George Carlos Smith Jr. was the eleventh general superintendent of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), serving from 1962 to 1969.

Biography

Smith was born in Salt Lake City, Utah

Utah

Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

 to George Carlos and Lillian Emery Smith. He became the president of the Big Cottonwood Utah Stake of the LDS Church in 1949. In 1956 he became the president of the Holladay

Holladay, Utah

Holladay is a city in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Salt Lake City, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 26,472 at the 2010 census, a significant increase from 14,561 in 2000. The city was incorporated on November 29, 1999 as Holladay-Cottonwood, and the...

 Utah Stake. In 1958, Smith became the first assistant to Joseph T. Bentley

Joseph T. Bentley

Joseph Taylor Bentley was the tenth general superintendent of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1958 to 1962....

, the general superintendent of the YMMIA. He was released in June 1961, but in October 1962 Smith was asked to succeed Bentley and become the superintendent of the YMMIA. During his tenure, Smith had three different assistants: Carl W. Buehner

Carl W. Buehner

Carl William Buehner was a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1952 to 1961 and was the Republican Party candidate for governor of Utah in the 1968 election....

, George R. Hill

George R. Hill

George Richard Hill, Jr. was an American educational administrator and was the seventh general superintendent of the Sunday School organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1949 to 1966...

, and future LDS Church apostle Marvin J. Ashton

Marvin J. Ashton

Marvin Jeremy Ashton was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1971 until his death....

. In 1969 Smith was released; his successor was W. Jay Eldredge

W. Jay Eldredge

Walter Joshua "Jay" Eldredge Jr. was the thirteenth general superintendent of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1969 to 1972.-Biography:...

.

In 1969 Smith became the first president

Mission president

Mission president is a priesthood leadership position in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . A mission president presides over a mission and the missionaries serving in the mission...

 of the Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...

 Mission

Mission (LDS Church)

A mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a geographical administrative area to which church missionaries are assigned. Almost all areas of the world are within the boundaries of an LDS Church mission, whether or not Mormon missionaries live or proselytize in the area...

 of the Church, which was headquartered in Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

 and had jurisdiction over Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, and most of the countries in Southeast Asia. This included supervising church members in South Vietnam

South Vietnam

South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the "State of Vietnam" and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" . Its capital was Saigon...

. Some of the LDS servicemen who were in Vietnam were called to serve as part-time missionaries. Both other American servicemen and native Vietnamese were baptized as a result of these efforts. Smith had previously presided over the Central States Mission of the church.

Smith married P. Lavon Petersen and was the father of five children. He was the grandson of LDS church president Joseph F. Smith

Joseph F. Smith

Joseph Fielding Smith, Sr. was the sixth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...

. He died in Salt Lake City at age 76.