Bishop Richard C. Edgley

Of the Presiding Bishopric

Eleven years ago, Richard C. Edgley was a vice president of General Mills and was serving in a stake presidency. He was surprised when an offer came from the Church to serve as managing director of the Finance and Records Department.

“It took me a while to make the decision; it was the hardest decision I’ve made,” says the newly called second counselor in the Presiding Bishopric. “But it crystallized in my mind what was really important and helped me reprioritize things. I’ve never regretted it.”

Brother Edgley had been working for General Mills for nineteen years. He graduated from Brigham Young University with a bachelor’s degree, earned a master’s degree from Indiana State University, and then went to work for General Mills, living in Toronto, Boston, and Minneapolis.

Besides helping define and strengthen priorities, the move to Salt Lake City held other benefits for Brother Edgley, his wife, Pauline Nielson Edgley, and their six children. “We found super friends,” Bishop Edgley says. And he understands the importance of friends. As a teenager he spent a summer working on an Idaho ranch and found few friends who shared his values. “It was a lonely time, not a comfortable time,” he remembers. “But in the end, it was a great blessing. I spent that summer studying the scriptures. It was then that the gospel came alive for me.” Shortly afterwards, he served a mission to the eastern states.

Born 6 February 1936 and reared in Preston, Idaho, Bishop Edgley cites his parents, Phenoi and Ona Crockett Edgley, as the most influential people in his life.

Other influential people in his life have been Church leaders. Working with General Authorities has taught him the importance of following leaders and has shown him how the work of the Lord is inspired.

“A scripture that has had particular significance to me since being called as a General Authority is D&C 84:88,” Bishop Edgley says. “It talks of the Lord sending out His servants and of His being on their right hand and their left hand, His Spirit being in their heart, and having His angels bear them up.”