Elder Quentin L. Cook Celebrates His 78th Birthday Today

Hello again, everyone! As mentioned at the end of my last post, I am back in the early morning hours of September 8 to share some thoughts about Elder Quentin L. Cook in honor of his 78th birthday today. Let's dive right into that subject.

Quentin La Mar Cook was born in Logan, Utah to J. Vernon and Bernice Cook on this day in 1940. He was a middle child, having an older brother and a younger sister. He grew up in a very gospel-centered home, although his father eventually lost interest in Church activity. At age 15, he had a discussion with his brother Joe that changed his life. 

Joe was unsure whether to put off medical school to serve a mission, with their father favoring the first option. During that conversation, they determined that either the gospel was true or it wasn't, and that if it was, serving a mission would be the best use of Joe's time. Joe’s decision to go resulted in  young Quentin accepting his own call to serve in the British Mission. 

One of his two mission presidents was, Elder Marion D. Hanks, who simultaneously served as a general authority. At one point during his mission, his companion was Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. Though the two didn't know it at the time, both would go on to serve as General Authorities and as colleagues in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Elder Cook returned from his mission with a strong testimony of the Savior and a resolve to associate with people who love the Savior, both within and outside of the Church. He married his high school sweetheart Mary Gaddie in the Logan Utah Temple on November 30, 1962. Their posterity includes three children and numerous grandchildren.. 

He graduated from Utah State University with a degree in political science and from Stanford University with a juris doctorate degree. As a managing partner in San Francisco Bay area law firm, he specialized in business law. He later became president and chief executive officer of California Healthcare System, and vice chairman of Sutter Health Systems. 

His church service has included being a bishop, stake president’s counselor, stake president, regional representative, and area authority. While he was in the stake presidency, he was instilled with a love of people from all nations when he had responsibility for Spanish, Tongan, Samoan, Tagalog, Mandarin, and Cantonese congregations. 

He was named a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy on April 6, 1996, and as a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy on April 4, 1998. He served as a member of area presidencies in the Philippines, the Pacific, and North America, in addition to serving as the executive director of the Church Missionary Department before being called to the Presidency of the Seventy on August 1, 2007. 

Just over two months later, October 6, 2007, he was sustained a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and he was ordained an apostle five days later. The apostolic vacancy had been created by the death of President James E. Faust, which in turn resulted in Elder Henry B. Eyring’s call to the First Presidency.

Elder Cook has spoken several times in General Conference. He spoke twice as a general authority seventy and has given 22 additional address since his call to the apostleship. You can review any of those here. Although he may never read this personally, I am grateful for his service as a special witness of Christ, and I wholeheartedly sustain him and the other apostles.

That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly-added content, please feel free to subscribe. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.