David A. Bednar


David Allan Bednar is a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. An educator by profession, Bednar was president of Brigham Young University–Idaho from 1997 to 2004.
Bednar was sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve on October 2, 2004, the youngest man named to that body since Dallin H. Oaks in 1984. He was ordained an apostle on October 7, 2004, by church president Gordon B. Hinckley. Bednar and Dieter F. Uchtdorf were called to fill the vacancies created by the July 2004 deaths of quorum members David B. Haight and Neal A. Maxwell. As a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, Bednar is accepted by the church as a prophet, seer, and revelator. He is currently the seventh most senior apostle in the church.
Bednar was born in Oakland, California to Lavina Whitney Bednar and Anthony George Bednar. His mother came from a long line of Latter-day Saints, but his father did not join the church until Bednar was in his late twenties. He served as a full-time missionary in Southern Germany and then attended Brigham Young University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication in 1976 and a Master of Arts degree in organizational communication in 1977. He received a doctorate degree in organizational behavior from Purdue University in 1980.

Academic career

From 1980 to 1984, Bednar was an assistant professor of management in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas. He was an assistant professor of management at Texas Tech University from 1984 to 1986. He returned to the University of Arkansas in 1987, serving as the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies in the Sam M. Walton College of Business until 1992, and was then the director of the Management Decision-Making Lab from 1992 to 1997. In 1994, he was recognized as the outstanding teacher at the University of Arkansas and received the Burlington Northern Foundation Award for Excellence in Teaching. He was twice the recipient of the Outstanding Teacher Award in the College of Business Administration.
Bednar served as the president of Ricks College/BYU–Idaho in Rexburg, Idaho, from July 1, 1997 to December 1, 2004. There, he oversaw and managed the transition of the school from, what was at the time, the largest private junior college in the United States, Ricks College, to a four-year university, BYU–Idaho.

LDS Church service

Bednar has served in the LDS Church as a bishop, twice as stake president, regional representative, and area seventy.
In late 2009, the BYU–Idaho choirs and orchestras performed an oratorio with words by Bednar and music by Robert Cundick.
In 2016, Bednar dedicated the Star Valley Wyoming Temple, the LDS Church's 154th temple.
Bednar attended the 2019 dedication of the Rome Italy Temple with all 15 of the LDS Church apostles. This is believed to be the first time the entire First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles were in the same location outside the United States.

Personal life

Bednar married Susan Kae Robinson in the Salt Lake Temple on March 20, 1975. He and his wife are currently living in the Salt Lake area. The Bednars have three sons.
Commencement with Cecil O. Samuelson, Elaine S. Dalton, and W. Rolfe Kerr

Works

;Books
;Academic articles