- Edwin Q. Cannon
Edwin Quayle "Ted" Cannon, Jr. (
1918-05-06 –2005-04-06 ) was aUtah politician andbusinessman and was a prominent leader and missionary inThe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Cannon was among the first missionaries in the LDS Church to preach toblack people inAfrica and was part of the first group missionaries sent to establish official congregations of the LDS Church in West Africa.Early life, mission, and family
Cannon was born in
Salt Lake City , Utah to Edwin Q. Cannon, Sr. and Luella Wareing. He was born at his parents' home because of the 1918 influenza pandemic. Cannon's paternal grandfather wasGeorge Q. Cannon , aMormon pioneer and prominent leader in the LDS Church. Cannon was raised in Salt Lake City.In 1937, Cannon went on a mission for the LDS Church to
Nazi Germany . He was president of a branch of the church inBerlin in 1939 when the LDS Church evacuated its missionaries fromEurope at the beginning ofWorld War II . Cannon finished his mission in easternCanada and returned to Utah in 1940.In 1941, Cannon married
Janath Russell in theSalt Lake Temple . They had six children together.Education, career, and politics
In 1942, Cannon graduated with a
bachelor's degree from theUniversity of Utah and in 1943 graduated fromHarvard Business School with anMBA degree . After graduating, he managed a Cannon family business, the Salt Lake Stamp Company.In 1948, Cannon was elected as a Republican member of the
Utah House of Representatives for Salt Lake County. He was re-elected in 1956 and 1958 and served three full terms.LDS Church service
From 1964 to 1971, Cannon was a bishop of the LDS Church in Salt Lake City. From 1971 to 1974, he was the president of the
Switzerland Mission of the church.In 1978, three weeks after the LDS Church announced that it would no longer impose restrictions of
black people receiving the priesthood or participating in temple ordinances, Cannon traveled toAfrica on behalf of the church withMerrill J. Bateman to assess the prospects for church missionary work and growth in "black Africa". (At the time, Cannon was a counselor toJames E. Faust in the church's International Mission, which had jurisdiction over all areas of the world not otherwise part of a mission.) After Bateman and Cannon reported the results of their trip, Cannon and his wife were called and set apart as the first Mormon missionaries to black Africa. They—along with Rendell and Rachel Mabey—preached inNigeria andGhana , baptized hundreds of converts, and established 27 branches of the LDS Church in Nigeria and Ghana. The first convert baptized in Africa wasAnthony Obinna .In the late 1980s, Cannon and his wife were the directors of the LDS Church's visitors' centre in
Nauvoo ,Illinois . For three months in 1989, Cannon was the interim president of the LDS Church'sGermany Hamburg Mission; during this time, the regular president of the mission was working on getting Mormon missionaries admitted toEast Germany .After his interim service as mission president, Cannon was the second president of the
Frankfurt Germany Temple from 1989 to 1992.Death
Cannon died at and was buried in Salt Lake City, Utah.
References
*
Alexander B. Morrison (1990). "The Dawning of a Brighter Day: The Church in Black Africa" (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book) ISBN 087579338X
* [http://www.desnews.com/cgi-bin/cqcgi_plus/@plus.env?CQ_SESSION_KEY=WMGZDDUYUCYF&CQ_CUR_DOCUMENT=13&CQ_TEXT_MAIN=YES "Edwin Q. Cannon Jr., businessman, dies"] , "Deseret Morning News ",2005-04-09 , p. B7
*"2008 Deseret Morning News Church Almanac" (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Morning News, 2007)External links
* [http://www.mission.net/switzerland/zurich/presidents.php?prID=5686 President Edwin Q. Cannon, Jr.] : biography from Switzerland Zurich Mission alumni page
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