...Chief among the “great souls” who have influenced [President James E. Faust] is his wife, Ruth. They met as students at Granite High School and were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple while President Faust was on a brief military leave and before the long journey into the Pacific.

His deep devotion to Ruth may be gauged by the fact that, while they were separated during World War II, he wrote a letter every day to her. The letters arrived irregularly, and one day Ruth Faust received ninety letters; her employer thoughtfully let her have the afternoon off to go home and read them! This exemplary love and respect have deepened, as daughter Lisa observed: “My dad has always made it very clear how much he loves my mother and respects womanhood. He has always treated her with a sweet tenderness.” This priority is confirmed by son James H. Faust: “My parents have implemented a philosophy that [their children’s] spouses should be treated better than the children. … It has had the effect of creating a love for Mom and Dad in the spouses of the children which nears or equals the love which they have for their own parents.”

President Faust’s love of Ruth is underscored by what happened at the time of his call to the Council of the Twelve: as he received warm and appreciated congratulations from the Brethren on the stand, his chief concern was, “Where’s my wife?” To this day, after giving his various conference addresses, he is quick to look over to receive Ruth’s smiling approval.

Typical of his willingness to listen, President Faust was once asked by Elder Boyd K. Packer, “What would you have been without your wife, Ruth?” President Faust spent the next twenty-four hours thinking more about, in his words, “what I would have been without the loving, sweet support and the discipline of Ruth Wright in my life. It shocked me a little to even think about what life would be and would have been without her” (Ensign, July 1981, p. 35). Daughter Janna notes that, along with her father’s “inherent wisdom,” she ranks highly “his great love and devotion to my angelic mother, Ruth.”...


Neal A. Maxwell, “President James E. Faust: ‘Pure Gold,’ ” Ensign, Aug. 1995, 12