heart seemed to echo their acceptance of this eloquent preacher of righteousness to the high place to which he has been called." President Brown was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, October 26, 1883, the son of Homer M. and Lydia Jane Brown. In his middle teens he went to Canada with his parents. There, at the age of twenty-one, he was called upon a mission to Great Britain and was released in 1906. He served with distinction overseas in the First World War and returned home as a Major in the Canadian Army. He then took up the study of law and entered into the practice of his profession. In 1908 he married Zina Young Card, daughter of Charles Ora Card and Zina Young Card. Sister Brown's father was the founder of Cardston, Canada, and her mother was a daughter of Brigham Young. Her grandmother was the third General President of Relief Society. President and Sister Brown are parents of six lovely daughters and two sons, all living, except Hugh Card Brown who was killed in 1942 while serving in the Royal Air Force. There are twenty-five grandchildren, and ten great-grandchildren. In 1921 the family moved to Lethbridge, Alberta, and when the Lethbridge Stake was organized in November of that year, it being the third stake in Canada and the eighty-fourth stake in the Church, Elder Brown was made its president. In 1927 Elder Brown and his family moved to Salt Lake City, and Elder Brown became a member of the Utah State Bar. In 1928 he became president of Granite Stake, where he presided until 1936. In 1937 Elder Brown was called to preside over the British Mission, and Sister Brown and five of the children went to England with him and remained there for three years. Upon his return from this mission Elder Brown became co-ordinator of the servicemen for the Church and a member of the Servicemen's General Committee. Again, in 1944, Elder Brown was called to preside over the British Mission. He returned to Utah in 1946 and joined the faculty of the Brigham Young University. In 1950 he returned to Canada as legal counsel for an oil company, and was later made president and manager of the Richland Oil Company, Ltd., in which capacity he was serving when called to be an Assistant to the Council of the Twelve in October 1953. After serving as a member of this Council until April 1958, Elder Brown became a member of the Council of the Twelve and served in that capacity until he was called to be a Counselor in the First Presidency, June 22, 1961, during the illness of President J. Reuben Clark, Jr. On October 12, 1961, following the death of President Clark, President Brown was called to be Second Counselor in the Presidency of the Church. Relief Society women throughout the Church rejoice in this further great honor and responsibility which have come to President Brown as First Counselor in the Presidency of the Church. Sister Zina Young Card Brown, who has been the beloved helpmeet of President Brown for the fifty-five years of their marriage, has been a loyal and faithful Relief Society woman and has advanced the cause of Relief Society in the mission Relief Societies over which she has presided. President Brown has always shown a great interest in Relief Society, and Relief Society members are enriched by the wise counsel he has given at Relief Society General Conferences in his addresses, one of which is printed in this issue of the Magazine. |