A. Theodore Tuttle

Who was A. Theodore Tuttle?

Albert Theodore Tuttle was a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1958 until his death.

Tuttle was born in Manti, Utah. Tuttle began his college education at Snow College. As a young man, he was a Mormon missionary in the Northern States Mission of the LDS Church. After his mission, Tuttle received a bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University and a master's degree from Stanford University. He later did graduate studies at the University of Utah as well. During World War II he served two-and-a-half years as a Marine Corps line officer in the Pacific theater. He played an active part in the famous Raising of the Flag on Iwo Jima. Prior to his call as a general authority, he worked as a teacher and administrator in the Church Educational System. He was a seminary teacher and principal at several locations in Utah. He then was director of the Institute of Religion in Reno, Nevada and from 1953 until his call as a general authority was the head of the entire seminary and institute program.

Tuttle and his wife Marne Whitaker were the parents of seven children.

Tuttle became a member of the seven-man First Council of the Seventy in 1958. In 1976, he joined the newly reconstituted First Quorum of the Seventy and became a member of the Presidency of the Seventy. He remained in the Presidency of the Seventy until 1980. From 1980 to 1982, Tuttle was the president of the LDS Church's Provo Utah Temple. In 1986, he became the second counselor to Robert L. Simpson in the church's Sunday School general presidency, but only held this position for a few months before his death the same year.