Henry B. Eyring was named as the new Second Counselor of the three-man First Presidency by President Gordon B. Hinckley, the 97-year-old leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

President Hinckley also presented for the traditional “sustaining vote” of the Church membership the name of Quentin L. Cook as a new apostle. Both men were sustained at the Saturday morning session of the 177th Semi-Annual General Conference in Salt Lake City.

Both men have rich experience in secular fields – President Eyring holds a B.S. degree in Physics from the University of Utah and Master of Business Administration and Doctor of Business Administration degrees from Harvard University. Elder Cook has a background in business and the law, including top executive positions in the health care industry and managing partner in a California law firm. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in political science from Utah State University and a juris doctorate degree from Stanford University.

Nevertheless, both men talked yesterday of the different requirements for service in the Church.

Elder Cook said it would be a “great mistake” to think that there was some educational or occupational qualification necessary for service. “People come from all kinds of backgrounds. People who love the Lord and have spiritual maturity are called in to positions. There is certainly no educational or occupational requirement of any kind,” Elder Cook said.

In fact, both men have spent many years in their ministry within the Church. President Eyring has twice served as Church Commissioner of Education and in several leading councils of the Church before becoming an apostle in 1995.

Elder Cook has been overseeing the Church’s worldwide missionary program, responsible directly to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He also served as a member of the Presidency of the Seventy, and as a member of the First and Second Quorums of the Seventy. Both organizations help the First Presidency and the Twelve in administering the global Church.

Elder Cook has also provided leadership for the Church in the Philippines, throughout the Pacific and in the north-western United States. He has at various times served in virtually every level of Church leadership, from bishop to his present position.

Both men spoke at a news conference immediately following the conference session of their personal feelings on being asked to serve in the highest governing bodies of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

President Eyring described how he received the call. “It was a phone call, and it was President Hinckley on the line, and the way in which he spoke to me was so personal and so endearing.” He continued, “He asked if I would be willing to join President Monson and him in the First Presidency, which is the most marvelous way of extending a call, which was from the Lord, it was clearly revelation, but doing it in a way to make it very easy [to accept].” He added that the call came late on Thursday afternoon, and that “it’s been quite a time since then.”

Elder Cook noted that if he had gotten such a call, he “would have been sure there was a prank afoot,” so President Hinckley invited him down to his office. He described their conversation as “wonderful, sweet and short.”