OBITUARIES : Marion G. Romney, 90; Mormon Faith Leader, Authority for 47 Years

Marion G. Romney, president and senior member of the Mormon Church’s Council of the Twelve Apostles and one of the faith’s general authorities for 47 years, died Friday at home here of causes related to his 90 years, church spokesman Don Lefevre said.

Romney was one of the architects of the church’s extensive welfare system, which was created in 1936. He was called to general leadership in the church in April, 1941, as an assistant to the Council of the Twelve.

In October, 1951, he was appointed to the Twelve, which helps the governing three-member First Presidency, and became a member of the First Presidency in 1972.

During his career, Romney supervised missionary efforts of the church in Mexico, Europe, South Africa and Asia. In 1961, he formally organized in Mexico City the church’s first Spanish-speaking stake, a geographical unit made up of several congregations.

Helped Develop Welfare System

The welfare system he helped develop is based on a philosophy of self-sufficiency and consists of a network of farms, bakeries and canneries that provide jobs and goods for church members in need. Recipients are required to work at one of the welfare enterprises or perform some other service in return for assistance.

(Times religion writer John Dart said that Romney had been next in line to become president and prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by virtue of his seniority on the Council of Twelve Apostles. The church’s unbroken tradition, since its establishment in Salt Lake City, has been to choose the man next in seniority on the council.

(But upon the election of Ezra Taft Benson as president in November, 1985, church officials unofficially indicated that precedent might have to be broken upon Benson’s death. Romney was even then confined to his home and unable to conduct church business because of what officials termed the infirmities of old age.

Shunned Attention

(The man now next in line to succeed Benson, now 88, is one-time Los Angeles lawyer Howard W. Hunter, who is 80.)

Romney shunned public attention and was known for his self-deprecating wit.

When responding to his appointment as an apostle in 1951, the small-statured Romney said: “This call has set up a tremendous emotional reaction in me. I didn’t think there could be such a big tempest in such a little teapot.”

Romney, born in Colonia Juarez, Mexico, was forced to flee the country when he was 14 by revolutionaries in northern Mexico.

His father had left him in charge of getting the family to Texas, but as the boy steered the horses and wagon down the road, members of the rebel army stopped them and took their total savings of 20 pesos.

Escaped Shooting as Youth

“Then they turned around, drew their guns, and I looked down the barrels of rifles that seemed very large to me,” he recalled. “I expected them to shoot, but for some reason they did not and I have lived to tell the story.”

After serving in the U.S. Army, the future church leader graduated in 1920 from Ricks Normal College in Rexburg, Ida. He served three years as a missionary in Australia before continuing his education at the University of Utah.

Romney is survived by two sons and eight grandchildren. His wife died in 1979.