With the death of Jeffrey Holland, I was thinking on the turnover in the Quorum of the Twelve since Elder Holland became one of that body in 1994, and Henry B. Eyring a year after him, and the decade after that when none of them died. Now, the longest serving in the Quorum has been there 21 years.

My thoughts turned to considering how Utahn or not the current church leaders are. Below is my ordering of that quality at the time of their call as General Authorities from least to greatest for the members of the Quorum of the Twelve or the First Presidency. Differing evaluations are welcome.

Soares – least Utahn, least experienced with America beyond the Church
Causse – better English at time of call, more US business experience than Soares
Uchtdorf – trained on fighter jets in American West
Kearon – his wife (a California girl) was a BYU student
Bednar – Californian, BYU student, adult life in Arkansas until BYUI president
Gong – Californian, BYU student, son of BYU student, adult life elsewhere until taking job at BYU
Eyring – childhood and youth in New Jersey, much of adult life in Utah
Christofferson – Utah born, adult life elsewhere
Anderson – Utah born, adult life in Florida
Cook – Utah born, adult life in California
Oaks – Utah born, adult life in Chicago until BYU president
Renlund – Utah born, some childhood years in Sweden, out of Utah for medical residency, bishop in Baltimore
Rasband – some time working outside Utah (for a Utah corporation)
Stevenson – whole life in Utah

So, 7 of 14 born in Utah, and only 3 of them stayed past their college days. The life patterns for Oaks, Cook, Anderson, and Christofferson are similar, but Cook feels to me more Utahn, maybe because he is older and probably because of the Cache Valley/Utah State University/Grandpa Crozier Kimball roots he has found useful to pull into his teaching; I have trouble picturing him as a stake president in San Francisco. Eyring was born and grew up elsewhere but is ethnically Utahn and was pulled back.