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Elder F. Arthur Kay succumbs at age 89

Elder F. Arthur Kay, 89, a former member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy, died Dec. 13, 2005, in Kirkland, Wash.

Elder Kay was sustained to the First Quorum of the Seventy Oct. 6, 1984, at age 68. He was sustained on April 1, 1989, to the Second Quorum of the Seventy and was released on Sept. 30, 1989. He was among nine General Authorities called during the April and October 1984 general conferences to serve for up to five years. (Please see the Oct. 14, 1984, Church News.)

The son of Samuel Arthur and Medora Hooper Kay, he was born in Annabella, Utah, on July 15, 1916. During the Depression, he interrupted his high school education to work in the Civilian Conservation Corps to help support his widowed mother and four sisters. Explaining how he coped with challenges, he once said, "It was a matter of knowing there wasn't any other way, that you simply had to buckle down and do it." (Please see Nov. 4, 1984, Church News.)

In 1939, he married his high school sweetheart, Eunice Nielsen, in the Salt Lake Temple. They are parents of six children and have 22 grandchildren and 34 great-grandchildren. Elder Kay practiced dentistry in Renton, Wash., for 30 years until his retirement in 1979, when he accepted the position to become the first president of the Seattle Washington Temple, where he served until his calling as a General Authority in 1984. His Church responsibilities took him to Mexico and Australia. He served in the presidency and later as the president of the South Pacific Area.

Elder Kay was also a former bishop, stake president and regional representative. After his release from the Seventy, he served as a sealer in the Seattle Washington and St. George Utah temples, as a gospel doctrine teacher, assistant to the high priests group leader and priesthood instructor.

His funeral is scheduled for Monday, Dec. 19, at the Renton Washington North Stake Center.

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