Former Sunday School General President Tad R. Callister Passes Away

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By Mary Richards, Church News

Elder Tad Richards Callister, who served as a General Authority Seventy from 2008 to 2014 and as Sunday School general president from 2014 to 2019, died Thursday, October 9, 2025, in Bountiful, Utah. He was 79.

During more than a decade of full-time Church service, Elder Callister bore powerful witness of the Prophet Joseph Smith, the Restoration of the Lord’s Church on the earth, the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

In his last general conference address, in 2019, he testified that “the Savior’s Atonement is not only infinite in scope but also individual in reach — that it can not only return us to God’s presence but also enable us to become like Him — the crowning goal of Christ’s Atonement.”

Elder Callister also served as president of the Canada Toronto East Mission from 2005 to 2008 and in the Presidency of the Seventy from 2011 to 2014.

The desire to serve God and others was instilled in him at a young age, he said, and from many righteous examples, including his parents, Reed Eddington and Norinne Richards Callister, as well as his brother, Elder Douglas L. Callister, who also served as a general authority, and his grandfather, Elder LeGrand Richards of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Born December 17, 1945, in Glendale, California, Elder Callister recalled stretching out by the fireplace to read the scriptures with his dad, of gospel discussions at the dinner table and of delivering meals to neighbors. “I can never express enough gratitude for my parents, who were my prime gospel teachers,” he said in a general conference address in 2014.

When he was 17 years old, his mother encouraged him to pray to find a good wife, telling him, “It will be the most important decision you will ever make.”

At the time, his mind was mostly full of basketball and school, but her words had an impact, and for the next six years, he prayed God would help him find a good wife. “And, oh, how He answered that prayer,” said Elder Callister.

After serving a full-time mission in the Eastern Atlantic States Mission, he enrolled at Brigham Young University, where he met Kathryn Louise Saporiti in his student ward. He was ward Sunday School president and asked her to coordinate two-and-a-half-minute talks.

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Ever a sports enthusiast, Elder Callister often played pickup basketball games on the apartment complex court. Sister Callister said it wasn’t his jump shot she most admired.

They were married in the Los Angeles California Temple on December 20, 1968, and have six children — two daughters and four sons — and many grandchildren.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in accounting from BYU; a law degree from University of California, Los Angeles; and a master’s degree in tax law from New York University, Elder Callister practiced law for 34 years with his dad and brothers.

Living the gospel helped keep their family close, Elder Callister noted in a Church News interview when he was called as a general authority.

His children were always his priority, added Sister Callister. “He has always been available for our children. I don’t think they would ever be able to think of a time when they needed him when he wasn’t there.”

Through the years, Elder Callister served in a variety of callings, including as a bishop, stake president, temple ordinance worker, Area Seventy, elders quorum president and seminary teacher.

Elder Callister was serving as a mission leader when he was called as a General Authority Seventy in 2008. “You learn to love the missionaries almost as though they are your own sons and daughters,” he said of being a mission president. “They constantly rise to your level of expectations, and they seem to have unlimited potential” (Ensign, May 2008).

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During his tenure as Sunday School general president, Elder Callister and his counselors, Brother Devin G. Durrant, First Counselor, and Brother Brian K. Ashton, Second Counselor, worked heavily on the development of the “Come, Follow Me” integrated curriculum.

“The most important thing is that we do teach in the Savior’s way, that we teach by the Spirit, that we do teach for conversion. The curriculum is an aid to that. It’s a stepping stone, but it’s not the end,” he said in a Church News interview.

He was also the author of several gospel-related books, which were a result, he said, of going to his law office about 45 minutes early each morning to pore over the scriptures and take notes on questions he had developed.

“I love the scriptures,” he told the Church News. Teaching youth, including some of his own children, to love the scriptures as an early morning seminary teacher with his wife was one of his most rewarding callings.

Funeral services are pending.

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