Senior Apostles Who did Not Become President

In the post-martyrdom era of the Church, 15 men have become President of the Church after being the Senior Apostle, but only eight have been Senior Apostle, and NOT become a Church President:

– Heber C Kimball

– Franklin D Richards

– George Q Cannon

– Brigham Young, Jr.

– Francis M Lyman

– Anthon H Lund

– Rudger Clawson

– Marion G Romney

Some notes:

– Thomas B Marsh was the Senior Apostle when the Quorum was first organized, but had been excommunicated long before the establishment of the concept that the Senior Apostle would become the President of the Church.

– HCKimball was only 13 days younger than BY and that established the order in the original quorum. If he had been born two weeks earlier, he would have become the Church President, rather than BY, and BY would have been third, well after the emigration to Utah. It’s an interesting historical question to think of how this would have affected the Church. BY was probably exactly what the Church needed in order to stay together and migrate west. He was a very effective organizer and leader, whose greatest strength was his ability to adapt to changing circumstances. On the other hand, BY never professed much of a prophetic or spiritual role. HCK, on the other hand, was well known as a visionary and a spiritual giant. He frequently was called upon to expound upon the mysteries of the Kingdom. He even recorded revelations that he received while BY was Church President. Conversely, God seemed not to know where BY lived. It’s very probable that if HCK had become president, prophetic revelation would have continued. Before you get too far along the ‘what if’ line, though, it should be noted that both BY and HCK were completely devoted to the concept of polygamy.

– Lorenzo Snow outlived two younger Senior Apostles. Franklin D Richards died at age 78, 22 months before Snow. George Q Cannon died just 6 months before Snow, at age 74. President Snow passed away at age 87.

– Four men were ordained Apostles on the same day, in February, 1849. As has always been the custom, seniority of Apostles ordained at the same time was established by age. This was the reason that Lorenzo Snow became the 5th President of the Church, and FDRichards became the Senior Apostle, even though they had been ordained on the same day 49 and a half years earlier.

– The longest term as Senior Apostle, among those listed above was Rudger Clawson, who was in that position for 22 years, and who died two years before he would have become the Church’s 8th President. A close second was HCKimball, who was Senior Apostle for 21 years.

– George Q Cannon was English-born, joining the Church, along with his family, at age 13 and emigrating to Utah two years later. I don’t know a lot about him, but I know he was an eloquent speaker, and didn’t seem to be as hard-line as his contemporaries. In fact, British Saints tended to be more spiritually-minded, rather than theocracy-minded, in those days.

– Anthon H Lund was a non-native English speaker. He was born in Denmark, joined the Church at the age of 12, and emigrated to Utah at age 18.

– Both Orson Hyde and Orson Pratt would have taken turns leading the Church after the death of BY, but both had been out of the quorum for brief stints during the Missouri years. The Church convened a council in 1875, just two years before BY’s death, and BY ruled that the seniority of these two was affected, and declared that John Taylor was actually the Senior Apostle. This was particularly interesting in the case of Hyde, because he had served as the president of the Q12 for 28 years, 21 years as Acting President (though it wasn’t called that then), while HCKimball served in the FP, and seven years as the President during which time he was considered the Senior Apostle. Hyde passed away 15 months after BY, and Pratt passed away three years later.