Robert K. Dellenbach | |
Birth Name: | Robert Kent Dellenbach |
Birth Date: | 10 May 1937 |
Birth Place: | Salt Lake City, Utah, United States |
Position Or Quorum1: | Second Quorum of the Seventy |
Called By1: | Ezra Taft Benson |
End Reason1: | Transferred to First Quorum of the Seventy |
Position Or Quorum2: | First Quorum of the Seventy |
Called By2: | Ezra Taft Benson |
End Reason2: | Granted general authority emeritus status |
Position Or Quorum3: | Emeritus General Authority |
Called By3: | Gordon B. Hinckley |
Robert Kent Dellenbach (born May 10, 1937) is an American educational administrator and religious leader who has been a general authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) since 1990. He was the church's eighteenth general president of the Young Men organization from 1998 to 2001.
Dellenbach was born in Salt Lake City and raised in Clinton, Utah. After high school, he served as an LDS Church missionary in West Germany for 30 months. Upon returning to the United States, Dellenbach earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Utah and an MBA degree from Brigham Young University. Dellenbach became a vice president with the University of Alaska Fairbanks and later became president of the Alaska Methodist University (now Alaska Pacific University) in Anchorage. He served as president of that university from July 1975 to July 1976. At the end of his term, the university suspended all operations for a year.[1] He also worked for the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, and at the Institute for Advanced Technology of Control Data Corporation in Rockville, Maryland.
Prior to his call as a general authority, Dellenbach served in the LDS Church as a bishop, stake president, and regional representative. He was also president of the church's Germany Düsseldorf and Germany Munich missions. In 1990, he became a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy.[2] In 1992, he was transferred to the First Quorum of the Seventy.
In 1998, Dellenbach succeeded Jack H. Goaslind as the Young Men General President.[3] Dellenbach had twice been Goaslind's second counselor (1990–91; 1997) and had twice been his first counselor (1991–92; 1997–98). As the Young Men General President, Dellenbach encouraged local units to adopt the venture program.[4] He was released from this responsibility in 2001 and was succeeded by his own first counselor, F. Melvin Hammond.
During his tenure as a general authority, Dellenbach served in a number of area presidencies, including Europe, based in Frankfurt, Germany, and the Pacific Islands, based in Auckland, New Zealand.
In October 2007, Dellenbach was designated as an emeritus general authority.[5] Since then he has served as the LDS Church's official liaison to the Salvation Army, Utah Chapter.[6] Dellenbach was the moving force behind the building of the Monson Scout Lodge at the Hinckley Scout Ranch in Utah.[7]