Joseph Fielding Smith
1876–1972

“Wake up, Joseph Fielding,” whispered his mother as she gently nudged his shoulder. The boy rose automatically from bed and dressed in the dark. He knew that some woman was having a baby and that she needed his mother’s help. Being the oldest child, Joseph Fielding often drove his mother to one of her patients. Reminiscing once, he said, “I remember getting up in the middle of the night, taking the lantern to the dark barn and hitching up the horse to the buggy. I would drive my mother to the home of an expectant mother so she could serve as midwife and help with the new baby. I would sit in the buggy and wait. I wondered why babies were so often born in the middle of the night.”

In addition to driving the buggy for his mother and helping on the family farm in Taylorsville while his father Joseph F. Smith was away, young Joseph helped with the care of his twelve brothers and sisters. He changed diapers, baked bread and pies, and even pieced quilts. Joseph Fielding liked school and was often found reading, especially the scriptures. By the age of twelve he had read the Book of Mormon.

Before leaving on his mission to the British Isles, Joseph Fielding worked for ZCMI, served without pay as a secretary to his father, and was married. Returning from his mission in 1901, he was employed by the Church Historian’s Office. He served as a home missionary for nine years in the Salt Lake Stake and as a YMMIA board member for sixteen years. In 1906 he became Assistant Church Historian. The next year he began working with the Genealogical Society and later served as its secretary and director for thirty years. In March of 1921 he became Church Historian and continued to serve in that position forty-nine years.

At the age of thirty-three Joseph Fielding was sustained a member of the Council of the Twelve.

All of these activities kept Joseph Fielding busy, yet he still had time to serve as president of the Salt Lake Temple from 1945 to 1949 and to publish twenty-five books and countless articles defining and clarifying Church doctrine. He always enjoyed music and wrote several hymns, including “Does the Journey Seem Long?” And he played handball until he was in his late sixties.

After serving sixty years as an apostle under four presidents, Joseph Fielding was called at the age of ninety-three to be the tenth president of the Church. Even though he only served two and a half years as president, many important programs of the Church were implemented under his direction. The magazines of the Church auxiliaries were suspended in December 1970, and three new periodicals replaced them: the Ensign, the New Era, and the Friend.

With the passing of President Joseph Fielding Smith July 2, 1972, the Church lost a great missionary, writer, historian, theologian, and genealogist. His life span reached from pioneer times into the space age.

Illustrated by Howard Boughner