This biographical sketch is adapted from the "News
of the Church: Elder Stephen A. West of the Seventy" in the Ensign,
May 1998
The day Stephen A. and Martha Alice Sears West closed
on the purchase of their new house in Logan, Utah, he was interviewed to
serve as president of the Texas San Antonio Mission. A call came three
days later, and shortly thereafter they left for Texas. The decision to
go was an easy one. “Our testimonies and the teachings of the Church have
dictated our decisions throughout life,” says Elder West. He was serving
as mission president when he received the call to the Second Quorum of
the Seventy.
Born in Salt Lake City on 23 March 1935, Stephen
returned to Utah after serving a mission to the northwestern states. He
then earned a bachelor’s degree and a Juris Doctor degree from the University
of Utah. Meanwhile, Stephen and Martha were
married in the Salt Lake Temple on 21 March 1960; they are the parents
of three children.
Stephen clerked for a judge and then worked in a
Salt Lake City law firm before moving in 1967 to work in Washington, D.C.
One year later he joined the Marriott Corporation in Bethesda, Maryland,
where in time he became senior vice president
and general counsel for Marriott International, Inc. In 1994 Brother
West retired, and he and Martha moved to Logan, Utah, just before he was
called to serve as mission president.
A former bishop, bishop’s counselor, high councilor,
and sealer in the Washington [D.C.] Temple, Elder West says he has appreciated
all his opportunities for service but says he particularly learned a great
deal while serving as a counselor in the branch presidency of a small central
city branch in the District of Columbia. “It was a great experience for
us,” he says, still impressed by the “unbelievable faith and strength”
of those members.
“Our Texas San Antonio Mission scripture is 3 Nephi
5:13, which says, ‘Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of
God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that
they might have everlasting life,’ ” says Elder West. “I can rarely say
that scripture without choking up. I think it says everything about what
I want to be and do.”
Having fulfilled the term of his calling, Elder West was honorably released from the Second Quorum in October of 2004.
