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Harold Bingham Lee (March 28, 1899 –
December 26, 1973) was born in Clifton, Idaho but
spent the great bulk of his life in Utah where he
rose to head Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints|The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints.

In 1930 he became president of the
unemployment-riddled Pioneer Stake, and
established a welfare program to aid members in
distress that became a model emulated by the
entire church. In 1936 he became managing director
of the new Church Welfare Department. Although he
also pursued a political career, at one time being
mayor of Salt Lake City, he permanently became a
full-time Church hierarch when named to the Quorum
of the Twelve Apostles in 1941.

From the time he became an Apostle
(Mormonism)|Apostle his eventual succession to the
Church Presidency was seen as largely inevitable,
as he was almost twenty years younger than any
other apostle and succession to the presidency
relies strictly on length of service among the
Twelve. Spencer W. Kimball and Ezra Taft Benson
soon became Apostles as well, followed by Mark E.
Petersen (1900-1984) in 1944, but Lee was the
senior member of the new generation.

Under President David O. McKay Lee became the
intellectual leader of the Church to some extent,
as McKay was ailing and First Counselor Henry D.
Moyle lacked the confidence of the Apostles and
died in 1963 effectively exiled to Florida. In
this time Lee headed the Correlation Committee
which pioneered the worldwide coordination of
church activities on a standard schedule. When
McKay died in 1970 Joseph Fielding Smith became
Church President, with Lee taking on the dual role
of top deputy as First Counselor in the First
Presidency and heir apparent as President of the
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He continued to
gain practical experience for what was expected to
be a long presidency of his own, he being decades
younger than President Smith.

However, Lee's presidency proved one of the
briefest in the history of the Church, lasting
from Smith's death in July 1972 to Lee's sudden
fatal heart attack in December 1973. It was
Spencer Kimball, exactly four years his senior and
seen as in worse health, who would lead the Church
for the next dozen years and admit Blacks and the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints|blacks
to the priesthood. 

After his death, a statue of him was dedicated in
his birthplace. The Harold B. Lee Library at
Brigham Young University is named for him, and is
one of the largest libraries in the western United
States.

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succession box |
  title= President of the Church
(Mormonism)|President of the LDS Church |
  years= July 7, 1972–December 26, 1973  |
  before= Joseph Fielding Smith |
  after= Spencer W. Kimball

succession box |
  title= President of the Quorum of the Twelve
Apostles|President of the 
Quorum of the
Twelve Apostles |
  years= January 23, 1970–July 7, 1972 |
  before= Joseph Fielding Smith |
  after= Spencer W. Kimball

series box |
 title= Quorum of the Twelve Apostles |
 years= October 7, 1943–July 7, 1972 |
 before= Sylvester Q. Cannon |
 after= Spencer W. Kimball 

end box