President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, 67, a man often noted for his impressive stature and dignified demeanor, was set apart as second counselor in the First Presidency on Feb. 3, 2008, making him the sixth counselor born outside of the United States.
He is a German who was born Nov. 6, 1940, in Ostrava, Morava, in the Czech Republic.
His family joined the Church as a result of a missionary-minded, elderly woman who invited his grandmother to Church in East Germany. He was baptized two years after his family, when he turned 8 years old in 1948.
He was called to the Second Quorum of the Seventy in April 1994, the First Quorum of the Seventy in April 1996, and to the Presidency of the Seventy in August 2002.
Elder Uchtdorf speaks with a voice that is gentle and loving. That voice is sometimes nearly inaudible as he sincerely and humbly bears testimony.
When he was a deacon, the Uchtdorf family moved to Frankfurt. There he became attracted to 12-year-old Harriet Reich, a beautiful young girl with large dark eyes who was a recent convert.
They learned to dance together at Church functions but, through their teen years, she did not feel the same affection he felt for her. And besides, said President Uchtdorf in a Church News interview in 2004, "Everybody loved Harriet."
As an older teenager, he joined the German Air Force to fulfill his dream to become a pilot. Since there was no German training program for fighter pilots at that time, he earned his wings in the United States.
Returning to Germany, he found that Harriet was still single. This time, he won her heart by "enduring to the end." They were married in the Bern Switzerland Temple in 1962.
After leaving the military, President Uchtdorf became a commercial pilot for Lufthansa German Airlines in 1965, where he rose to the top levels of management. He was chief pilot and senior vice president for flight operations when he retired in 1995. Then a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy, he wanted more time for family and his Church calling.
A short time later, President Thomas S. Monson, then a counselor in the First Presidency, extended a call to serve in the First Quorum of the Seventy.
The Uchtdorfs have two children and six grandchildren, all living in Europe.
As a young man, President Uchtdorf felt some lure to move to the United States to be near the Church.
He was counseled by Elder Theodore M. Burton, then serving as mission president in Europe, to stay home and build the Church in Germany. President Uchtdorf responded with faith and became instrumental in the building of a stake and temple in Frankfurt.
