Joseph L. Wirthlin

Joseph Leopold Wirthlin was a General Authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, having served as presiding bishop, first counselor in the Presiding Bishopric and second counselor in the Presiding Bishopric.

Wirthlin was born on August 14, 1893, in Salt Lake City. He served in the Church as a full-time missionary in the Swiss-German Mission. Fourteen years later he was called as a bishop (1928) and then a stake president (1936). In 1938 he was sustained as second counselor to Presiding Bishop LeGrand Richards; he was called as first counselor in 1946. He was sustained as Presiding Bishop on April 6, 1952, where he served until September 30, 1961.

He and his wife, Madeline Bitner Wirthlin, were the parents of five children, including Joseph B. Wirthlin, a former member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and Richard B. Wirthlin, an former member of the Seventy.

He passed away on January 25, 1963.