Frederick Niels Larsen
| Frederick Niels Larsen | |
|---|---|
| President of the High Priesthood/Prophet | |
| April 6, 2002 | |
| Predecessor | W. Wallace Smith[1] |
| Successor | April 6, 2002 |
| President of the High Priests Quorum | |
| April 6, 2002 – April 8, 2001 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | January 15, 1932 Kansas City, Missouri, United States |
| Alma mater | Graceland College |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Louise Malott |
| Children | 5 |
| Parents | Edward J. Larsen Lois A. Smith |
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Frederick Niels Larsen (born January 15, 1932) is the great grandson of Joseph Smith III and the current President of the High Priesthood of the Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.[2]
Contents
Early life
Frederick Niels Larsen was born January 15, 1932 in the house occupied by his grandfather, Frederick M. Smith. The house in Kansas City, Missouri was the home of his parents Edward J. Larsen, a Danish immigrant and Lois A. (Smith) Larsen, daughter of the President/Prophet. The family moved to a 20-acre farm in East Independence in 1937.
Education
Larsen attended eight years at the DeKalb grade school located adjacent to the front yard of the farm home. After one year at the Independence Junior High School and one year at the William Chrisman High School the family moved to Santa Ana, California where Larsen attended Garden Grove Union High School, where he graduating in 1950.[citation needed]
Larsen attended Graceland College in Lamoni, Iowa and the University of Kansas City, Missouri. He concentrated his interests in the field of the Physical Sciences and graduated in 1959 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry.[citation needed]
Work experience
While attending college he worked in the analytical laboratories of the Lake City Arsenal, the Great Lakes Pipeline Co., Chemagro Corporation, and the Bendix Corporation. He retired from Bendix (now Honeywell Corp.) in 1994 after 35 years of service. Larsen served as a consultant in the field of Polymer Science at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in Livermore, California in 1975 and 1976. After “retirement” he joined his brother Daniel in a capital venture company, Infinity Inc., and assisted in building wastewater treatment plants in Chanute, Kansas and Cheyenne, Wyoming. Larsen’s latest work effort has been with the City of Independence Police Department’s Crime Scene Unit where as a Forensic Chemist for the last 5 years he has analyzed illicit drugs and methamphetamine labs for the City and the Jackson County Drug Task Force. His retirement from full-time employment is scheduled for September 30, 2002.
Personal life
Larsen married Mary Louise Malot and they five children, Larry, Linda, Luann, Brian, and Stephen and ten grandchildren.
Latter Day Saint affiliations
Larsen grew up as a member of Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (now known as the Community of Christ).[3][4] Prior to 1996[5] the RLDS church followed the doctrine of Lineal succession, where certain key church positions, such as President of the Church and the Presiding Patriarch, were held by right of lineal inheritance.
As a descendant of Joseph Smith, Larsen had a close association with those leaders in the RLDS Church. He was blessed as a baby and confirmed a member of the RLDS church by his grandfather, Frederick M. Smith; ordained to the office of Priest in 1956 by Israel A. Smith, his great uncle; ordained to the office of Elder by W. Wallace Smith, his great uncle and he and Mary received their Patriarchal Blessings by Elbert A. Smith, a second cousin. Larsen would also serve as the minister of the East Alton and Beacon Heights RLDS branches in Independence.
However, in 1984 he ended his active membership in the RLDS Church. He would began to attend the Blue Springs Restoration branch and the Conference of Restoration Elders in 1996. The Restoration Branches formed in the 1980s by members of the RLDS church in a reaction against the events of the RLDS 1984 world conference.[6]
Larsen was one of the twelve signers of the “Proclamation and Invitation to the Faithful” in May, 1999, which help lead to the creation of the Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on April 6, 2000.
On April 8, 2001, Larsen was made a High Priest and set apart as President of the High Priests Quorum of the Remnant Church. In April 2002, Larsen, as a descendant of Joseph Smith, was chosen to become the President of the High Priesthood and sustained as a Prophet, Seer and Revelator. Members of the Remnant Church also believe that Larsen is the "One Mighty and Strong",[7] a person of unknown identity who was the subject of an 1832 prophecy by Joseph Smith.[8][9]
References
- ↑ In 1995, Wallace B. Smith, Prophet–Presidents of the Community of Christ, broke with the precedent of lineal succession by naming W. Grant McMurray as his successor, leading to the creation of the Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
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- ↑ Questions and Answers on Church Name Change
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- ↑ Letter from Joseph Smith to William W. Phelps, 1832-11-17, reprinted in "Let Every Man Learn His Duty", Evening and Morning Star, vol. 1, no. 8, pp. 121–22 (January 1833).
- ↑ See also reprint in Joseph Smith (B.H. Roberts ed.) (1902). History of the Church 1:297–99.
