What this historian has learned from writing President Holland’s biography

Vulnerability and hope in Jesus Christ defined the late Apostle’s life, says biographer Matt Grow after two and a half years of interviews

Published: Feb 17, 2026, 5:04 p.m. MST

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is interviewed in his office in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2018. Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

Church historian Matt Grow was used to writing the histories of people who had been dead for years, such as Joseph Smith and Parley P. Pratt.

He was presented with an entirely new challenge when President Jeffrey R. Holland, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and later president of the quorum, asked after his 2023 health crisis if Grow would write his biography.

“I mean, an amazing opportunity, but how do you capture the life of someone like him?” Grow said on a recent episode of the Church News podcast. He was joined on the episode by guest host and fellow Church leader biographer Sheri Dew, executive vice president of the Deseret Management Corp. and a former member of the Relief Society general presidency.

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