Joseph Fielding Smith (July 19, 1876-July 2, 1972) was the tenth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1970 to 1972.
He had been named to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1910, when his father, with whom he shared a name but who is generally referred to as Joseph F. Smith, while the son's middle name is spelled out, was President of the Church. No Apostle since then has been as young as he was at appointment; no Apostle has ever waited as long before succeeding to the Church Presidency as the almost sixty years that elapsed between Joseph Fielding Smith's ordination in October 1910 and the death of President David O. McKay in January 1970. Nor has any Church President succeeded at such a high age. His time as President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles from 1951 to 1970 has been surpassed by few; he was next in succession behind McKay as far back as 1934, and spent McKay's whole nineteen-year presidency as his heir apparent, while McKay had been heir apparent to George Albert Smith for only eight months in 1950-51.
Joseph Fielding Smith spent some of his years among the Twelve Apostles as the Church Historian and Recorder, and was known as a zealous creationist.
