Excellent biography.
For the last nine years of his life, Ezra Taft Benson served as President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (i.e., the Mormon Church). To members of that Church, myself included, Benson was and remains a modern day Apostle of Jesus Christ, a prophet of God, and a successor to Joseph Smith, who organized the Church in 1830.
Benson's service as President of the Church was but a capstone to a long life filled with service to God and fellow man. Aside from his Church service, Benson was a star in the political firmament for much of his life. He was one of only two members of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's cabinet to serve under Eisenhower for his full two terms. Benson served as Secretary of Agriculture at a time when that Department played a much more public role in American life. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Benson was frequently mentioned as a possible nominee for the U.S. Presidency. He was a true patriot, devoted to the cause of liberty and freedom.
My favorite episode in Benson's life--and well chronicled in this biography--was his service on behalf of the Church in Europe immediately following the end of World War II. At often times great personal peril and sacrifice, Benson spent months in war-torn Europe coordinating the delivery of much needed food, clothing, medicine, and other supplies to members of the Church scattered throughout Germany, France, Italy, Poland, and other countries. His journal entries from this period evidence a man truly devoted to the welfare of other people and concerned above all with human decency and dignity.
Comments