Elder Peter M. Johnson, who became the first African-American General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Saturday, is an accounting professor, holds a doctorate degree and was a basketball star for Southern Utah University.
Johnson, 52, played for SUU for two years, from 1989-91, according to Sports Reference.
In his first season, he averaged 11.2 points, 2.8 assists and 3.1 rebounds per game. The following year, he averaged 15.7 points, 1.9 assists and 3.3 rebounds per game, according to Sports Reference.
Over his collegiate career, he shot 51% from the field and 42.7% from beyond the arc, according to Sports Reference.
Johnson, who is currently an accounting professor at the University of Alabama, previously worked at BYU and BYU-Hawaii. He has been serving as an Area Seventy.
Johnson joined the church in 1986 at age 19, according to Al.com, a news website in Alabama. He was recruited to play basketball at BYU-Hawaii and followed one of his coaches to SUU. Johnson received a Ph.D. in accounting from Arizona State University. He eventually became an accountant at a firm in Salt Lake City and then returned to BYU-Hawaii as an accounting faculty member.
From there, he became an assistant professor at BYU in Provo where he worked until 2011, when he joined the University of Alabama faculty.
Johnson’s daughters, Kiana and Whitney Johnson, played basketball at Southern Utah University as well. The sisters played together for the 2016-2017 Thunderbirds squad, according to the Deseret News.
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