Dean M. Davies
Bishop Dean Myron Davies, 60, became the second counselor to Bishop Gary E. Stevenson in the Presiding Bishopric of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on March 31, 2012. He was born in Salt Lake City and is married to Darla James. They have five children and 14 grandchildren.
At the time of his Bishopric calling, he was employed by the LDS Church as the managing director of the Special Projects Department which oversees real estate, temple design and Mormon temple construction.
Bishop Davies graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Economics from Brigham Young University and completed advanced executive programs at Stanford and Northwestern Universities. He worked in executive positions in real estate investment, construction and management before becoming employed by the Church of Jesus Christ.
Community Service has been a vital part of Bishop Davies’ life. He was a member of the San Francisco Mayor's Fiscal Advisory Committee, the Board of Bay Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America, the Board of Directors of Lancaster General Hospital and chairman of the finance committee.
Although Bishop Davies has been a counselor in three bishoprics, a high councilman five times, and a counselor in two stake presidencies, this is his first time as bishop. Other callings have included president of the Puerto Rico San Juan Mission, and president of the Pleasanton California and Danville California stakes. He served a full time mission in the Uruguay/Paraguay Mission, 1970-1972.
In an article in The LDS Church News, "Prepared to do Great Things," May 26, 2012, Bishop Davies said that he hadn’t planned to serve a mission as a young man, but in a dream he helped an unfamiliar silver-haired man and his wife who were having car troubles. In that dream, he understood that if he followed what the couple taught he would be blessed throughout his life. He began preparing for a mission right away.
Some months later, as he stepped off the plane in Montevideo, Uruguay, he recognized President Gardner H. Russell and his wife Dorothy as the couple in his dream. They helped him develop an abiding love of the gospel and his mission became the anchor of his spiritual development.