SALT LAKE CITY — President Jeffrey Roy Holland, president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died Saturday at age 85.
President Holland died about 3:15 a.m. from complications associated with kidney disease while surrounded by his family, according to the church. He had been hospitalized just before Christmas.
President Holland had served as an apostle for the church since June of 1994. Before then, he was part of the church’s First Quorum of the Seventy — Latter-day Saint men called to preside over the work of the church in specific geographic areas — since April 1989.
Before becoming a full-time general authority, President Holland spent nearly a decade as president of Brigham Young University in Provo (1980-89). He was also a commissioner of the Church Educational System and dean of Religious Education at BYU.
He served as president of the American Association of Presidents of Independent Colleges and Universities, on the board of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, and as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Presidents Commission.
While president of BYU, President Holland played a significant role in helping establish the church-owned BYU Jerusalem Center, which opened in 1988.
Other honors he received during his lifetime included the Torch of Liberty award from the Anti-Defamation League for his work in improving understanding between Christians and Jews. He also received the distinguished Eagle Scout award from the Boy Scouts of America.
Early life
President Holland was born in St. George on Dec. 3, 1940, to Frank D. Holland and the former Alice Bentley. He graduated from Dixie High School, where he was a student leader and varsity athlete.
“The central joy of my life while I was growing up was sports,” he once said. “I played on every kind of team that could have been assembled.”
President Holland planned to become a medical doctor, but serving a church mission changed that.
“I came home from my mission believing that God intended me to be a teacher,” he said.
He later called his mission to England “the major spiritual turning point of my life — the beginning of my beginnings” in regard to his spiritual maturity. During that time, he said, he learned to love the scriptures, particularly the Book of Mormon.
Education
President Holland attended Dixie College (now Utah Tech University) after his mission, before moving on to BYU where he received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English and religious education, respectively. He later earned his master’s and doctor of philosophy degrees in American Studies from Yale.
In 2012, Dixie State University dedicated the Holland Centennial Commons — a digital learning center named after President Holland. He initially resisted having his name on the building but agreed when school leaders convinced him that it would benefit his alma mater.
“This building needs to represent and be a tribute to and be a service to every student who ever came here or will ever come here. On that basis, because I am all for students, we’ve been willing to lend our name,” he said at the time.
A ‘unique blend’
President Holland married Patricia Terry in 1963 in the St. George Utah Temple. Sister Holland died July 20, 2023, at the age of 81, following a brief hospitalization. At the funeral, their son Elder Matthew S. Holland read a tribute to Sister Holland written by his father. President Jeffrey R. Holland was not able to speak due to “the circumstances of his own health and emotions.”
President and Sister Holland are the parents of three children: Matthew S. Holland, a church general authority and former president of Utah Valley University; Mary McCann, an author; and David Holland, a historian and professor at Harvard Divinity School.
Friends and acquaintances described President Holland’s personality as “a unique blend of wit, warmth, selflessness and spirituality,” according to an article from 1995 in the church’s Liahona magazine. The late President James E. Faust of the church’s First Presidency called President Holland a teacher who was “always building people and lifting people and drawing people to him.”
“He has the marvelous capacity to make people feel that they are his very best friends,” President Faust said.
Church service
President Holland made history in 2015 as the first Latter-day Saint leader to address the British Parliament. He spoke on behalf of Latter-day Saint Charities about humanitarian aid in a speech titled “Religious Conflict: Can Humanitarian Aid Help?”
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles created the 3,000th stake in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Sierra Leone in 2012. (Photo: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
President Holland played a significant role in another church milestone when on Dec. 2, 2012, he organized the church’s 3,000th stake — the Freetown Sierra Leone Stake. It was the first stake (traditionally made up of a group of five to 12 local congregations) in the western African nation.
President Holland traveled to many parts of the world in his duties as a general authority.
Memorable messages
He often spoke of faith in Jesus Christ. In an October 2009 address to members of the worldwide faith, he said the Book of Mormon was divinely inspired and called it “one of the Lord’s powerful keystones in (the) counteroffensive against latter-day ills.” Its message speaks to “the power of Christ to counter all troubles in all times — including the end of times. That is the safe harbor God wants for us in personal or public days of despair,” he said.
“One cannot come to full faith in this latter-day work — and thereby find the fullest measure of peace and comfort in these, our times — until he or she embraces the divinity of the Book of Mormon and the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom it testifies.”
In his general conference address in October 2022, President Holland taught church members that being a follower of Christ includes having empathy for others and refusing to shy away from challenges.
“To be a follower of Jesus Christ, one must sometimes carry a burden — your own or someone else’s — and go where sacrifice is required and suffering is inevitable,” he said.
President Jeffrey R. Holland, then-acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, exits after the morning session of the 195th Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City on Sunday, April 6, 2025. (Photo: Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)
In April 2023, church leaders announced President Holland would be excused from church meetings and assignments for “at least two months” while he was recovering from symptoms of COVID-19 and receiving dialysis for a kidney condition. In August that year, church leaders announced President Holland had been hospitalized “for observation and treatment of ongoing health complications.”
During his final few years, President Holland suffered multiple health difficulties and often appeared at conference in a wheelchair.
In his address during the October 2025 general conference, President Holland again bore powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon. He said his “sight-giving” experience from the Savior came in the form of the Book of Mormon.
“The impact in my life of the Book of Mormon is no less miraculous than was the application of spit and dirt placed on a blind man’s eyes. It’s been, for me, a rod of safety for my soul, a transcendent and penetrating light of revelation, an illumination of the path I must walk when mists of darkness come, and surely they have and surely they will,” President Holland said.
President Holland said he has a “whole-souled conviction” that the Book of Mormon and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are true.
“I have been on the edge of death and back. I have walked with kings and prophets, presidents and apostles. Best of all, at times, I have been overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit of God. I trust that my witness should be given at least some consideration here,” he said.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
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