(March 28, 1895 – November 5, 1985) was an American business, civic, and religious leader, and was the 12th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), from 1973 to 1985. Grandson of the LDS apostle Heber C. Kimball, Spencer was born in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory. He spent most of his early life in Thatcher, Arizona, where his father, Andrew Kimball, farmed and served as the area’s stake president.
From 1914-1916, he served an LDS mission (see below), then worked for various banks in Arizona’s Gila Valley as a clerk and bank teller. Kimball later co-founded a business, selling bonds and insurance that, after weathering the Great Depression, became highly successful. He served as a stake president in his hometown from 1938-1943, when he was called to serve as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Hoping to become a schoolteacher, Kimball spent one semester at the University of Arizona in the spring of 1917, but he received an army draft notice later that year. During that time, he courted Camilla Eyring (1894–1987), a schoolteacher at Gila Academy (modern Eastern Arizona College), where Kimball had attended high school. They began dating in August 1917 and exchanged letters regularly after Kimball left for a semester at Brigham Young University (BYU) the next month. After one month at BYU, Kimball was notified that his call into the army was imminent, and he had to leave the university and return to his hometown. He returned to Arizona, but his army group was never called up for duty before World War I ended with the signing of the Armistice of 11 November 1918.
Given Kimball’s history of health problems, many people—including Kimball himself—did not anticipate him living long enough to become president of the LDS Church. However, on December 23, 1973, Harold B. Lee, who was four years younger than Kimball and had previously been in much better health, unexpectedly died, leaving Kimball as the most senior apostle and thus the presumptive new church president. Kimball was ordained church president on December 30, 1973, the day after Lee’s funeral, choosing N. Eldon Tanner and Marion G. Romney as his first and second counselors. LDS apostle Boyd K. Packer recalled shortly afterward discovering Kimball sitting alone in the church president’s office quietly weeping, and Kimball saying to him: «I am such a little man for such a big responsibility!