Richard R. Lyman

Richard R. Lyman
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
April 7, 1918 (1918-04-07) – November 12, 1943 (1943-11-12)
End reason	Excommunicated for violating law of chastity
LDS Church Apostle
April 7, 1918 (1918-04-07) – November 12, 1943 (1943-11-12)
Reason	Death of Hyrum M. Smith
End reason	Excommunicated for violating law of chastity
Reorganization at end of term	Mark E. Petersen ordained
Personal details
Born	Richard Roswell Lyman (1870-11-23)November 23, 1870 Fillmore, Utah Territory, United States
Died	December 31, 1963(1963-12-31) (aged 93) Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
Alma mater	University of Michigan
Spouse(s)	Amy Brown Lyman

Richard Roswell Lyman (November 23, 1870 – December 31, 1963) was an American engineer and religious leader who was an apostle in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1918 to 1943.

Lyman is often noted as the most recent LDS Church apostle to have been excommunicated. In 1943, J. Reuben Clark, first counselor in the church's First Presidency and its de facto leader due to church president Heber J. Grant's poor health, became aware that Lyman had for a number of years been in an intimate relationship with a woman he had earlier been assigned to counsel. The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles convened a disciplinary council to hear the case and Lyman's explanation, after which he was immediately excommunicated. Lyman was rebaptized in 1954 at age 83, nine years prior to his death.

Early life and family

Lyman was born in Fillmore, Utah Territory, and was closely related to many early leaders of the LDS Church. His father, Francis M. Lyman, was the son of Amasa M. Lyman, both of whom served as LDS Church apostles. His mother was Clara Caroline Callister, whose grandfather was John Smith, church founder Joseph Smith's uncle, and a church Presiding Patriarch. Clara's mother was Caroline Smith Callister, the only sister of apostle George A. Smith, who served with Brigham Young as a counselor in the First Presidency. Lyman was ordained an elder in the LDS Church on August 29, 1891, by Joseph F. Smith.

Education and marriage

Lyman graduated from high school at Brigham Young Academy (BYA) in Provo, Utah, in 1891 with a Normal Certificate, taught at Brigham Young College in Logan, Utah, and later studied at the University of Michigan, graduating with a BS degree in 1895. He later pursued graduate studies in civil engineering, earning an MA from the University of Chicago in 1903 and a PhD from Cornell University in 1905.

Lyman had planned to marry Amy Brown, whom he met as a student at BYA, but delayed this while he attended the University of Michigan. Lyman was a teacher and civil engineer and was known for his work on the Utah State Road Commission. Lyman married Brown on September 9, 1896; the marriage was performed by Joseph F. Smith in the Salt Lake Temple. From 1895 to 1896, Lyman taught at BYA. Lyman's wife served as the eighth general president of the Relief Society from 1940 to 1945.

Apostleship

Lyman was ordained an apostle on April 7, 1918. As an apostle, he served as Assistant Commissioner of LDS Church Education from 1919 to 1924, and as a member of the superintendency of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association until 1935. He was also and president of the Church’s European Mission from 1936 to 1938.

Excommunication

In 1943, the First Presidency learned that Lyman had long been cohabiting with a woman other than his legal wife. In 1925, Lyman began his relationship with Anna Jacobsen Hegsted, which they saw as an engagement for plural marriage in the life to come. While Lyman and Jacobsen viewed their relationship as a sort of engagement for the next life, there is no indication that at any point they considered themselves being actually married. Unable to marry in this life due to his existing marriage and the church's ban on the practice, Lyman and Hegsted exchanged a promise to marry in the next life.

Before Lyman's 1938 return from Europe as mission president he maintained their relationship was not sexual. But upon his return, "the long separation and the fiery nearness of her being my prospective plural wife ... led to a temptation I did not resist."

By 1943, both were in their seventies. Lyman was excommunicated on November 12, 1943, at age 72; at the time, his legal wife, Amy B. Lyman, was the general president of the Relief Society. The Quorum of the Twelve provided the newspapers with a one-sentence announcement, stating that the grounds for excommunication was a violation of the law of chastity, which was the standard interpretation of new plural marriages performed since the 1904 Second Manifesto. (Plural marriages performed between the First Manifesto in 1890 and the Second Manifesto were tolerated by the church.) After the excommunication, J. Reuben Clark worried that Lyman might join the Mormon fundamentalist movement.

Lyman later returned to the LDS Church through rebaptism on October 27, 1954 at age 83, but he was not reinstated as an apostle. He died at Salt Lake City, Utah on December 31, 1963. His full priesthood blessings were restored posthumously in 1970.

• 
  Lyman at age 20
• 
  Richard R. Lyman's grave marker

References

• 2005 Deseret Morning News Church Almanac (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Morning News, 2004) p. 65.
• Kimball, Edward L. & Andrew E. Kimball Jr., Spencer W. Kimball: Twelfth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft, 1977) p. 208-210.
• Quinn, D. Michael, Elder Statesman: A Biography of J. Reuben Clark (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 2002): 252-253.
• Quinn, D. Michael, Same-Sex Dynamics Among Nineteenth Century Americas: The Mormon Example (Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1996): 371-372.
• Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 1997): 183.
• Sillito, John R., "Enigmatic Apostle: The Excommunication of Richard R. Lyman." Paper presented at Sunstone Symposium, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1991.

External links

• Richard Roswell Lyman papers, MSS 1079 at L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University
• Richard Roswell Lyman's diary at L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University