Newest Apostolic Age Milestones

Hello, all! Just posting today to do my second update this year on the latest apostolic age milestones. In this post, I will review the tenure milestones President Nelson will reach as President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 2017, where he sits in terms of age among the other nonagenarian apostles and those he will surpass among that group this year, the 2017 age and tenure milestones that Church President Thomas S. Monson will reach this year, and where the apostles are age-wise as of today. I will be throwing out a lot of facts, figures, and dates in this post, so hopefully none of you will get confused and it will be enjoyable to all.

Before I discuss all of that, I do want to note one thing: President Nelson's future milestones as Quorum President are subject to however long President Monson lives and serves as Church President. For the last two or three years, President Monson's health has been iffy, and the report has been that he is feeling the effects of advanced age However, he (President Monson) was reportedly able to summon enough strength to deliver a tribute at Elder Glen L. Rudd's funeral of a considerable and extensive length. Whether he forced himself to be well enough to do so remains to be seen. I prefer to see it as a very good indicator that President Monson's health has sorted itself out for the moment. More on that will be reported here as I learn of it.

As of today, President Nelson has been the Quorum President for just over 18 months, having served for 1 year, 6 months, and 5 days. As some of you may recall, he jumped two spots in terms of his service length just around the celebration of the Christmas season. He will jump several spots again this year. Assuming President Monson lasts throughout 2017, by the end of it, President Nelson will have lived to become the 16th longest serving Quorum President (he now holds the 21st spot.) For those curious about the specifics, he will reach the 20th spot on Friday May 5 (less than four months from now), passing up Brigham Young Jr.'s first tenure. Note that the latest milestone he observed was passing Brigham Young Jr.'s second tenure. The son of our second Church President served two nonconsecutive terms as Quorum President because he served around 6th Church President Joseph F. Smith taking his spot as Quorum President for about a week before his ascension to the Presidency. Young would have been the Acting President for his first tenure, if that practice had been in place at that time.)

President Nelson jumps to the 19th spot less than a month later on Sunday June 4, taking the spot currently held by George Albert Smith. He will become the 18th longest serving Quorum President on Sunday July 9, surpassing Heber J. Grant. He takes the 17th spot, now held by Anthon H. Lund, on Wednesday October 11. And he will reach the #16 spot, which is currently held by Harold B. Lee, on the same day Amy and I will celebrate 7 years of marriage on Monday December 18. As you can see, it will be quite a year in terms of Quorum Presidential milestones.

In the meantime, if President Nelson lives through this entire year, he will jump three spots in terms of his rank as a nonagenarian apostle. He currently ranks as the 10th oldest of our 17 nonagenarians, being 92 years, 3 months, and 30 days old as of today. On Wednesday July 5, he will take the #9 spot now held by Elder L. Tom Perry. Though Elder Richard R. Lyman was excommunicated and lost his apostleship, history still notes him as living long enough to become the 8th oldest nonagenarian apostle. President Nelson will surpass Elder Lyman on Wednesday October 18. About two months later, President Nelson will achieve the distinction of becoming the 7th oldest apostle, taking the spot which is currently held by Charles W. Penrose. President Nelson appears by all reports to be well on track to become the oldest living apostle, which will happen on Monday August 8, 2022. What a banner year it will be for President Nelson!

In the meantime, President Monson, as noted above, seems to be doing better. Time will tell for sure, and I will do my best to keep up on that and report things as they develop. His tenure as prophet, which as of today has lasted 8 years, 11 months, and 5 days, leaves him as the 9th longest serving prophet. In the meantime he is the 7th oldest prophet of this dispensation, as today he is 89 years, 4 months, and 18 days old. His one and only milestone this year is in tenure length. He will become the 8th longest serving Church president, surpassing Wilford Woodruff, on Friday June 30. In the meantime, one age-related milestone will be marked this year for President Monson. He will join the ranks of the 17 other nonagenarian apostles 7 months and 13 days from now, on Monday August 21. 

Now, just a word about the apostles overall. The next apostolic birthday takes place later this month when Elder D. Todd Christofferson will celebrate his 72nd. The next one before a three-month break will be that for Elder Ronald A. Rasband, who will turn 66 on February 6.

With that said, what follows are the latest apostolic age averages. As of today, the average age of the members of the First Presidency is 83.05. President Eyring is closest to that average, having reached today the age of 83.61. President Monson is above that average, standing at the age of 89.38 years. And rounding out the First Presidency as its youngest member is President Ucthdorf at 76.17 years. 

As of today, the ages of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles stand thusly: President Nelson is 92.33. Elder Oaks is 84.41. Elder Ballard, just younger than President Monson, is 88.25. Elder Hales, who is 12 days younger than Elder Oaks, is 84.38. The youngest and most senior of our apostles born in 1940 is Elder Holland, who marked 76.1 years as of today. Elder Bednar, the third youngest apostle, is 64.57. Elder Cook, the oldest of the three apostles born in 1940, is 76.33 years. Elder Christofferson, who as I mentioned, is preparing to mark his 72nd birthday in just 16 days, is 71.96 years old. Elder Andersen stands at 65.42 years. Elder Rasband, whose 66th birthday will be less than 2 weeks (13 days exactly) following Elder Christofferson's 72nd, is now 65.92 years. Elder Stevenson, the youngest of our 15 apostles, is now 61.42 years. And Elder Renlund, our second youngest apostle who is separated in age from Elder Bednar by less than five months, is 64.15 years. 

With those ages, we arrive at the fact that the average age for the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles is 74.6 years, with that average splitting the quorum directly in half, with Jeffrey R. Holland being the youngest of the oldest half and Elder Christofferson being the oldest of the youngest half. In the meantime, the average age of the 15 apostles overall stands, as of today, at 76.29 years. 7 of those 15 are older than that average, and 8 are younger. Those closest to that average include Elder Cook on the older side and President Uchtdorf on the younger side.

Hope this post has been interesting and informative to you all. Thanks for reading and, if you feel so inclined, commenting on this. I hope that I will have the opportunity for many more such updates this year, even though I can't promise all of them will be this extensive. I appreciate you all.