Clate W. Mask, Jr.

Who is Clate W. Mask, Jr.?

Clate Wheeler Mask, Jr. was a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 2003 to 2009. Mask was a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy and was the president of the Caribbean Area of the church from 2006 to 2009. Mask is also the first American general authority of Mexican descent in the church's history.

Mask was born and raised in El Paso, Texas. Although his mother was a member of the LDS Church and his grandfather had been the first native Mexican to serve as a missionary for the church, Mask's father was not a member of the church when Mask was young. However after returning from his time in the U.S. Army during World War II, the elder Clate Mask did join the church. Mask's grandfather, Andres C. Gonzalez, had been a Spanish teacher in the Mormon Colonies in Mexico, while his maternal grandmother, Minnie Spencer, was the child of Mormon Anglos who had settled in the colonies.

Mask served as a Mormon missionary in the church's Central American Mission from 1961 to 1963. He later served in the United States military and then studied at Brigham Young University. Mask married Paula Carol Garns, whom he had first met when they were both missionaries. They were married in the Los Angeles California Temple in 1965.