post office, and later became an assistant prosecuting attorney in Salt Lake City. In 1934, he successfully campaigned for the Utah House of Representatives as a Democrat. While campaigning, he was called as an LDS Church bishop by stake president Bryant S. Hinckley. After his election, his bishop ordination was delayed until after the legislature's term in April 1935, with him seeking and serving only one term. While in the legislature, Romney helped author Utah's liquor control law. General authority Romney's 47 years as a general authority of the LDS Church began as one of the first five Assistants to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles called to the new position in 1941. In 1951, he was called to the Quorum of the Twelve. In 1960, Romney helped develop the home teaching program of the LDS Church. In 1961, Romney was appointed area supervisor for the LDS Church in Mexico. Although he had lived his first fifteen years in Mexico, it was in the mainly American Mormon colonies, and he knew very little Spanish. Assisted by Eduardo Balderas in learning Spanish, Romney supervised the church's growth in Mexico for the next eleven years. He oversaw construction of many meetinghouses in Mexico, along with organization of the first Spanish-language stakes in Mexico. Romney became Second Counselor to church president Harold B. Lee in 1972. Following Lee's death the following year, Spencer W. Kimball became the church president and he retained Romney as the Second Counselor. As the First Presidency, Kimball, Tanner, and Romney announced the 1978 Revelation on Priesthood, canonized as "Official Declaration 2" in the Doctrine and Covenants. When Kimball, Tanner, and Romney all aged and developed health problems at similar rates, Gordon B. Hinckley was added as an additional counselor in 1981. Upon Tanner's death in 1982, Romney became First Counselor and Hinckley the Second Counselor, though Romney was relatively inactive in his position due to poor health. When Kimball died in 1985, press reports indicated that Romney had not been seen in public for many months. Ezra Taft Benson, who had been President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, then became the church president and named Hinckley as First Counselor, with Thomas S. Monson as Second Counselor. Romney, as the apostle with the second-longest seniority in the church, became the quorum president. However, "because President Romney’s health [kept] him from taking an active part in Church administration,"