From: le@lekno.ws   
      
   Since Dallin H. Oaks has now been formally installed as the   
   president of the LDS Church after Russell M. Nelson died last   
   month (they waited until after the funeral after the October   
   Conference,unlike April 1951,when the funeral of the just-   
   deceased president George Albert Smith was integrated into   
   the Conference...all other Church Presidents have taken care   
   not to die just before either of the conferences held each   
   year at the start of those months),it's time to update my   
   "older than the..." file for posting...those born between   
   September 9,1924 and August 21,1927 are restored to,and those   
   born from then until August 12,1932 are granted for the first   
   time,status as "older than the president of the LDS Church".   
      
   			-=-=-=-=-   
   What with the recent discussion of last-surviving-veterans and tontines,   
   I thought I'd compile this little reference...   
      
   In his volumes of autobiography,Isaac Asimov,in contemplation of   
   when he first realized he was older than his editor,wrote that if he   
   lived long enough he would become "older than the President of the United   
   States;older than the Pope..." (as he put it in IN JOY STILL FELT),   
   and then in I.ASIMOV,years later,that he WAS then older than the President   
   of the USA and than the Pope,looking back on the same incident.   
      
   Obviously the class of people "older than the XXX" grows whenever someone   
   younger becomes XXX,and then dwindles as long as that person remains XXX.   
      
   For the various XXXes on this list,I am leaving out the president of   
   the USA,as the office changes hands too frequently,and too often   
   goes to someone older(both Harrisons,Taylor,Buchanan,both Johnsons,   
   Arthur,Taft,Wilson,Reagan,GW Bush[barely],Trump[1st],Biden).Likewise I don't   
   include frequently-changing, hard-to-track things like oldest living Cardinal   
   or British peer or member of Congress,though I have tracked these at   
   times(mainly recent periods).   
   I include:   
      
   the Pope...office has not gone to someone older in centuries.   
   the Chief Justice of the United States...dependably passes to   
     younger hands,incumbents have been older than Presidents in the   
     period I cover except 1946-53(Truman older than Vinson),1953-61   
     (Eisenhower older than Warren) 1986-93(Reagan,by years,and   
     Bush,by months,older than Rehnquist),and from the appointment   
     of the anomalously young Roberts to the inauguration of Obama.   
   The president of the LDS (Mormon) Church...dependably held by someone   
     old,once the founders had gotten old,thanks to strict succession   
     by seniority.   
   the British monarch...age can vary,but they stay for life and   
     successors are always younger....only one has ever lived to be 82.   
   the matriarch of the British royal family...just taking advantage   
     of the fact that Victoria got rather old and her successors have   
     usually not been orphans.   
      
   	I begin arbitrarily with the election of Pope Pius IX.   
   	Periods of vacancy in vacatable offices are ignored.   
      
   1846...Chief Justice,Roger B. Taney(born 1777)   
          British matriarch,Victoire Duchess of Kent(1786)   
   	[or,Queen Adelaide until 1849?]   
          Pope,Pius IX(1792)   
          LDS president,Brigham Young(1801)   
          British monarch,Victoria(1819)   
      
   1861...Chief Justice,Roger B. Taney(born 1777)   
          Pope,Pius IX(1792)   
          LDS president,Brigham Young(1801)   
          British monarch/matriarch,Victoria(1819)   
      
   1864...Pope,Pius IX(born 1792)   
          LDS president,Brigham Young(1801)   
          Chief Justice,Salmon P. Chase(1808)   
          British monarch/matriarch,Victoria(1819)   
      
   1874...Pope,Pius IX(born 1792)   
          LDS president,Brigham Young(1801)   
          Chief Justice,Morrison R. Waite(1816)   
          British monarch/matriarch,Victoria(1819)   
      
   Chase actually died in 1873,it took a while to appoint Waite.   
      
   1877...Pope,Pius IX(born 1792)   
          LDS president,John Taylor(1808)   
          Chief Justice,Morrison R. Waite(1816)   
          British monarch/matriarch,Victoria(1819)   
      
   Taylor led the LDS in an interim title until 1880,but being most senior   
   leader is automatic.   
      
   1878...LDS president,John Taylor(born 1808)   
          Pope,Leo XIII(1810)   
          Chief Justice,Morrison R. