The Mormon 100:
A Ranking of the 100 Most Influential Latter-day Saints in History

This list was created in the tradition of Michael H. Hart's carefully researched and thought-provoking book The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, first published in 1978.

Hart's original book remains the most popular of its kind, but it spawned numerous publications in format but narrower in scope. These include: The Black 100; The Jewish 100; The Scottish 100; The Scientific 100 (by John Simmons); The 100 Most Influential Women: A Ranking Past and Present by Deborah G. Felder; 100 Women Who Shaped World History by Gail Meyer Rolka; The Literary 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Novelists, Playwrights, and Poets of All Time by Daniel S. Burt and The Film 100. Each of these books is historical in outlook, with rankings based on influence, not fame. Hart's list of the 100 most influential people in history includes no actors, sports heroes, or other contemporary "celebrities" whose names may be well known (for a period of time), but who have not really changed the way we live.

The "Mormon 100" is a ranked list of the 100 Latter-day Saints (Mormons) who have had the most influence on the world. As with other lists, individuals have not been listed here based on fame. Some very famous individuals have actually had little influence, while the names of some tremendously influential people are little known to the general public.

Also, inclusion on this list does not represent any kind of measure of a person's character. Hart's original list includes widely-admired individuals such as Albet Einstein, Isaac Newton and Jesus. But it also includes people who are less admired -- or are even widely regarded as villains -- yet were indisputably influential, such as Hitler, Lenin, Stalin and Genghis Khan.

The "Mormon 100" is similar to the The Jewish 100 (Michael Shapiro, Citadel Press Book, 1994), which considers for inclusion anybody of Jewish religion or ethnicity. Thus, people such as Jesus of Nazareth, Saint Paul, Spinoza, Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud are included, although these individuals were not orthodox, religious Jews throughout their lives. The "Mormon 100" considers for inclusion any Latter-day Saint, regardless of the degree to which they are considered an "active member" in the institutional Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In addition to practicing Latter-day Saints, anybody who is an ethnic Mormon or a convert to the Church may be considered for this list.

It is true that Latter-day Saints feel a strong spiritual continuity with "former day" Saints, such as the people called "Saints" in the New Testament. (As used in the Bible, "Saints" referred to any members of the church founded by Jesus.) But as the "Mormon 100" only lists Latter-day Saints, nobody may be included who died before the official organization of the Church in 1830.

The Latter-day Saints listed here are ranked based on their influence on the world as a whole, not necessarily on their influence strictly on the Church or the Latter-day Saint community. This does not, however, preclude individuals from being listed whose primary influence was on the Church. Gordon B. Hinckley, for example, may be little known outside of his role as the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But, as the Church he presides over has a membership in excess of 12 million people, he is influential. But in a secular and historical sense, Hinckley has had less impact on the world than Philo Farnsworth, the inventor of television -- an invention that has had an impact not only on Latter-day Saints, but on essentially everybody in the world.

1. Philo Farnsworth - inventor of the television
2. Joseph Smith, Jr. - founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
3. Brigham Young - 2nd President/Prophet of the Church; led Saints to Utah
4. Marvin Harris - inventor of the transistor radio
5. Alan Ashton - inventor of the modern word processor
6. Nolan Bushnell - Father of Video Games; inventor of "Pong"
7. Harvey Fletcher - inventor of the hearing aid, stereophonic sound, the audiometer, more than 20 other inventions
8. William Clayton - inventor of the odometer
9. Jonathan Browning - revolutionary gunsmith; inventor of the repeating rifle
10. John Moses Browning - revolutionary gunsmith; inventor of the automatic shotgun and many other developments
11. Lester Wire - inventor of the electric traffic light
12. John Taylor - 3rd President of the Church
13. Alvino Rey - inventor of the electric guitar
14. John Gilbert - silent film star
15. Thomas Stockham - father of digital sound recording (CDs, DVDs); led the 1974 technological effort to recover sound from the 18-minute gap in Nixon's White House tapes
16. Paul Boyer - received Nobel Prize for describing the mechanism of ATP synthesis
17. Ezra Taft Benson - 13th President of the Church; U.S. secretary of agriculture
18. Lino Brocka - most influential filmmaker in the history of the Philippines

