Cecil O. Samuelson

Cecil O. Samuelson was appointed President of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, USA, in 2003. He is a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Samuelson was born August 1, 1941, and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Samuelson interrupted his studies at the University of Utah to serve a mission for the Mormon Church in Scotland. After earning a master’s degree in educational psychology and a medical degree, he completed his internship and residency at Duke University in North Carolina. He spent the next seventeen years practicing rheumatology and serving on the University of Utah medical faculty, including working as the university’s vice president for health sciences and dean of the school of medicine. He accepted a position at Intermountain Health Care as a senior vice president.

In June of 2001, Elder Samuelson was called into the Presidency of the Seventy. This call was to last but two years when in 2003 he was released from the Presidency and appointed President of Brigham Young University, succeeding Merrill J. Bateman in that position. Elder Samuelson continues to serve in the First Quorum of the Seventy, while Elder Bateman was called into the Presidency of the Seventy. In essence the two switched positions.

Samuelson is married to the former Sharon Giauque. They were married in the Salt Lake Temple on 25 November 1964. Together they have five children.

Sources

• News of the Church: Elder Cecil O. Samuelson, Jr...," Ensign, Nov. 1994.
• "Two New in Presidency of Seventy," Church News Archives, June 16, 2001.
• "Changes announced in leadership positions," Church News Archives, April 5, 2003.
• 2005 Church Almanac, p.39.