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President Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor in the First Presidency and president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, has served as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since May 1984.
He is a native of Provo, Utah (born in 1932). He and his late wife, June Dixon Oaks, are the parents of six children. She died 21 July 1998. On 25 August 2000, he married Kristen M. McMain in the Salt Lake Temple.
Elder Oaks is a graduate of Brigham Young University (1954) and of The University of Chicago Law School (1957). He practiced law and taught law in Chicago. He was president of Brigham Young University from 1971 to 1980, and a justice of the Utah Supreme Court from 1980 until his resignation in 1984 to accept his calling to the apostleship.
He has been an officer or member of the board of many business, educational, and charitable organizations. He is the author or co-author of many books and articles on religious and legal subjects. In May, 2013, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty awarded him the Canterbury Medal for “courage in the defense of religious liberty.”