• Emma Smith - wife of Joseph Smith
• Eldridge Cleaver - Black Power revolutionary
• Drew Major - inventor of NetWare -- corporate computer network; founder of Novell
• Esther E. Peterson - one of America's most effective consumer and women's rights advocates; establish such regulations and practices as truth-in-advertising, truth-in-packaging, nutritional labeling, and unit pricing
• Stephen R. Covey - author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
• Gordon B. Hinckley - 15th President of the Church
• James Cruze - Hollywood film director
• Lorenzo Snow - 5th President of the Church
• George Romney - President of American Motors; governor of Michigan
• Gerald ("Jerry") Molen - movie producer
• Emmeline Woodward Wells - an early leader of the women's rights movement
• Joe Hill - labor organizer
• Spencer W. Kimball - 12th President of the Church
• Don Bluth - director of animated films
• Ab Jenkins - "Mormon Meteor"; race car driver, designer; held world land speed records between 1932-56
• Alex Oblad - fundamental work in catalysis and contributions to the production of high octane gasoline and synthetic ammonia
• Alma Richards - Track and field star; first Utahn to win a gold medal in the Olympics (1912, Stockholm); In all, won 63 national and regional championships
• Anne Osborn Poelman - author of the definitive textbook in neuroradiology
• Anne Perry - mystery writer
• Arthur Henry King - scholar
• Avard T. Fairbanks - sculptor
• Billy Barty - actor; founder of Little People of America
• Bruce R. McConkie - apostle, author
• Carlyle Harmon - major improvements in disposable diapers
• Colin Low - Canadian documentary filmmaker and IMAX technology pioneer
• Cynthia Garner - first woman to appear on Fortune Magazine's cover
• Danny Ainge - pro basketball player
• Dave Wolverton - science fiction writer, long-time head of the Writers of the Future contest
• David O. McKay - 9th President of the Church
• Donny and Marie Osmond - entertainers
• E. Park Guyman - developed a patented solvent extraction process that has the potential to convert American tar sands into billions of barrels of high grade asphalt and crude oil
• Earl Douglass - Geologist, dinosaur fossil hunter
• Ed "Big Daddy" Roth - Hot rod designer and creator of anti-hero, pop culture icon "Rat Fink"
• Edwin Catmull - computer animation pioneer; co-founder of Pixar
• Ellis Reynolds Shipp - one of Utah's most distinguished leaders in the practice and teaching of medicine
• Elouise M. Bell - English professor and literary scholar
• Emerson Tippetts - contributions to synthetic textiles
• Eugene England - literary critic; English professor; pioneer in study of Mormon letters
• Ewart Swinyard - developed drugs to suppress epilepsy
• Fawn Brodie - author of No Man Knows My History
• Forrest S. Baker III - film producer; founder of Feature Films for Families
• Gene Fullmer - boxer, held Middleweight titles in 1957, '59
• George Albert Smith - 8th President of the Church
• George Hill - coal research including development directed toward the transformation of coal for liquid automobile fuel
• Gideon O. Burton - English professor and literary critic
• Gladys Knight - singer
• Glen A. Larson - television producer
• Harold B. Lee - 11th President of the Church
• Harvey Greenfield - member of the Jarvik-7 team that developed first artificial heart
• Heber J. Grant - 7th President of the Church
• Henry Eyring - chemist and researcher noted for work in molecular reactions; received highest awards in chemistry, including Joseph Priestly Medal and the Wolf Prize
• Homer Warner - development of computer sciences to a fine art in medical diagnosis, particularly for heart ailments
• Howard W. Hunter - 14th President of the Church
• Hyrum Smith - founder of Franklin (as in Day Planners) and partner in Franklin-Covey
• Ina Coolbrith - California's first poet laureatte
• Ivy Baker Priest - U.S. Treasurer, whose signature appeared on U.S. currency from 1953 to 1961
• J. Edwin Seegmiller - helped develop amniocentesis, to learn about the health of fetuses
