Charles A. Callis

Charles Albert Callis (4 May 1865 – 21 January 1947) was a leader and missionary in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). He was ordained an apostle by church president Heber J. Grant on October 12, 1933, and remained a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles until his death.

Early life Callis was born on 4 May 1865, in Dublin, Ireland, to John and Susannah Charlotte Callis. While living in England, Callis met LDS Church missionaries in Liverpool and joined the church along with his three siblings and their widowed mother. The Callis family immigrated to the Utah Territory in 1875 and settled in Davis County, Utah, first in Bountiful and later in Centerville. At age 16, Callis moved to Coalville in Summit County, where he worked in the coal mines for 11 years. In 1898, Callis became the attorney for Summit County.

In 1902, Callis married Grace Elizabeth Pack, a granddaughter of John Pack, and they were the parents of eight children.

Missions Callis, his wife, and their two daughters moved to Florida in 1905 to perform missionary work. Callis was soon admitted to the Florida bar, and he worked to defend church missionaries in legal cases, such as the 1907 case against George Perry in Darlington, South Carolina.

The guiding light and inspiration for Callis was always Jesus Christ. He once said, “From my earliest recollections to the present time I have always had an abiding and intense love for my Savior. I cannot read the story of His sufferings and crucifixion without shedding tears.

As an apostle, Callis authored one book, Fundamentals of Religion (Deseret Book, 1945), a collection of seventeen lectures about the tenets of the LDS Church he gave over national radio in 1943.

Death Callis died of a massive heart attack on 21 January 1947. His wife's death, which had occurred in October 1946, deeply affected Callis, and he never fully recovered from that loss. Callis died in Jacksonville, Florida, at the age of 81, the day after meetings were held to organize the church's first stake in the Southern United States. That night, he wrote to his daughter: "The Lord gave me strength to go through with the organization. With his aid I am battling through. I feel that your mother is not far from us." Funeral services for Callis were held both in Jacksonville and in Salt Lake City. He was buried in Salt Lake City Cemetery.

Quotes "The awakening of the conscience is the grandeur of the soul."

"In far too many cases riches and their owners change places—the riches own the owners. Money will become the master if it is not made to be the servant."

“The greatest thrilling experience that you and I can ever have in our hearts will be on those occasions when deep down we receive the witness that our acts and our labors are approved by our Heavenly Father.”

"This is the world in which to cultivate righteous tendencies and just causes that will produce, in the world to come, results and harvests of perfection and heavenly fruit."

Memorials There is a plaque in St. Audoen's Park, Dublin, to commemorate the Birthplace of Callis.

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