President
Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First
Presidency of the LDS Church, recently addressed a group of Utah Valley
University aviation students assembled in an airplane hangar at the Provo
Municipal Airport in Provo, Utah.He counseled them to use their careers in
aviation as a way to build bridges with people of different cultures around the
world. In his address, President Uchtdorf also spoke of how lessons learned from
his aviation career are useful in everyday life.
Afterward, President Uchtdorf toured the
airport's facilities and piloted the school's flight simulator. Then he found
his way to a real cockpit and took an airplane for a short
flight — his first since retiring as a commercial airline pilot more than 12
years ago.
In 1965, President Uchtdorf joined
Lufthansa German Airlines as a pilot. He worked as an airline captain from 1970
to 1996, flying multiple types of airplanes and completing his career flying the 747. He held several executive positions, including head of the airline pilot
school, director of in-flight services, and head of cockpit crews. At the time
of his call as a General Authority, he was the senior vice president of flight
operations and chief pilot of Lufthansa German Airlines. He was also chairman of
the Flight Operations Committee of the International Air Transport Association.President Dieter F. Uchtdorf was named
as Second Counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints on February 4, 2008. He was sustained as a member of the
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
on October 2, 2004.See the story and additional photos at LDS.org