Elder Dale G. Renlund

Of the Seventy

Elder Dale Gunnar Renlund learned early that nothing is more important than following the Lord. His parents, Mats and Mariana Renlund, taught him this principle by example. They met in Stockholm, Sweden, shortly after the end of World War II, and they wanted to marry, but only in the temple. They left their homes in Finland and Sweden, immigrated to Utah, and were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple.

Born on November 13, 1952, in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, Elder Renlund was raised in a home where the blessings received from following the Lord’s counsel were cherished. He was also blessed to live in his parents’ homeland twice: once as a teenager when his carpenter father was called to Sweden on a Church-construction mission and several years later as a full-time missionary for the Church in Sweden.

Elder Renlund met his wife, Ruth Lybbert, in their home ward. In June 1977 they were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple. Together with their daughter they have built a tightly knit family that works, plays, and serves together.

“We love doing things as a family,” Elder Renlund explains. “Everything we do is geared that way. If we play golf, we play as a threesome and share the same score.”

Elder Renlund earned a bachelor’s degree and doctor of medicine from the University of Utah and completed his training in internal medicine and cardiology at Johns Hopkins University. He dedicated his medical career to the subspecialty of heart failure and transplantation medicine as a teacher, researcher, and clinician.

Before his call to serve in the First Quorum of the Seventy, Elder Renlund served as a bishop, stake president, high councilor, and for nine years as an Area Seventy in the Fifth Quorum of the Seventy. He and his family currently reside in Salt Lake City, Utah.