Earl M. Monson

Earl M. Monson was a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He served in the Second Quorum of the Seventy from April 4, 1998, until October 5, 2002. He also served as president of the Manila Philippines Temple from 2006 to 2009.

Monson was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on July 26, 1932. He spent two years in the US Army during the Korean War. He was attending the University of Utah when he met his wife, Donna; they were the parents of five children. He earned his bachelor’s degree in architecture and later earned his master’s degree in structural engineering from Iowa State University and worked as a civil engineer. In 1962 he became a structural engineer for the Church and in 1982 became the head of the temple and special projects division. He oversaw temple construction and design under the direction of the First Presidency. At that time, then-President Spencer W. Kimball was starting to announce six or seven new temples a year. Of that experience, he said, “It didn’t take long for me to realize that there are powerful forces on the earth that don’t want temples to be used or to be constructed,” he says. “But when the Lord wants them, he will help us find a way to build and to use them if we put our trust in him.”[1]

He died on May 17, 2017.