Tad R. Callister

Tad Richards Callister (born December 17, 1945) has been the general president of the Sunday School of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) since April 2014. He is the twenty-first man to serve in this position. He was an LDS Church general authority from 2008 to 2014. He was a member of the church's Presidency of the Seventy from August 2011 to April 2014.

Callister was born in Glendale, California to Effie Norine Richards and Reed Eddington Callister. His parents were both natives of Salt Lake City. Reed Callister served a mission in the United Kingdom for the LDS Church. Callister's mother, Norine, was a daughter of LeGrand Richards, who was the Presiding Bishop of the LDS Church when Callister was born and would later serve as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. At the time Callister's parents married in 1932, LeGrand Richards was their stake president in southern California

During the mid-1960s, Callister served as a missionary for the LDS Church in the Eastern Atlantic States Mission, based in Washington, D.C. He holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from Brigham Young University (BYU), a juris doctorate degree from UCLA, and a master of laws degree from New York University, specializing in tax law. Callister spent his career as a lawyer in southern California. Callister also served for a time as president of the Verdugo Hills Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

He has previously served in the LDS Church as a bishop, stake president, regional representative, and area seventy. From 2005 to 2008 he served as president of the church's Canada Toronto East Mission. While still serving in Canada, he was called as a general authority and member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy in 2008. He later served first as a counselor and then as president of the Pacific Area, residing in Auckland and overseeing the operations of the LDS Church in New Zealand, Australia, and the islands of the Pacific. In 2011 he was appointed as a member of the seven-man Presidency of the Seventy of the church, replacing Claudio R. M. Costa.

At the church's April 2014 General Conference, Callister was released as a general authority and from the Presidency of the Seventy; the resulting vacancy was filled by Lynn G. Robbins. Callister was simultaneously accepted by the membership as the general president of the church's Sunday School, succeeding Russell T. Osguthorpe. Callister selected John S. Tanner and Devin G. Durrant as his counselors. In May 2015, the church announced that Tanner had been appointed as the next president of Brigham Young University-Hawaii. As a result, in June 2015 Durrant was called as first counselor, with Brian K. Ashton succeeding Durrant as second counselor.

Callister met his wife, Kathryn Louise Saporiti, while they were students at BYU, they were married in 1968 and are the parents of six children. Her mother was a lifelong member of the church and Kathryn's father, Angelo Louis Saporiti, joined the church while in serving in the military in Hawaii some time after he had married.

Callister's older brother, Douglas L. Callister, was a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy from 2000 to 2009.

• Callister, Tad R. (2000), The Infinite Atonement, Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, ISBN 1573456233 
• Callister, Tad R. (2006), The Inevitable Apostasy and the Promised Restoration, Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, ISBN 1590385497 
• Callister, Tad R. (2015), The Blueprint of Christ's Church, Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, ISBN 1629720216

• Deseret Book entry on The Infinite Atonement
• Desert Book entry on "The Inevitable Apostasy and the Promised Restoration"