Jeffrey R. Holland, who was next in line to lead the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died at 85 on Dec. 27 from complications associated with kidney disease, the church said.
Holland was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the faith's governing body. Long a key figure in the church's educational network, Holland drew national attention in 2021 when he instructed staff and faculty at Brigham Young University ‒ the church's flagship institution of higher learning ‒ to take up their metaphorical "muskets" in defense of "marriage as the union of a man and a woman."
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is also commonly known as the Mormon Church.
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Born in St. George, Utah, in 1940, Holland described growing up in a small-town idyll. "I couldn't have gotten in trouble in that town if I'd wanted to," the church quoted him as saying. "My mother would have known before I ever got home."
After serving the church as a missionary in England as a teenager, he earned master's and doctorate degrees in American studies at Yale University before embarking on a career with the Church Educational System. He served as president of Brigham Young between 1980 and 1989, overseeing the construction of the school's Jerusalem Center on Mount Scopus. He became a member of the Apostles in 1994.
Holland's 2021 speech drew protests from within and without the church, but his uncompromising opposition to same-sex marriage was endorsed by the university, which recently made the speech required reading. Holland told a podcast last year that he was sad, if not exactly apologetic, that his words had upset some.
"Now, if anybody was hurt, and I know some were in that exchange, then I was hurt," he said. "I have wept for those three years."
The church said Holland was preceded in death by his wife, Patricia Terry, who passed away in 2023. The church said he was survived by the couple's three children, 13 grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.
(Reporting by Raphael Satter and Jasper Ward in Washington; Editing by Sergio Non and Chizu Nomiyama)
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Jeffrey Holland, next in line to lead Mormon Church, dies
