Richards was born in Farmington, Utah Territory, to George F. Richards and Alice Almira Robinson. His father also served in the Quorum of the Twelve. As a young boy, Richards had several accidents that could have taken his life, including as a small child, when he was struck in the head by an axe as he approached from behind while his father was chopping wood. A few years later, Richards was thrown from a wagon by an agitated horse and both the wagon wheels rolled over his head. As a child, Richards attended the 1893 dedication of the Salt Lake Temple. His church service began when he served a proselytizing mission to the Netherlands from 1905 to 1908.
After returning from his mission, Richards held various jobs in Salt Lake City, including doing audits in the office of the Presiding Bishopric. In 1909, he married Ina Jane Ashton (who normally went by Jane) in the Salt Lake Temple.[2] They were the parents of eight children.
Richards while president of the Southern States Mission
Richards returned to the Netherlands as the presiding elder over the mission, accompanied by his wife, Ina Jane Ashton, from 1914 to 1916. Richards was ordained a high priest and bishop on June 29, 1919, by Charles W. Penrose, and presided over a Salt Lake City ward from 1920 to 1925. In 1926, he filled a short-term mission, primarily serving in Rhode Island. In the early 1930s, church president Heber J. Grant sent Richards to southern California with the plan to call him as stake president. However, the existing stake president called Richards as a bishop and convinced Grant to hold off on calling Richards as the stake president so local members would not feel that an outsider was being imposed on them as a leader. From 1931 to 1933, Richards presided over the church's HollywoodStake.
In 1933 and 1934, Richards again lived in Salt Lake City, where he served on the stake high council of the Liberty Stake under stake president Bryant S. Hinckley. Richards served as president of the Southern States Mission from 1934 to 1937; he was called to this position to replace Charles A. Callis, who had been called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Richards served as the church's presiding bishop during and after the Second World War and began to adopt building programs to deal with the increased post-war growth in membership of the church.
Outside of his apostleship, Richards is probably best known for his widely distributed book, A Marvelous Work and a Wonder, which was first published in 1950.[3] The commonly referenced work contains a comprehensive teaching outline designed to assist missionaries in their study and presentation of Mormonism. Based on a document titled, "The Message of Mormonism", which Richards developed in 1937 for missionaries during his tenure as president of the Southern States Mission, the book contains explanations and interpretations of many doctrinal positions of the LDS Church.
In 1955, Richards published Israel! Do You Know?, an effort to demonstrate the links between Jewish traditions and beliefs and Mormonism; this document was produced in conjunction with an LDS Church program aimed at proselyting Jews living in Southern California.
Richards also played a role in Mormon connections with Israel. He was head of the Orson Hyde Foundation, which coordinated the donations that were used to purchase the land in Jerusalem that became the Orson Hyde Memorial Garden.[4]
Tributes
Grave marker of LeGrand Richards.Grave marker rear side
In a memorial address read by his personal secretary after Richards died, church president Spencer W. Kimball paid tribute to Richards as
one of the greatest missionaries of our time. He reminded me of a modern-day Apostle Paul. I can think of no one who has borne his testimony to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ with deeper conviction or with greater fervor. With it all, LeGrand Richards was a perennial optimist and his words were a rare combination of wit and humor, comfort, encouragement, and wisdom. He rarely, if ever, delivered a message from a written text. He just spoke from his heart, drawing upon a lifetime of experience, study, and inspiration.[5]
^David B. Galbraith and Blair L. Van Dyke, "The BYU Jerusalem Center: Reflections of A Modern Pioneer", The Religious Educator, vol. 9 (2008), no. 1, p. 29ff.
Flake, Lawrence R. "LeGrand Richards" in Prophets and Apostles of the Last Dispensation (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2001), pp. 489–91.
