Frederick Niels Larsen, President/Prophet of the Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was born January 15, 1932 in the house occupied by his grandfather, Frederick M. Smith, President/Prophet of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The house in Kansas City, Missouri was the home of his parents Edward J. Larsen, a Danish immigrant and Lois A. (Smith) Larsen, daughter of the President/Prophet. The family moved to a 20 acre farm in East Independence in 1937. Here Fred was raised with a farm life and attended eight years at the DeKalb grade school located adjacent to the front yard of the farm home. After one year at the Independence Junior High School and one year at the William Chrisman High School the family moved to Santa Ana, California where Fred attended Garden Grove Union High School graduating in 1950.

While attending Graceland College in Lamoni, Iowa and the University of Kansas City, Missouri Fred concentrated his interests in the field of the Physical Sciences and graduated in 1959 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry. While attending college he worked in the analytical laboratories of the Lake City Arsenal, the Great Lakes Pipeline Co., Chemagro Corporation, and the Bendix Corporation. He retired from Bendix (now Honeywell Corp.) in 1994 after 35 years of service. Fred served as a consultant in the field of Polymer Science at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in Livermore, California in 1975 and 1976. After “retirement” he joined his brother Daniel in a capital venture company, Infinity Inc., and assisted in building wastewater treatment plants in Chanute, Kansas and Cheyenne, Wyoming. Fred’s latest work effort has been with the City of Independence Police Department’s Crime Scene Unit where as a Forensic Chemist for the last 5 years he has analyzed illicit drugs and methamphetamine labs for the City and the Jackson County Drug Task Force. His retirement from full time employment is scheduled for September 30, 2002.

Through his brother Steve’s arrangement, Fred met and later married a young lady by the name of Mary Louise Malott. Fred and Mary Lou, as she prefers to be called, celebrated their 50^th wedding anniversary June 7, 2002. They have five children, Larry, Linda, Luann, Brian, and Stephen and ten grandchildren.

Fred has always had a close association in the Church with those descendents of Joseph Smith, Jr. He was blessed as a baby and confirmed a member of the Church by his grandfather, Fred M. Smith; ordained to the office of Priest in 1956 by Israel A. Smith, his great uncle; ordained to the office of Elder by W. Wallace Smith, his great uncle and he and Mary received their Patriarchal Blessings by Elbert A. Smith, a second cousin. Fred was very active in his priesthood ministry at the East Alton and Beacon Heights R.L.D.S. branches in Independence. After 1984, he withdrew from active ministry until 1996 when he began to attend the Blue Springs Restoration branch and the Conference of Restoration Elders. Taking an active role in a Prayer and Study Group, Fred was one of the twelve signers of the “Proclamation and Invitation to the Faithful” in May, 1999. After the Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was formally accepted as the true church in succession on April 6, 2000, Fred was ordained to the office of High Priest at the next Conference on April 8, 2001 and set apart as President of the High Priests Quorum.

After several inspirational experiences culminating in a revelatory message, Fred presented to the General Conference convening in April, 2002 a call to the office of President of the High Priesthood and the Church and Prophet, Seer and Revelator. The Conference unanimously accepted the call and Fred was ordained to that office of President/Prophet on April 6, 2002. Fred spends as much time as he can at the Office of the Presidency in the Church offices at the old William Chrisman High School until his retirement from the City Police Department. He looks forward with great enthusiasm to providing fulltime leadership to the Remnant Saints and the Church in this last dispensation and in the preparation for building the Kingdom of God on this earth, even His Zion.