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By Mary Richards, Church News
While on a family road trip growing up, Marsha Workman — the oldest of President Russell M. Nelson’s 10 children — remembers her father teaching them about Latin roots in the English language.
“Having captive children in a car on a road trip for a family vacation was an interesting experience, and we learned a lot,” she said with a laugh.
In addition to songs and games, “we also learned the Latin origin of words and prefixes and suffixes and how our words in English came to be what they are today based on their Latin roots. … He was always expanding our horizons.
“And I think what I see today,” Workman continued, referring to her father serving as the leader of 17 million Latter-day Saints worldwide, “is just the expansion of [his knowledge] to reach a greater audience, a wider audience, with more love and more urgency and more encouragement.”
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Dr. Russell M. Nelson explains a surgical procedure to a nurse.Born September 9, 1924, President Nelson was a pioneering heart surgeon before being called to full-time Church service in 1984. After serving 34 years in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, he was set apart as the 17th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on January 14, 2018.
President Nelson and his late wife, Sister Dantzel Nelson, are the parents of nine daughters and one son. After Sister Nelson’s unexpected death in 2005, he married Wendy Watson, who has been at his side as he’s led the global Church.
President Nelson’s “insatiable appetite” for learning — as one grandchild described it — is one of many attributes his family members and associates mentioned as they reflected on his life and ministry ahead of his 100th birthday. They also highlighted his sense of optimism, his love for people and his focus on family.
President Nelson as a Father
Laurie Marsh, President Nelson’s seventh child, said the “most precious lesson” she learned from her father and mother growing up is to “love the Lord, put Him first and watch miracles happen.”
She remembers her parents visiting after her fifth child was born, and “they both just held that baby and wept,” she recalled. Some may see the birth of a baby as “something that happens every day,” but to President Nelson and Sister Dantzel Nelson it was much more — “It’s a miracle, and it’s a gift from Heavenly Father, and they acknowledged Him right away.”
As Marsh watches her father approach his 100th birthday, she said she is inspired by his optimism.
“What to me or a normal person would be a stumbling block becomes a stepping stone for him,” she said. “He’s just clearly so optimistic and focused on the Savior.”
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Daughters of President Russell M. Nelson and the late Sister Dantzel Nelson play together. Left to right are Wendy, Gloria and Marsha, three of the nine sisters in the family. Photo provided by the Nelson family, courtesy of Church News.All rights reserved.Russell Nelson Jr., the youngest of the 10 children, said he learned from his father at a young age that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is more than “the building down the street.”
“The Church is not a set of rules. It’s who we are and how we become more like Christ, how we serve others,” he said.
As President Nelson has served as Prophet and President of the Church the last six and a half years, “his energy and his excitement for the gospel and the ongoing Restoration has been accelerated,” Russell Nelson Jr. said. “It’s been more evident in his life and in his urgency of everything that he is dealing with.”
Gloria Irion, another daughter of President Nelson, said she was standing by him one day when someone came up and praised him for the changes in the Church since he became Prophet.
Her father responded, “Oh, well, I just know how to take instruction.”
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Church President Russell M. Nelson and his wife, Sister Wendy Nelson, pose for photographs with family members after a press conference at the Church Office Building in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, January 16, 2018. Photo by Spenser Heaps, courtesy of Church News. Copyright 2023 Deseret News Publishing Company.“He deflected that praise and put it where it belongs,” Gloria Irion said.
She expressed gratitude for the countless prayers for her father. “I’m always touched when people pray for the Prophet, whether we’re in the temple or in any kind of meeting, and they pray for President Nelson. It’s very personal to me,” she said.
President Nelson as a Grandfather
President Nelson’s ever-growing family includes 57 grandchildren, 167 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.
Nathan McKellar, the oldest of President Nelson’s grandchildren, grew up about a mile away from the Nelson family. He was around 12 years old when his grandfather was called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
“I’ve always had the grandfather that’s been Elder Nelson,” he said.
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President Russell M. Nelson, the 17th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, receives hugs from family members after he and his counselors — President Dallin H. Oaks, First Counselor, and President Henry B. Eyring, Second Counselor — held a press conference at the Church Office Building in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, January 16, 2018. Photo by Scott G Winterton, courtesy of Church News.Copyright 2023 Deseret News Publishing Company.As a teenager, he remembers going to the Nelsons’ home with his friends for firesides. “He would just sit down with our friends and give us little life lessons,” Nathan McKellar said.
He said his grandparents had an “uncanny ability” to make him feel like he is “the most important person in the world.”
When Russell Irion, another grandchild of President Nelson, thinks of his grandfather, he thinks of his “lifelong learning endeavors.”
“He’s studied dozens of languages, he’s a pioneer in his field and career — he was always researching there — and then his insatiable appetite for spiritual learning,” Russell Irion said.
He also thinks of his grandfather’s love for family. He said President Nelson made it a priority to attend the monthly birthday celebrations.
“We all know he’s just so busy, but he always made time for family — and that hasn’t changed,” Russell Irion said.
Recently, the family participated in a big Zoom call with President Nelson to celebrate Father’s Day in June. Ellen Irion, Russell Irion’s wife, said of the experience: “It was so fun to watch his little video screen as he’s just adoring every little screen. … He takes joy in his family.”
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President Russell M. Nelson with daughter Sylvia Webster and three great-grandchildren. Photo courtesy of the Nelson family, courtesy of Church News.All rights reserved.
President Nelson as a Heart Surgeon
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Dr. Craig Selzman, who holds the Dr. Russell M. Nelson and Dantzel W. Nelson presidential endowed chair in cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Utah, displays a pin with the initials RMN — a tribute to President Russell M. Nelson — on Wednesday, August 30, 2023. 2024 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.In August 2023, President Nelson donated his medical journals to the University of Utah, where he graduated from medical school in 1947. This donation has been invaluable to heart surgeons like Dr. Craig Selzman, who holds the Dr. Russell M. Nelson and Dantzel W. Nelson presidential endowed chair in cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Utah.
At the time, what President Nelson did was “so bold, so ambitious, so crazy,” Selzman said, referring to Dr. Nelson performing the first open-heart surgery in the state of Utah in 1955 using a heart-lung machine.
“I think it said a lot about his character,” Selzman added.
When Selzman met him for the first time in President Nelson’s office eight or nine years ago, he witnessed President Nelson’s photographic memory in action as he showed Selzman some of his operative notes.
“Whenever you start talking about health care with him, he gets a little twinkle in his eye. … It’s just amazing to see how energized he got talking about all that stuff,” Selzman said.
President Nelson as a Church Leader
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Assistant Church historian and recorder Richard E. Turley Jr. answers reporters' questions after the Church History Department releases a volume of the Joseph Smith Papers. 2024 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.Historian Richard E. Turley Jr., who has worked with and observed President Nelson for decades, described him as “someone who not only talks the talk but also walks the walk.”
One of the first things President Nelson did after being sustained President of the Church was embark on a global ministry to eight cities in 11 days across Europe, Africa, Asia and Hawaii.
“I was blessed to be with him on that trip, and I watched him as he spoke to people from many nations and cultures and backgrounds and was able to relate to them through the great love that he expresses in his messages,” Turley said.
During an age in which people are often passive and “waiting to be spoon-fed with everything,” President Nelson has taught repeatedly about receiving revelation.
“President Nelson has not only been clear about receiving his own revelation for the Church, but he’s also strongly advocated having Church members receive personal revelation to guide their own lives,” Turley said.
Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson said President Nelson will be remembered for “bringing temples closer to the people.” He has announced 168 temples so far as President of the Church.
“But for me, it’s my more complete understanding of the blessings associated with the covenants we make in the temple that mean the most to me,” she said. “I have a more clear understanding because of his teaching about what it means to be a covenant woman.”
As a father of nine daughters, President Nelson is “uniquely qualified” to address the needs of the women of the Church, President Johnson said.
“I have asked him what message would he like for me to share with the sisters of the Church. And he said, ‘Oh, please tell them that they are loved. Please tell them that they are precious and that they are necessary.’ And I feel that when I’m with him. …
“I’ve had the opportunity to look into the eyes of our Prophet, who I know to be the Lord’s mouthpiece on the earth today, and feel the love of my Savior through him.”
That experience of feeling the Savior’s love through the Prophet is not limited to those who have the chance to be physically present with him, President Johnson said. “All have an opportunity to have that experience as we listen to and study his words.”
Copyright 2023 Deseret News Publishing Company.