A Tribute to President Joseph Fielding Smith

As many people have remarked, President Joseph Fielding Smith was a man without guile. He presented every question exactly as he saw it and accepted the consequences of his position whether they were pleasant or unpleasant. Every one who knew him even remotely knew that he was against sin, but it is only less generally known that he loved the sinner. It is also true that he could love those who disagreed with him. This can be illustrated by a personal experience I had with President Smith a number of years ago. I was trained as a mineral engineer so that it is natural for me to interpret the seven periods of creation as long geological ages. Radioactive dating and other methods of arriving at the antiquity of the earth incline many professionals to this position. 

Some years ago President Smith invited Dr. Melvin Cook and me to his office to discuss this and related questions. A lively hour-long discussion ensued. As so often happens each person brought up the argument which supported his position and when the discussion was over each parted each with much the same position he held when the discussion began. But what was much more important, the discussion proceeded on a completely friendly basis without recrimination and each matter was weighed on its merits. So far as I am aware the matter ended there. No one was asked to conform to some preconceived position. The Church is committed to the truth whatever its source and each man is expected to seek it out honestly and prayerfully. It is, of course, another matter to teach as a doctrine of the Church something which is manifestly contradictory and to urge it in and out of season. I have never felt the least constraint in investigating any matter strictly on its merits, and this close contact with President Smith bore out this happy conclusion. 

Wholesome is another word strikingly exemplified by President Smith. Riding in military jets, early when they didn’t always land appropriately, being an honorary officer in the National Guard, playing hand ball well at sixty, and yet being outstanding as Church Historian and the leading authority of the Church on doctrine bespeak the whole man. Even more important, President Smith exemplified devotion to duty and other gospel principles in his own life as few others have done. It is curious that this kindest of men should sometimes have been thought of as austere and as living in a world apart. Unfortunately the frequent price that must be paid for excellence is to be misunderstood. To me and to a host of others, President Smith’s kindness, his devotion to duty and to gospel principles will remain a beacon for all shining across the years.