James J. Hamula

Hamula's father was Joseph Hamula, a son of Hungarian immigrants who grew up in a heavily Magyar speaking area of metro Cleveland, Ohio. After service in the Navy, Joseph Hamula attended school in Southern California where he joined the LDS Church. At the urging of his stake president, Howard W. Hunter, Joseph served as a missionary in the church's Swiss–Austrian Mission.

Hamula was born and raised in Long Beach, California. He later served as an LDS Church missionary in the Germany Munich Mission. After his mission, he received a bachelor's degree in political science and philosophy, a master's degree in political philosophy, and a juris doctorate, all from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

For one summer while studying law, Hamula did an internship in Mesa, Arizona. There he met Joyce Anderson, and in 1984 they married in the Mesa Arizona Temple. They are the parents of six children.

Hamula has spent most of his career working for the Arizona-based law firm of Gallagher & Kennedy. He was largely involved in Superfund and other environmental law issues.

In the LDS Church, Hamula served as elders quorum president, bishop, stake high councilor, and stake Young Men president. He also served as president of the Mesa Arizona Salt River Stake and as the first president of the Mesa Arizona Red Mountain Stake when it was organized in 1992.

From 1994 to 1997, Hamula was president of the church's Washington D.C. South Mission. From 2000 to 2008, Hamula was an area seventy in the church's North America Southwest Area. He became a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy during the church's April 2008 general conference. After serving first as a counselor in the area, from 2011 to 2014 he served as president of the church's Pacific Area headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand.

On August 8, 2017, Hamula was excommunicated from the church. Hamula is the first general authority of the LDS Church to be excommunicated since George P. Lee in 1989.