1899 - 1964

• Born 1899 Salt Lake City, Utah
• Baptized 1908; Aaronic Priesthood as a youth; Melchizedek Priesthood as a young man
• Mission to Hawaii 1920-1922
• Married to Ruth Pingree; Salt Lake Temple; 1929
• Patriarch to the Church 1942-1946
• Died 1964 Salt Lake City, Utah

    This short biographical sketch  is adapted from the LDS Biographical Encyclopedia, Andrew Jenson, Vol. 4, page 246, from the Church Almanac, and from FamilySearch.org..

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    Joseph Fielding Smith (III), was Patriarch to the Church and a member of the General Board of Y. M. M. I. A. He was born January 30, 1899, in Salt Lake City, Utah, the eldest son of Hyrum Mack Smith and Ida Elizabeth Bowman. He was baptized Jan. 30, 1908, filled a mission to Hawaii in 1920-1922.     On the fifth of June 1929, he was married to Ruth Pingree, the daughter of Franklin Pingree and Pauline Taggart. Vocationally, he worked as professor of speech at the University of Utah. In 1936 he took a leave of absence for further studies at the University of Wisconsin, in Madison, Wisconsin.

    Patriarch Smith was ordained a High Priest and Patriarch to the Church October 8, 1942 by President Heber J. Grant. at the age of forty-three. He served but four years before ill health forced him to request to be released which request was granted October 6, 1946. He spent several years in Hawaii in recuperation before before being allowed to return to the contiguous forty-eight.

    Patriarch Smith died August 29, 1964 in Salt Lake City, Utah. His widow, Ruth, survived him until July 22, 1992.

    Patriarch Smith should not be confused with his Grandfather Joseph F. (Fielding) Smith, nor his uncle Joseph Fielding Smith, both of whom served as Apostles and later as Presidents of the Church.