“Julie B. Beck,” Ensign, May 2007, 127
Julie B. Beck
Relief Society General President
At her baptism and in the temple, Julie Bangerter Beck says that as part of making her covenants she “promised the Lord that He could use me in His kingdom.” Where and how He used her weren’t important to her. As former first counselor in the Young Women general presidency, she says, in the Church “everyone gets assignment changes. It doesn’t matter where you serve. It’s the Lord’s work, and we’re working with children of our Heavenly Father.”
Born to William Grant Bangerter, now an emeritus member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, and Geraldine Hamblin Bangerter on September 29, 1954, she attended Dixie College and Brigham Young University, graduating with a degree in family science. She married Ramon P. Beck on December 28, 1973, in the Salt Lake Temple. They have three children and eight grandchildren.
Sister Beck served as ward Young Women and Primary president and counselor in a stake Relief Society presidency before her call to serve at the general Church level.
To manage her time, she divides priorities into three categories—“must do,” “should do,” and “nice to do.” Personal prayer, scripture study, temple attendance, and family are on her “must do” list. “I don’t know of a woman who doesn’t have more to do than she can do,” she says, but prioritizing “eliminates guilt. I’m surprised at how many ‘nice to do’ things I can get done.”
The Lord has blessed her with ideas about how to be a grandma long-distance, including reading to her grandchildren over the phone.
“I have always had a great love for Relief Society. During my young married years when my parents were assigned far away, Relief Society sisters were ‘my mother.’ As I have traveled throughout the world, I have felt a genuine love and admiration for the women of the Church. What a blessing it will be to now focus my energies in Relief Society service.”