David A. Bednar
From College of Fine Arts and Communications
David Allan Bednar is a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Personal History
Bednar was born on 15 June 1952, in Oakland, California. 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.
Bednar 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 then received a Doctorate in organizational behavior from Purdue University in 1980.
Bednar married Susan Kae Robinson in the Salt Lake Temple on 20 March 1975. They are the parents of three sons.
Career
From 1980 to 1984, Bednar was the assistant professor of management in the College of Business Administration at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas. He became assistant professor of management at Texas Tech University from 1984 to 1986. He then moved back to the University of Arkansas as the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies in the College of Business Administration from 1987 to 1992 and was then the director of the Management Decision-Making Lab from 1992 to 1997. In 1994. While there he was recognized as the outstanding teacher at the University of Arkansas and received the Burlington Northern Foundation Award for Excellence in Teaching. He has twice been the recipient of the Outstanding Teacher Award in the College of Business Administration.
Bednar then served as the president of Ricks College/Brigham Young University–Idaho from 1997 to 2004 in Rexburg, Idaho. 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, Brigham Young University-Idaho.
Church Service
Bednar has served as a bishop, a stake president twice, a regional representative of the Twelve and an area seventy. During his time as a bishop, stake president, and regional representative, Bednar was an associate dean at the University of Arkansas. He was an area seventy from 1997 to 2004 while he was president of Ricks College/Brigham Young University–Idaho.
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. In addition, Bednar is a member of the Church Boards of Trusteees/Education, the governing body of the Church Educational System.
