Henry Bennion Eyring (born May 31, 1933) is an American educational administrator, author, and religious leader. Eyring has been the Second Counselor to Russell M. Nelson in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) since January 14, 2018. Previously, Eyring was the First Counselor to Thomas S. Monson in the First Presidency from 2008 until Monson's death on January 2, 2018. Eyring was the Second Counselor to Gordon B. Hinckley in the First Presidency from October 6, 2007, until Hinckley's death on January 27, 2008. While he has been a general authority of the church, Eyring has also served in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the First Quorum of the Seventy, and the Presiding Bishopric. As a result, he is the only person so far to have served in all four groups of top leadership in the church. Eyring has served twice as Commissioner of the Church Educational System. Currently, he is the fifth most senior apostle among the ranks of the church. Early life Eyring was born in Princeton, New Jersey, the second child of Henry Eyring, then a professor at Princeton and later the dean of the graduate school at the University of Utah and president of the American Chemical Society, and his wife, Mildred Bennion. His father's sister, Camilla Eyring, married Spencer W. Kimball, making Henry B. the nephew of Kimball, who was the 12th president of the LDS Church. He lived in Princeton until his early teenage years. Until the start of World War II they attended LDS meetings at the branch in New Brunswick, New Jersey, but with the gasoline rationing of the war, they received permission to hold meetings in their home, which often had only the Eyring family. As a teenager, Eyring and his family moved to Salt Lake City, where his father took a post at the University of Utah. Military service and education Eyring spent two years in the U.S. Air Force, stationed at Sandia Base in New Mexico. In New Mexico, Eyring served as a district missionary for the LDS Church. Eyring had been in the ROTC at the University of Utah. While in the Air Force, he served as a liaison between military officers and scientists. His main responsibility was to analyze data from weapons tests of nuclear weapons. At the end of the assignment, he gave a report and ended