Elder Kyle S. McKay

General Authority Seventy

Besides his family and the Church, Elder Kyle S. McKay’s greatest passion is being on his horse in the mountains.

“It’s not my religion,” he said, “but there’s no question it has strengthened my [faith]. I alternate between the Lord’s mountains and the mountain of the Lord’s house. He meets me in both places.”

Elder McKay likens the mountains above Huntsville, Utah, USA, to the waters and forest of Mormon and their importance for the people of Alma—they are where, in his youth, he came to a knowledge of his Redeemer.

Elder McKay was born on February 14, 1960, in Chicago, Illinois, USA, to Barrie Gunn McKay and Elaine Stirland McKay, whom he credits for shaping him into the person he is.

He took a break from his studies at Brigham Young University in 1979 to serve a full-time mission in Kobe, Japan. Shortly after returning from his mission to complete his degree in English, Elder McKay met Jennifer Stone, who had recently returned from the England Bristol Mission. She was also studying English. The two were married in the Oakland California Temple on June 12, 1984.

With family at the center of his life, Elder McKay says, he and Sister McKay derive their greatest joy from their posterity. While the McKays reside in Kaysville, Utah, USA, they regularly spend time with their nine children in Huntsville, where his ancestors settled in the early 1860s.

Elder McKay graduated with a juris doctor degree in 1987 from the J. Reuben Clark School of Law at BYU and immediately accepted a job with a large regional law firm in Portland, Oregon, USA. He later returned to Utah to pursue an opportunity with another law firm before accepting a position with the Kroger Company. He worked as a vice president for both Smith’s and Fry’s, two Kroger divisions in Utah and Arizona, USA, from 2000 to 2017.

Elder McKay has served previously as a bishop, high councilor, stake president, and Area Seventy.