Russell T. Osguthorpe
Russell Trent Osguthorpe (born December 4, 1946, in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, to Wesley and Iva Russell Osguthorpe) was called as the general president of the Sunday School of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and sustained in General Conference of April 2009. He was released in 2014.
Osguthorpe has multiple degrees, including a Ph.D. from Brigham Young University (BYU), and was a professor of Instructional Psychology and Technology at that institution until his retirement in 2013. Osguthorpe also studied at the University of Utah. He is a published author of educational books, including Choose to Learn: Teaching for Success Every Day and Balancing the Tensions of Change. He has written materials on the education of the deaf, and was the lead author of Partner School: Centers for Educational Renewal. He has also written influential articles on instructional design.
Osguthorpe was the director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at BYU. He has also served as an associate dean of the David O. McKay School of Education at BYU. Besides this he has been a visiting faculty member at the University of Toronto and the University of Paris and a member of the faculty of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf in Rochester, New York. Since 1998, Osguthorpe has held the Martha Jane Knowlton Coray University Professorship at BYU.
Among other previous positions in the Church of Jesus Christ, Osguthorpe served as president of the South Dakota Rapid City Mission from 2003 to 2006, an area seventy and member of the Fifth Quorum of the Seventy from 2007 to 2009. He was a branch president at the Provo, Utah, Missionary Training Center and the president of the BYU 18th Stake. He is also a former member of the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square. In the 1960s, Osuthorpe was a full-time missionary in Tahiti. [1]
Osguthorpe speaks French, American Sign Language (Signed English), Tahitian, Chinese (Mandarin, limited oral). He is a member of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, the American Educational Research Association, the Association for Educational Communications and Technology, the Organization of Institutional Affiliates, the AERA (nominated for member-at-large, 1992), the Council for Exceptional Children (President BYU Chapter, 1983-1986), the European Educational Research Association, the International Council on Education for Teaching, The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi (Treasurer, BYU Chapter, 1990-1994), and the Thematic Network on Teacher Education in Europe. [2]
He and his wife Lola have five children.
- “I have seen the Lord’s hand so often and in so many ways,” Brother Osguthorpe says of how his testimony has developed. “Even as a child I knew that divine help was with me. It was the same on my mission to Tahiti. I’ve had moments as a father when I knew the Lord was directing me. And when I served as a mission president, watching the Lord magnify missionaries was a constant daily reminder of the power and love of God.” [3]
