Editor’s note: After a lifetime of dedicated service, President Russell M. Nelson died on Sept. 27, 2025, at age 101. This article is part of a series exploring different facets of President Nelson’s exemplary, faith-filled life.
Russell Marion Nelson was born on Sept. 9, 1924, in Salt Lake City as the second of four children to Marion C. and Edna Anderson Nelson. Though his parents were not active in the Church when he was young, their focus was always on their family. They also placed great importance on work and education.
Marion Nelson’s career began as a sports and automobile reporter for the Deseret News and later as president and general manager of Gillham Advertising Agency. At age 10, Russell Nelson went to work with his father as an errand boy, where he learned firsthand how to work hard.
When he ran for student body office in junior high school, he asked his father to help him with his campaign speech. His father told him he’d be happy to look at a draft. “Daddy wouldn’t lift a pencil until I’d made the effort,” President Nelson said (“Insights From a Prophet’s Life: Russell M. Nelson”).
“They made love the prevailing influence in their home,” President Nelson said of his parents. “Completely absent were expressions of anger, criticism and denigration of others. Our parents led, guided and provided; but they were not possessive, and they did not unduly interfere in the lives of their children. The important decisions in life — choice of career, selection of a marital partner and all other opportunities — were to be made individually, after parental counsel” (“Russell M. Nelson: Father, Surgeon, Apostle”).
President Nelson later said in his April 2018 general conference talk. “I cannot thank them enough for the happy home life they created for me and my siblings. And yet, even as a boy, I knew I was missing something.”
One day young Russell Nelson jumped on a streetcar and went to a Deseret Book store to find a book about the Church. One of the things he learned was the Word of Wisdom. One evening, after his parents indulged in some social drinking and raised their voices at each other, he went to the basement and smashed on the concrete floor every bottle of liquor.
“I expected Daddy to be upset, but he never said a word,” President Nelson remembered. “He knew that I was right” (“Insights From a Prophet’s Life: Russell M. Nelson”).
Throughout his childhood and teenage years, Russell Nelson attended church — usually alone. At age 16 and as a senior in high school, he was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“By that point, I had a testimony. I knew the gospel was for real,” President Nelson said (“Insights From a Prophet’s Life: Russell M. Nelson”).
