Richard E. Turley Sr.
Richard E. Turley Sr. was a General Authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who served in the Second Quorum of the Seventy from April 1997 to October 2000. While a general authority, Elder Turley presided at the groundbreaking for the Villahermosa Mexico Temple in January 1999, when he dedicated the site for construction. He also served for one year as assistant executive director of the Family History Department.
He was born in El Paso, Texas, on December 29, 1930. He attended Texas A&M University prior to serving as a missionary to Mexico, Guatemala, and Costa Rica. After his mission he earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Utah. After two years back in Texas working in aerospace and natural gas companies, he returned to the University of Utah for graduate studies. He then earned his PhD in nuclear engineering from Iowa State University.
He worked for a number of years as a researcher at Battelle Memorial Institute in the State of Washington. In 1972 he became an associate professor at the University of Utah and helped start Utah’s Advisory Council on Science and Technology. After he became an emeritus professor in 1989, he was appointed executive director of a technology finance corporation and retired in 1992.
He has served in the Church as a counselor in a district presidency, a counselor in a stake presidency, a bishop, high councilor, stake family records extraction director, and ordinance worker in the Salt Lake Temple. He presided over the Mexico Hermosillo Mission from 1983 to 1985.
He and his wife, Betty Jean Nickle, are the parents of seven children, which include Richard E. Turley Jr. After Betty passed away, he married Ana-Maria Garces.
Turley passed away on October 10, 2021, at the age of 90.
