Joseph Fielding Smith enjoyed physical activities like handball and swimming throughout his life. Even in his late 70s, he would challenge family members to handball matches and trounce them. He took up flying in his 80s, going on trips in small jets and taking the controls, saying it was as close to heaven as he could get. As a young man, he served as a missionary in England, facing challenges as he preached amid hostility. He held several important Church callings, helping establish the Genealogical Society of Utah and serving as Church historian for many years. Family members saw him as a loving, kind father who was always there to help his children and make his family happy.

1. Joseph Fielding Smith Magnified his Calling Lesson 33

3. For whoso is faithful unto the obtaining these two priesthoods of which I have spoken, and the magnifying their calling, are sanctified by the Spirit unto the renewing of their bodies. Doctrine & Covenants 84:33

4. Physical Fitness

5. President Smith enjoyed sports and athletics throughout his life and encouraged his children in all sports except hunting. He was an excellent swimmer and his home was equipped with a tennis court and horseshoe pits. He especially enjoyed handball and was an expert player. At one time he challenged two of his sons to a game of handball. He even allowed them to choose which hand he could use. With the other hand held closely behind his back, he won the game. A former governor of Utah, Herbert B. Maw, twenty years younger than President Smith, shared his experience on the handball court with President Smith: “‘I thought I would just take it easy on the old gentleman and not beat him too far. Imagine my chagrin when he gave me the trouncing of my life! I thought that I was a good handball player, but I was no competition for him at all’” At nearly seventy years of age, on doctor’s orders, President Smith reluctantly gave up the game.

6. New Challenges

7. “I remember my surprise one day when I called at his office in Salt Lake City. His secretary, Rubie Egbert, said, ‘Step to the window here and maybe you can see him.’ Curious, I walked to the window. But all that I could see was a jet streaking through the blue sky high above the Great Salt Lake. Its trail of white vapor clearly marked some steep climbs, loops, dives, rolls and turns. ‘He’s out there fulfilling prophecy,’ explained his secretary with a chuckle. ‘Scriptures say that in the last days there will be vapors of smoke in the heavens.’ “‘You mean he’s in that plane?’ I asked incredulously. “‘Oh yes, that’s him all right. He’s very fond of flying. Says it relaxes him. A friend in the National Guard calls him up and says, “How about a relaxing?” and up they go. Once they get in the air he often takes over the controls. Flew down to Grand Canyon and back last week, 400 miles an hour!’ “I could not resist driving to the airport to be there when he landed. As the two-place [jet airplane] roared down the runway to a stop, from the rear cockpit, in suit and helmet, climbed this benign old gentleman, then about 80, smiling broadly. ‘That was wonderful!’ he exclaimed. “‘That’s about as close to heaven as I can get just now’”

8. Missionary Work

9. Joseph Fielding Smith married Louie Shurtliff on 26 April 1898. She was from Ogden, Utah, and he had met her when she accepted an invitation from his father to stay in the Smith home while she attended the University of Utah. As difficult as it must have been, Joseph Fielding bid farewell to his new bride only one year after their marriage to accept a call to labor as a missionary in the British Isles. Besides the difficulty of leaving a young wife, missionary work in England was extremely challenging. He remembered, “I have had them tell me to get out, and I’ve stood on street corners and had the crowd turn into a mob and throw everything they could find on the street at us”

10. Church Service

11. Genealogical Pioneer: “He was one of the moving forces behind the Genealogical Society of Utah. He served as secretary to that organization from 1907 to 1922. He visited all the genealogical libraries in the large cities of the eastern United States in a search for the best methods of record keeping and filing. He returned with many practical and valuable suggestions which were adopted by the Utah Society. One of the recommendations was that a genealogical magazine be published. As a result, Elder Smith was appointed editor and business manager of the new Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine” Historian: Soon after returning from his mission in 1901 Joseph Fielding obtained employment in the Church historian’s office where in 1906 he became assistant Church historian. In 1921 he became the Church historian, a position he held until 1970 when he became President, the year he turned ninety-four.

12. Family

13. “‘You ask me to tell you of the man I know.’ ‘I have often thought when he is gone people will say, “He is a very good man, sincere, orthodox, etc.” They will speak of him as the public knows him; but the man they have in mind is very different from the man I know. The man I know is a kind, loving husband and father whose greatest ambition in life is to make his family happy, entirely forgetful of self in his efforts to do this. He is the man that lulls to sleep the fretful child, who tells bedtime stories to the little ones, who is never too tired or too busy to sit up late at night or to get up early in the morning to help the older children solve perplexing school problems. When illness comes, the man I know watches tenderly over the afflicted one and waits upon him. It is their father for whom they cry, feeling his presence a panacea for all ills. It is his hands that bind up the wounds, his arms that give courage to the sufferer, his voice that remonstrates with them gently when they err, until it becomes their happiness to do the thing that will make him happy. “‘The man I know is most gentle, and if he feels that he has been unjust to anyone the distance is never too far for him to go and, with loving words or kind deeds, erase the hurt. He welcomes gladly the young people to his home and is never happier than when discussing with them topics of the day—sports or whatever interests them most. He enjoys a good story and is quick to see the humor of a situation, to laugh and to be laughed at, always willing to join in any wholesome activity. “‘The man I know is unselfish, uncomplaining, considerate, thoughtful, sympathetic, doing everything within his power to make life a supreme joy for his loved ones. That is the man I know’” Ethel Smith