Hugh B. Brown - Church Service

Church Service

Brown was called as president of the Lethbridge Alberta Stake in 1921, which included all of Alberta north of the Lethbridge airport and the Northwest Territories (including present-day Nunavut).

Brown and his family moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1927. He quickly became a successful lawyer and a partner in a law firm with J. Reuben Clark, Jr., Albert E. Bowen, and Preston D. Richards. He formed a lifelong allegiance with the U.S. Democratic Party, which led to an unsuccessful run for political office and a term of service as first chairman of Utah's Liquor Control Commission from 1935 to 1937. Brown was called as president of the LDS Granite Stake.

Brown served as president of the British Mission from 1937 to 1940 and from 1944 to 1946. It was the first of many full-time church positions that brought him admiration and influence. As LDS Servicemen's Coordinator from 1941 to 1945, Brown traveled extensively in North America and western Europe as de facto chief chaplain for the thousands of Mormons in American, British, and Commonwealth uniforms; anecdotes born of this experience punctuated his sermons and writings thereafter.

Brown worked as a professor of religion at Brigham Young University (BYU) from 1946–1950. He also served as co-ordinator of veterans affairs for BYU during this time. He then worked as a senior employee with an Alberta oil prospecting firm from 1949–1953. Of his time in Alberta, he later wrote:

"In October 1953, I was up in the Canadian Rockies, supervising the drilling of an oil well. Although my family were in good health and good spirits and I was making good money, I was deeply depressed and worried. Early one morning I went up into the mountains and talked with the Lord in prayer. I told Him that although it looked like I was going to become wealthy as a result of my oil ventures, if in His wisdom it would not be good for me or my family I hoped He would put an end to it."

This prayer preceded his call as an Assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1953. Brown remained in this full-time ecclesiastical position for five years until his call as an apostle of the church.

Brown was ordained an apostle and became a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on April 10, 1958 to replace Adam S. Bennion, who had died the previous February. He was called to the First Presidency as a third counselor to Church President David O. McKay on June 22, 1961. He was called as Second Counselor in the First Presidency on October 12, 1961, upon the death of the first counselor, J. Reuben Clark. He was called to be First Counselor in the First Presidency in 1963 when the first counselor Henry D. Moyle died.

Hugh B. Brown favored rescinding the Negro doctrine and expected this change to take place in 1969, but this move was reportedly blocked by Harold B. Lee. The change ultimately occurred in 1978, three years after Brown's death.

After David O. McKay died on January 8, 1970, Brown was not called by new Church President Joseph Fielding Smith to be a member of the First Presidency. Never before in the twentieth century had a new president of the church failed to call a surviving member of the previous First Presidency as a counselor. Rather, Brown returned as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, where he remained until his death.