• J. Willard Marriott - hotelier
• Jack Anderson - Washington muckraker; Pulitzer prize winner
• James T. Fletcher was appointed twice to be Director of NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) by Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan
• Jean Westwood - first woman to serve as chairperson of the National Democratic Party
• Jim Parkin - pioneered artificial ears through cochlear implants
• John Bennion - English professor and author; "Burial Pool"; Breeding Leah and Other Stories
• John Dixon - pioneered laser surgery
• Johnny Miller - PGA golfer; won 24 major tournaments; in golf Hall of Fame; Designs golf courses
• Jon Huntsman - billionaire industrialist
• Joseph F. Smith - 6th President of the Church
• Joseph Fielding Smith - 10th President of the Church
• Kathleen Burton Clarke - first woman director of the Bureau of Land Management
• Kieth Merrill - Latter-day Saint filmmaker and early IMAX pioneer
• Kim L. O'Neill - patent in 1997, monoclonal antibody that quickly, accurately and inexpensively detects cancer at early stages, by measuring Thymidine Kinase 1 (TK1)
• Laraine Day - actress
• Marie Windsor - actress; a director of the Screen Actors Guild for 25 years; founder of the Screen Actors Guild Film Society
• Marriner S. Eccles - Banker; helped create World Bank and International Monetary Fund as well as structure the Federal Reserve System; Federal Reserve Building in Washington, D.C., is named after him
• Martha Hughes Cannon - first woman elected as a state senator in the United States
• Mary Lythgoe Bradford - author and essayist
• Melvin Cook - development of slurry blasting agents which have replaced dynamite
• Michael Austin - literary critic; teaches Eighteenth-Century British Literature, World Literature, and Rhetoric at Shepherd College in Shepherdstown, West Virginia; has written about Mormon literature
• Milton Wadsworth - new methods for the beneficiation of minerals
• Mitt Romney - director of SLC Olympics and Candidate for Governor of Massachusetts
• Nephi Anderson - (1865-1923) the most prominent fiction writer of the "Home Literature" period of Mormon Literature. Author of Added Upon (1898); Dorian; John St. John; Marcus King, Mormon, more
• Orson Scott Card - writer
• Paula Hawkins - first woman senator from Florida
• Pete Harman - co-founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken
• Randy Bachman - rock musician, of Bachman-Turner Overdrive and Guess Who
• Raymond F. Jones - popular Campbell-era science fiction writer
• Reva Beck Bosone - (1895 - 1983) first woman member of U.S. Congress from Utah
• Rhonda Fleming - actress, philanthropist
• Richard Dutcher - filmmaker
• Richard Rich - animation director
• Richard Thomas - head of the National Academy of Science Committee on Toxicology
• Sarah Melissa Granger Kimball - (1818-1898) Early suffragist and women's rights activist
• Scott Woodward - selected by the Egyptian government to study the DNA and lineage of Egyptian mummies
• Sheri Dew - CEO of Deseret Book; member of Relief Society First Presidency
• Sterling Van Wagenen - filmmaker and film teacher; co-founder of Sundance Film Festival
• Suzanne Bransford Emery Holmes Delitch Engalitcheff - socialite
• Terry Moore - actress; USO star; wife of Howard Hughes
• Terry Tempest Williams - environmentalist, writer
• Tracy Hall - synthesis of diamonds
• Tracy Hickman - fantasy author; co-author of the popular Dragonlance series
• Waldemar Young - Hollywood screenwriter
• Wayne Quinton - developing artificial kidneys
• Wilbert L. Gore - Developed waterproof fabric Goretex.
• Wilford Woodruff - 4th President of the Church
• Willam F. Christensen - Ballet choreographer and company director; founder of Ballet West; choreographed more than 50 ballets, including the first "Nutcracker"
• Yuki Saito - Japanese singer/actress
• Four BYU music students invented LAN or Local Area Networking which spawned Novell becoming an international leader in networking software
• Zenna Henderson - early female science fiction writer

