W. Mark Bassett, a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died suddenly at 59 after a traumatic brain injury, the Church said Monday. He died on May 11 while with his family in St. George, Utah.
The Church identified Bassett as the executive director of the Missionary Department at the time of his death. It said he had served as a General Authority Seventy since April 2016 and described him as someone who would be “deeply missed and always remembered for his great faith and dedicated service to the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Bassett was born Aug. 14, 1966, in Carmichael, California, and received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Brigham Young University in 1991. He worked for years in the wholesale auto auction industry and was the chief financial officer and owner of West Coast Auto Auctions, Inc., which operated in California, Oregon, Nevada and Idaho.
He married Angela in 1989, and they had five children. The Church said its love and prayers were with Angela, their children and their grandchildren during what it called a difficult time.
Bassett’s church service included work in the Brazil North America Northeast and North America Southeast Area Presidencies, adding to a résumé that mixed business leadership with senior religious responsibility. The Church had not provided additional details about his death or said who would replace him as executive director of the Missionary Department at the time of the report.
The immediate question now is practical, not ceremonial: who takes over a department tied to missionary work while the Church is still in mourning. For now, Bassett’s death leaves that post open and his family at the center of the Church’s attention.
