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The LDS Church’s “Mr. Welfare” has died.
Elder Glen L. Rudd, 98, was the oldest living man who had served as a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he passed away Friday, Dec. 30, from complications after breaking his hip.
Elder Rudd managed Welfare Square in Salt Lake City for 25 years and was a friend to church presidents throughout his adult life.
He also had special ties to the LDS Church in New Zealand. He first served there in 1938 as a missionary under future LDS apostle Matthew Cowley. He returned 27 more times, as an advisor on the Labor Missionary Project that built the Hamilton New Zealand Temple and the Church College of New Zealand, as president of the New Zealand Wellington Mission, as president of the Hamilton New Zealand Temple and as area president.
“The mourning of his death will be larger in the Pacific, specifically in New Zealand, then it will be in the States,” said his oldest child, Lee Rudd, of Coalville, Utah.
Elder Rudd literally wrote the book — “Pure Religion” — on the history of the welfare programs of the church. He was the last living person connected with the creation of Welfare Square, where his involvement began in 1941. He spent most of his remaining 75 years working in the welfare department.
To read the full article on Deseret News, click here.
