Executive Director of Missionary Department dies
May 11, 2026, 3:18 PM | Updated: 3:36 pm
Elder W. Mark Bassett, a General Authority Seventy and Executive Director of the Missionary Department for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died on Monday. (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
(Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
SALT LAKE CITY — Elder W. Mark Bassett, a General Authority Seventy and Executive Director of the Missionary Department for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died on Monday.
According to the church, he died shortly after receiving a traumatic brain injury while with his family in St. George.
“We are deeply saddened at the sudden passing of Elder W. Mark Bassett, a General Authority Seventy who had been serving since April of 2016,” said the church in part of its press release on his death.
Just days before his death, Elder Bassett spoke at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, bearing his testimony to the new missionaries gathered there. He encouraged them to “invite everyone to come — and do everything you can to help them enter this beautiful gate which leads to eternal life.”
Bassett was born in Carmichael, California, on August 14, 1966. He is survived by his wife, Angela Bassett, along with his children and grandchildren.
This story may be updated.
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