Elder H. Verlan Andersen, 77, a former member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died early Thursday of cancer at his home in Orem.
Elder Andersen, who was released as a general authority at general conference last October, had been seriously ill for about three months but had been fighting cancer for 1 1/2 years.He was serving as a counselor in the Utah Central Area presidency of the church at the time of his release from the Second Quorum of the Seventy.
Elder Andersen was born Nov. 6, 1914, in Logan, to Hans and Mynoa Richardson Andersen. He graduated from high school in Virden, N.M., and from Gila Junior College in Thatcher, Ariz. He received a bachelor of science degree in accounting from Brigham Young University.
He received a law degree from Stanford University Law School and a master of law from Harvard University. He headed the accounting department in the BYU College of Business.
He served as second counselor in the Sunday School general presidency; was sustained to the First Quorum of the Seventy in April 1986, at the age of 71, and was sustained to the Second Quorum on April 1, 1989.
Elder Andersen had served as a patriarch in the Lakeview Stake for about two years when he was called as a general authority.
He had served as a bishop of a BYU single students' ward for about two years and was second and first counselor in the West Sharon Stake presidency.
As a young man, Elder Andersen served in the North Central States Mission, and he and his wife, Shirley Hoyt Andersen, who he married June 15, 1942, in the Salt Lake Temple, served missions in Argentina and Peru.
He served two terms in the Utah State Legislature. He was a member of an education committee.
He wrote three books, "Many Are Called But Few Are Chosen," published in 1967, "The Great and Abdominable Church of the Devil," published in 1972; and "The Moral Basis of a Free Society," published in 1980.
Elder Andersen is survived by his wife; 11 sons and daughters, Hans Verlan Andersen Jr. and LaDawn Jacob, Orem; Glen Lee Andersen, Elko, Nev.; Dale E. Anderson, Mesa, Ariz.; Karen Redd, Farmington; Lynette Lewis, Springfield, Ore.; Kathy Kartchner, Meridian, Idaho; Shirley Gay Miller, Cottonwood, Ariz.; Elaine Andelin, Saudi Arabia; Timothy Hoyt Andersen and Dean Andrew Andersen, both Houston, Texas; 92 grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; two brothers, Darl Andersen and Lyneer Andersen, both of Mesa, Ariz.; seven sisters, Zelda Merritt, Salt Lake City; Teresa McKinnon, Provo; Janet Ray, Mesa, Ariz; Nona Nichols, Lincoln, Calif.; Ethlyn Ray, Mesa, Ariz; Ruth Threet, Mesa, Ariz; and Donna Beazer, serving a mission with her husband, Duane, in Oklahoma City, Okla.
Funeral will be at 10 a.m. Monday, July 20, in the Lakeview Stake Center, 1850 S. 400 West, Orem. Friends may call from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Sunday at the Olpin-Sundberg Mortuary, 495 S. State, Orem, and Monday at the church from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m.
Burial will be in the Orem City Cemetery.