Dieter F Uchtdorf

Early life and education

Uchtdorf was born to ethnic Germans Karl Albert Uchtdorf and Hildegard Else Opelt in Moravská Ostrava (German: Mährisch-Ostrau), which at the time was in the Nazi-occupied Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (now Ostrava, Czech Republic). When he was a child, his family traveled through areas being bombed to move to Zwickau in eastern Germany while his father was away in the army. As a result of his grandmother's encounter with an LDS Church member in a soup line, Uchtdorf's family joined the LDS Church when he was still young.

When Uchtdorf was about eleven, his father's political beliefs, incongruent with Soviet rule, earned him the label of "dissenter", thus putting their lives in danger. They fled East Germany and resettled in U.S.-occupied West Germany. His sisters accomplished this by jumping from a moving train that happened to pass through West Germany, while Dieter and his mother climbed a mountain to avoid Russian guard checkpoints.

Uchtdorf started studying mechanical engineering at age 18 but later continued in business administration in Cologne and graduated from Institut pour l'Etude des Methodes de Direction de l'Entreprise (today the International Institute for Management Development) in Lausanne, Switzerland, with an MBA. He received an honorary doctorate in international leadership from Brigham Young University during the April 2009 graduation ceremony.

Aviator

Since Uchtdorf faced conscription into the newly formed Bundeswehr, he chose instead to volunteer for the West German Air Force in 1959, at age 19, to become a fighter pilot. Due to an agreement between the West German and US governments, Uchtdorf trained as a fighter pilot in Big Spring, Texas, where he excelled, earning the coveted Commander's Trophy (USAF) for being the best student pilot in his class. After earning wings from both the German and US air forces, he served for six years as fighter pilot in West Germany, leaving in 1965 to join Lufthansa. By 1970, at 29 years of age, Uchtdorf had reached the rank of captain with Lufthansa. He was appointed in 1975 as head of Lufthansa's new Arizona Training School, and in 1980 he was made head chief pilot of cockpit crews, followed by appointment to senior vice president of flight operations in 1982. He left Lufthansa in 1996, two years after being called as an LDS Church general authority.

LDS Church service

Uchtdorf served twice as a stake president in the LDS Church, presiding over the Frankfurt Germany and the Mannheim Germany stakes.

Uchtdorf was called as a general authority and member of the church's Second Quorum of the Seventy on 2 April 1994. On 7 April 1996, he was transferred to the First Quorum of Seventy. Uchtdorf became a member of the church's Presidency of the Seventy on 15 August 2002.

Apostle

Uchtdorf was sustained a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on 2 October 2004. He was ordained an apostle on 7 October 2004 by church president Gordon B. Hinckley. Uchtdorf and David A. Bednar were called to fill the vacancies created by the July 2004 deaths of quorum members David B. Haight and Neal A. Maxwell. Uchtdorf was the first church apostle ordained in the 21st century. As an apostle, Uchtdorf is accepted by the church as a prophet, seer, and revelator.

Uchtdorf is the eleventh apostle of the LDS Church to be born outside the United States. He is the first German apostle in church history and was the first born outside of North America since the death of John A. Widtsoe in 1952.

While in Slovakia on 12 May 2006, Uchtdorf offered a prayer dedicating the land "for the preaching of the gospel"—an LDS Church leadership custom usually observed at the time missionaries arrive in a new country. Although missionaries had been in what is now Slovakia for over a century, since the split with the Czech Republic, this dedication was specific for the new country.

Counselor in the First Presidency

On 3 February 2008, Uchtdorf became the Second Counselor to Thomas S. Monson in the church's First Presidency. He is the second member of the First Presidency who is not a native English speaker. After joining the First Presidency, Uchtdorf became a naturalized US citizen; he has remained a citizen of Germany.

While serving in the First Presidency, Uchtdorf has dedicated the Tegucigalpa Honduras, Quetzaltenango Guatemala, Manaus Brazil, Fort Lauderdale Florida, Cordoba Argentina, Trujillo Peru, Tijuana Mexico, and Tucson Arizona temples. Uchtdorf has also participated in the dedication of many other temples as a member of the Twelve and First Presidency.

In May 2016, Uchtdorf returned to his native Czech Republic to create the first stake in that nation.

Family

Uchtdorf and his wife, Harriet Reich Uchtdorf, were married on 14 December 1962 in the Swiss Temple. They are the parents of two children and have six grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Works