Aaron Eckhart; Aaron Holker; Aaron Shamy; Abraham H. Cannon; Abraham O. Smoot; Abraham O. Woodruff; Adam S. Bennion; Alan Ashby; Alatini Saulala; Albert Carrington; Albert E. Bowen; Aleisha Cramer Rose; Alexander Hale Smith; Alma Richards; Alonzo A. Hinckley; Alpheus Cutler; Amasa M. Lyman; Andrea Wine; Andy Reid; Anne Perry; Annie Thurman; Anthon H. Lund; Anthony W. Ivins; Anton Palepoi; April Steiner; Art Lund; B.J. Flores; Barry Bonnell; Bart Oates; Ben Cahoon; Benjamin Winchester; Bert McCracken; Betty Eadie; Bill Bates; Billy Barton; Billy Barty; Billy Casper; Bo Gritz; Bo Paraha; Bob Bennett; Boyd K. Packer; Brady Udall; Brain Call; Branden Steineckert; Brandon Doman; Brandon Flowers; Brandon Lyon; Brandon Manumaleuna; Brandyn Akana; Breanne Sandberg; Brian Banks; Brian Crane; Brian David Mitchell; Brigham Henry Roberts; Brigham Young; Bruce Hurst; Bruce R. McConkie; Bruce Summerhays; Bruce Webster; Buck McKeon; Bucky Bradford; Butch Cassidy; Carl McGown; Carmen Rasmusen; Casey Jacobsen; Cecil Heftel; Chad Hermansen; Chad Lewis; Charles A. Callis; Charles C. Rich; Charles W. Penrose; Charlie Clinger; Chris Burgess; Chris Cannon; Chris Hoke; Chris Lybbert; Christian Whitmer; Cory Snyder; Creed Haymond; D. Michael Quinn; Dale D. Smith; Dale Murphy; Dallin H. Oaks; Dan Forsman; Dane Iorg; Daniel Rona; Danny Ainge; Danny White; Dave Veres; David A. Bednar; David Abbott "Ab" Jenkins; David B. Haight; David Calder; David Hoffman; David M. Kennedy; David Neeleman; David O. McKay; David W. Patten; David Whitmer; Dee Picket; Delbert L. Stapley; Dieter F. Uchtdorf; Don Bluth; Don Kirkham; Don Leo Jonathan; Donny Osmond; Earl Bascom; Edwin Mulitalo; Elaine S. Dalton; Elijah Abel; Eliza Dushku; Eliza Roxcy Snow; Elizabeth Jackson; Elizabeth Smart; Emma Hale Smith; Emma Lee French; Eni Faleomavaega; Erastus Snow; Eric Hipple; Ernest Istook; Ezra Taft Benson; Fawn M. Brodie; Fay Wray; Francis M. Lyman; Francis W. Cash; Franklin D. Richards; Fred Roberts; Fred Sanford; Frederick Madison Smith; Garrett Stephenson; Garth Iorg; Gary Johnson; Gary L. Crittenden; Gene Fullmer; George A. Smith; George Albert Smith; George Franklin Richards; George M. Hinkle; George Q. Cannon; George Q. Morris; George Teasdale; George Woolf; Gifford Nielsen; Gifford Nielson; Gladys Knight; Glen A. Larson; Glen Titensor; Glenn Beck; Gordon B. Hinckley; Gordon Jump; Gordon Smith; Greg Clark; Guy Cash; Harmon Killebrew; Harold B. Lee; Harry Reid; Heber C. Kimball; Heber J. Grant; Helmuth Hubener; Henry B. Eyring; Henry D. Moyle; Henry Eyring; Henry Grow; Hiram Page; Hosea Stout; Howard W. Hunter; Hugh B. Brown; Hugh Nibley; Hyrum M. Smith; Hyrum Smith; Itula Mili; J. Reuben Clark; J. Willard Marriott; J.W. Marriott Jr.; Jack Dempsey; Jack Kowal; Jack Yerman; Jacob Whitmer; James C. Christensen; James E. Faust; James E. Talmage; James Strang; Jane Clayson; Jared Hess; Jaret Wright; Jarinn Akana; Jason Brockman; Jason Buck; Jason Johnson; Jason Ray; Jason W. Briggs; Jeff Flake; Jeff Kent; Jeff Lindsay; Jeffery Max Jones; Jeffrey Max Jones; Jeffrey R. Holland; Jeremy Guthrie; Jeremy Jones; Jericho Road; Jim Gibbons; Jim Gott; Jim Jannard; Jim Matheson; Jimmy "Super Fly" Snuka; Jimmy Osmond; Joe Tuipala; John "Cat" Thompson; John A. Widtsoe; John Browning; John Bytheway; John D. Lee; John