Elder Tad R. Callister, an emeritus General Authority Seventy, dies at age 79
Oct 10, 2025, 12:31 PM | Updated: 12:33 pm
Elder Tad R. Callister, then Sunday School general president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaks during the afternoon session of the 184th General Conference at Conference Center in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Oct. 4, 2014. Elder Callister died Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. (Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)
(Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — Elder Tad R. Callister, an emeritus General Authority Seventy and former Sunday School general president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died Thursday, Oct. 9. He was 79.
Throughout his lifetime, Elder Callister served his family as a son, husband and father. He also served in various capacities for the Church of Jesus Christ, including president of the church’s Canada Toronto East Mission, as a General Authority Seventy and in the Presidency of the Seventy and as Sunday School general president.
In each capacity, Elder Callister focused his efforts and energy to defending his faith in Jesus Christ and his restored gospel. Using his background as a lawyer, Elder Callister also sought to defend the United States’ Constitution and its principles.
“Through Joseph Smith have been restored all the powers, keys, teachings and ordinances necessary for salvation and exaltation,” said Elder Callister in 2009 during his first general conference address as a General Authority Seventy.
“You cannot go anywhere else in the world and get that. … Salvation is to be found in one place alone, as so designated by the Lord himself.”
In another general conference address, which he delivered as Sunday School general president in 2017, Elder Callister bore “solemn testimony” of the Book of Mormon, declaring that Joseph Smith translated the book by the “gift and power of God.”
The Book of Mormon, he said, “is God’s compelling witness of the divinity of Jesus Christ, the prophetic calling of Joseph Smith, and the absolute truth of this church.
“May it become the keystone of our testimonies, so it may be said of us, as it was of the converted Lamanites (in the Book of Mormon), they ‘never did fall away.’”
Elder Tad Richards Callister was born Dec. 17, 1945, to Reed and Norinne Richards Callister in Glendale, Los Angeles, California.
He served as a young Latter-day Saint missionary in the Eastern Atlantic States Mission from 1965 to 1967, later marrying Kathryn Louise Saporiti on Dec. 20, 1968, in the Los Angeles California Temple.
Together, Elder Callister and his wife, Kathryn, became the parents of six children.
The two were serving as mission leaders of the church’s Canada Toronto East Mission when Elder Callister was called to serve as a General Authority Seventy in April 2008.
Elder Callister served in that capacity until April 2014, also serving as president in the Presidency of the Seventy from October 2011 to April 2014.
In April 2014, Elder Callister was then called to serve as Sunday School general president, where he oversaw religious instruction for Latter-day Saints aged 12 and older worldwide. He was released from that capacity on April 6, 2019.
As for his career, Elder Callister first earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Brigham Young University in 1968. Three years later, he graduated with a juris doctorate degree from the University of California–Los Angeles Law School. And in 1972, he earned a master’s degree in tax law from New York University Law School.
He dedicated most of his professional career practicing tax law and was employed as an attorney with the firm Callister & Callister when he received the call to serve as mission president.
Elder Callister is the author of several books, including “The Infinite Atonement.”
Aside from the general leadership positions he came to serve in within the church, Elder Callister also served as bishop, elders quorum president, stake president and counselor, stake mission president, temple ordinance worker, mission president’s counselor, Area Seventy, regional representative and seminary teacher.
