W. Don Ladd

Who was W. Don Ladd?

W. Don Ladd was a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and also previously vice president for governmental relations of Marriott International.

Ladd was born in San Mateo, Florida. He was raised by an LDS mother and attending the LDS Church but his father was a Southern Baptist and he was not baptized until age 19.

Ladd attended the University of Florida and later joined the United States military.

In 1958 he became an administrative assistant to a United States congressman. It was in Washington D.C. that he met Ruth Lynne Pearson, who he later married in 1962 in the Logan Temple.

In 1967 Ladd became an assistant to Orville L. Freeman, United States Secretary of Agriculture.

In 1982 Ladd joined Marriott International.

In the LDS Church, Ladd served as president of the Washington, D.C. Stake, a regional representative and as chairman of the Church's Public Affairs Council in Washington, D.C. In 1977 Ladd, along with Thomas E. Daniels, presented a record of Jimmy Carter's family history to the president on behalf of the LDS Church.

Ladd served as a general authority and member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy from 1994 to 2000.