Doolittle; John E. Page; John F. Boynton; John Henry Smith; John O. Whitaker Jr.; John R. Winder; John Smith; John Tait; John Taylor; John Whitmer; John Whittaker Taylor; John Willard Young; Johnny Longden; Johnny Miller; Jon Heder; Jon Huntsman Utah; Jon Huntsman Jr.; Jonathan C. Coon; Joseph B. Wirthlin; Joseph F. Merrill; Joseph F. Smith; Joseph Fielding Smith; Joseph Smith III; Joseph Smith Jr.; Joseph Smith Sr.; Julie Stoffer; Junior Ione; Justin Wilcock; Karl Maesar; Karl-Heinz Schnibbe; Katie Herman; Keith Clearwater; Keith Russell Head coach; Kelly Downs; Ken Hubbs; Ken Hunt; Ken Jennings; Kevin B. Rollins; Kevin Curtis; Kieth Merrill; Kimball Kjar; Kristen Rasmussen; Kyle Farnsworth; Kyle Turley; Kyle Whittingham; L. Tom Perry; Larry H. Miller; Larry Nelson III; Larry Scott; Laurel Thatcher Ulrich; Lavina Fielding Anderson; Lee Johnson; LeGrand Richards; Leonard J. Arrington; Les Hulet; Lewis Field; Lorenzo Snow; Luis "Louie" Gomez; Luke S. Johnson; Luke Staley; Lyman E. Johnson; Lyman Wight; M. Russell Ballard; Maggie Germane; Makoa Freitas; Marc Wilson; Maren Ord; Marie Osmond; Marion G. Romney; Mark "Mad Dog" Madsen; Mark E. Petersen; Mark Hofmann; Mark Pope; Mark Schultz; Marriner W. Merrill; Martin Harris; Marvin Goldstein; Marvin J. Ashton; Matthew Cowley; Matthew Modine; Matthias F. Cowley; McKay Christensen; Melanie Kosoff; Melvin J. Ballard; Merlin Olsen; Merlin Olson; Merrill Hoge; Meshach Tenney; Michael O. Leavitt; Mike Crapo; Mike Fetters; Mike Leavitt; Mike Reid; Mike Simpson; Milton "Tita" Queiroz; Mitch Davis; Mitt Romney; Moses Thatcher; N. Eldon Tanner; Nathan Baldwin; Neal A. Maxwell; Neil LaBute; Nolan Bushnell; Olene S. Walker; Olive Osmond; Oliver Cowdery; Orrin Hatch; Orson F. Whitney; Orson Hyde; Orson Pratt; Orson Scott Card; Orson Spencer; Parley P. Pratt; Paul Ruth; Paul Walker; Peter Vidmar; Peter Whitmer Jr.; Phil Tucket; Phil Tuckett; Philo Farnsworth; Porter Rockwell; Randy Thorsteinson; Raymond Knight; Rebecca Pendlebury; Reed Smoot; Rex Ellsworth; Richard Bushman; Richard Dutcher; Richard G. Scott; Richard L. Evans; Richard L. King; Richard Marriott; Richard Paul Evans; Richard R. Lyman; Rick Schroder; Rob Bishop; Rob Morris; Robert D. Hales; Robert L. Millet; Ron Brand; Ron Fellows; Ron Wright; Roy Halladay; Rudger Clawson; Rudolf Wobbe; Rulon Gardner; Rulon Jones; Russell M. Nelson; Saints Unified Voices; Samuel Brannan; Samuel Harrison Smith; Sandy Petersen; Scott Brumfield; Scott Bunker; Scott Mitchell; Scott Pollard; Sean Salisbury; Shakeh Crowfoot; Shawn Bradley; Shawn Davis; Shawn Estes; Sheri L. Dew; Sidney Rigdon; Skouson Harker; Spencer Adams; Spencer W. Kimball; Stephen Covey; Stephen L. Richards; Steve Benson; Steve Young; Sylvester Q. Cannon; Terry Rooney; Terry Tempest Williams; The Osmonds; Thomas B. Marsh; Thomas S. Monson; Thurl Bailey; Tim Hanshaw; Todd Christensen; Todd Heap; Todd Miller; Tom Chambers; Tom Udall; Tommie Sisk; Tracy Hickman; Travis Hall; Travis Knight; Ty Detmer; Vai Sikahema; Vance Law; Vernon Hatton; Vernon Law; Victor Cline; Virginia Sorensen; Wally Herger; Wally Joyner; Warren Parrish; Wilford Brimley; Wilford Woodruff; Willard Richards; William E. McLellin; William Harrison Folsom; William J. Flake; William Marks; William Smith; William W. Phelps; Zenos H. Gurley Sr.; Zina D. H. Young