Biography
Born on a farm in Whitney, Idaho, Benson was the oldest of eleven children. He was the great-grandson of Ezra T. Benson, who was appointed by Brigham Young as a member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles in 1846. Benson began his academic career at Utah State Agricultural College (now Utah State University), where he first met Flora Smith Amussen. Benson's alternated quarters at USAC with work on the family farm.
Benson served a church mission in Britain from 1921 to 1923. It was while serving as a missionary, especially an experience in Sheffield that caused Benson to realize how central the Book of Mormon was to the Restored Gospel message and converting people to the LDS Church. He later served as president of the Newcastle Conference.
After his mission Benson studied at Brigham Young University and finished his bachelors degree there in 1926. That same year he married Flora Smith Amussen, shortly after her return from her mission in Hawaii. He received his masters degree from Iowa State University. Several years later did preliminary work on a doctorate at the University of California at Berkeley, but never completed this degree.
Just after receiving his masters he returned to Whitney to run the family farm. He later became the county agriculture extension agent for Oneida County, Idaho. He later was promoted to the supervisor of all county agents and moved to Boise.
Ezra Taft and Flora Benson were the parents of six children.
In 1930, Benson moved to Boise, Idaho where he worked in the central stake extension office connected with the University of Idaho Extension Service. He also founded a farmers cooperative. He was superintendent of the Boise Stake Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association and later a counselor in the stake presidency. By 1939 he had been made president of the Boise Stake.
In 1939 he moved to Washington, D.C. to become Executive Secretary of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, and became the first president of a new LDS Church stake there.
In August 1989, he received the Presidential Citizens Medal from President George H. W. Bush.
Read more about this topic: Ezra Taft Benson
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