Elder Kent F. Richards

Of the Seventy

Elder Kent Farnsworth Richards of the Seventy believes that selfishness will keep us from living a fuller life. “Stay away from selfishness,” he says. “You’re a lot more fulfilled as you look outside yourself.”

After 32 years as a surgeon in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, where he was born and raised, Elder Richards says he has been prepared for Church service by learning to take care of people’s physical needs.

“As a physician, what I’m really doing is trying to figure out ways I can be of service to them,” he says. “That’s what we do in the kingdom.”

Born to C. Elliott and Margaret Farnsworth Richards on February 25, 1946, Elder Richards married Marsha Gurr in August 1968 in the Salt Lake Temple. They reside in North Salt Lake, Utah, USA, and are the parents of eight children. Throughout his life, he has tried to maintain a family focus, believing that life’s greatest happiness comes from family.

“I remember as a young father hearing Elder Richard L. Evans (1906–71) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles say, ‘Hobbies none, just my sons.’ That was a lesson to me that I needed to first pay attention to my family.”

Elder Richards received a bachelor’s degree in medicine in 1969 and a medical doctorate in 1972, both from the University of Utah. Along with practicing medicine, he has been a clinical professor at the University of Utah, chair of the department of surgery for LDS Hospital, and senior vice president and member of the board of trustees at a health care organization.

Before his call to the Second Quorum of the Seventy, Elder Richards served a full-time mission to the Southern Mexican Mission and served as Scoutmaster, elders quorum president, bishop, high councilor, stake president, and president of the Texas San Antonio Mission.