Keith N. Hamilton is an American writer who was formerly chair of the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole. In that capacity he was the first African American to serve in the Cabinet of the State of Utah.
Hamilton was born in Virginia and raised primarily in New Jersey and North Carolina. His grandfather was a Southern Baptist preacher. [1]
Hamilton joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1980 while a student at North Carolina State University. He served as a missionary in Puerto Rico and Barbados. After his missionary service, he earned a J.D. degree from the J. Reuben Clark Law School of Brigham Young University, being the first African American to graduate from that institution. [1]
After graduating, Hamilton served for several years in the United States Navy in the Judge Advocate General's Corps. He has worked in administrative positions at Brigham Young University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Hamilton served from 1995 to 2003 and 2005 to 2009 on the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole, including as chair from March 2006 until May 2007, a position which made him a member of the Utah Governor's Cabinet. [1] [2]
He has written an autobiography entitled Last Laborer: Thoughts and Reflections of a Black Mormon. From 2011 to 2014 he was an adjunct professor of law at the J. Reuben Clark Law School and has served as a columnist for the Deseret News .
He very briefly spent part of his time teaching and coaching football at Summit Academy High School in Bluffdale, Utah.
In the LDS Church Hamilton has served in multiple positions including serving as a bishop in the San Francisco California Stake during the time Quentin L. Cook was president of that stake.
Thomas Spencer Monson was an American religious leader, author, and the 16th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As president, he was considered by adherents of the religion to be a prophet, seer, and revelator. Monson's early career was as a manager at the Deseret News, a Utah newspaper owned by the LDS Church. He spent most of his life engaged in various church leadership positions and public service.
Gordon Bitner Hinckley was an American religious leader and author who served as the 15th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from March 1995 until his death in January 2008 at age 97. Considered a prophet, seer, and revelator by church members, Hinckley was the oldest person to preside over the church in its history until Russell M. Nelson surpassed his age in 2022.
Larry J. Echo Hawk is an American attorney, legal scholar, and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, Echo Hawk served under U.S. President Barack Obama as the United States Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs from 2009 to 2012. He previously served as the Attorney General of Idaho from 1991 to 1995, the first Native American elected to the position, and spent two terms in the Idaho House of Representatives. In 2012, he was called as a general authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As of 2022, Echo Hawk is the last Democrat to have served as Attorney General of Idaho.
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Abraham Owen Woodruff was an American missionary who was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was also the son of LDS Church president Wilford Woodruff.
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George Albert Smith Sr. was an American religious leader who served as the eighth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Joshua Reuben Clark Jr. was an American attorney, civil servant, and a prominent leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Born in Grantsville, Utah Territory, Clark was a prominent attorney in the Department of State, and Undersecretary of State for U.S. President Calvin Coolidge. In 1930, Clark was appointed United States Ambassador to Mexico.
The Church Educational System (CES) of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints consists of several institutions that provide religious and secular education for both Latter-day Saint and non–Latter-day Saint elementary, secondary, and post-secondary students and adult learners. Approximately 700,000 individuals were enrolled in CES programs in 143 countries in 2011. CES courses of study are separate and distinct from religious instruction provided through wards. Clark G. Gilbert, a general authority seventy, has been the CES commissioner since August 1, 2021.
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Frederick James Pack was a professor of geology at the University of Utah and Brigham Young College and a writer on the deleterious effects of tobacco on human health. Pack was also a leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, serving as the chairman of the Gospel Doctrine Committee of the church.
Von Gary Keetch was a general authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from April 2015 until his death. He was a shareholder in the law firm of Kirton McConkie and a member of the firm's Constitutional, Religious and Appellate Practice section. He defended land use rights of religious groups against state regulations, and argued against liability of religious groups for crimes committed by their members.
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Clark G. Gilbert has been a general authority seventy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since April 2021 and the church commissioner of education since August of that year. He was the president of BYU–Pathway Worldwide (BYU–PW), an online higher education organization, from its creation in 2017 until August 2021. He was serving as the sixteenth president of Brigham Young University–Idaho (BYU–Idaho) when he was appointed inaugural president of BYU–PW. Previously, Gilbert served as president and CEO of both the Deseret News and Deseret Digital Media, having also served as an executive vice president of Deseret Management Corporation, a professor at Harvard Business School (HBS), and as an associate academic vice president at BYU–Idaho.
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