Mark E. Petersen

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Mark E. Petersen

Full name	Mark Edward Petersen
Born	November 7, 1900(1900-11-07)
Place of birth	Salt Lake City, Utah
Died	January 11, 1984 (aged 83)
Place of death	Salt Lake City, Utah
LDS Church Apostle
Called by	Heber J. Grant
Ordained	April 20, 1944 (aged 43)
Reason for ordination	Excommunication of Richard R. Lyman
End of term	January 11, 1984 (aged 83)
Reason for end of term	Death
Reorganization at end of term	Russell M. Nelson and Dallin H. Oaks were ordained after the deaths of Petersen and LeGrand Richards

Mark Edward Petersen (November 7, 1900 –January 11, 1984) was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1944 until his death. Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, he filled the vacancy caused by the excommunication of Richard R. Lyman. He had become managing editor of the Church-owned Deseret News in 1935 and editor in 1941.

As a young boy, Petersen was a newspaper carrier, and he also helped in his father’s construction business. Later he attended the University of Utah, and he served a mission for the LDS Church in Nova Scotia. In pursuing a career, he became a reporter for the Deseret News and continued working for the paper for sixty years, advancing to the position of president and chairman of the board. Elder Petersen wrote numerous editorials and published more than forty books and many pamphlets used in the Church’s missionary effort.

In April 1944, while serving as general manager of the Deseret News, Petersen was called to be a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. In his calling he directed the Church’s public information programs and served on the Military Relations Committee. He was an adviser to the Relief Society, the Indian Affairs Committee, and the Music Committee. For more than six years he supervised Church activities in Western Europe. Elder Petersen was also involved in many community affairs. He was closely associated with the Boy Scouts of America, and he was awarded the Silver Antelope citation.

At Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, August 27, 1954, at the Convention of Teachers of Religion on the College Level, Petersen delivered a speech on "Race Problems --As They Affect The Church". The speech outlined the religious underpinnings of segregation, and supported the continued practice of segregation as it related to intermarriage between blacks and whites. Many^[who?] believe these teachings are responsible for the contemporary distance between Mormons and black people.^{[citation needed]}

In the 1940s, Petersen coined the term "Mormon fundamentalist" to describe people who had left the LDS Church to practice plural marriage.^[1]

Grave marker of Mark E. Petersen.

[edit] Notes

^ Ken Driggs, "'This Will Someday Be the Head and Not the Tail of the Church': A History of the Mormon Fundamentalists at Short Creek", Journal of Church and State 43:49 (2001) at p. 51.