When Gordon Bitner Hinckley was born on June 23, 1910, Joseph F. Smith was President of the Church and the Church had almost 400,000 members. The Church had four operating temples-the Salt Lake Temple, the St. George Utah Temple, the Logan Utah Temple, and the Manti Utah Temple.

Gordon B. Hinckley's grandfather Ira Hinckley joined the Church in Nauvoo, Illinois, as a teenager and traveled with the pioneers to Utah in 1850. He accepted an assignment to build Cove Fort in Utah, and he served as the president of the Millard Stake in central Utah. Gordon's father, Bryant Hinckley, was a counselor in the stake presidency of the Liberty Stake in Salt Lake City for about 18 years, and then he served as stake president for another 11 years.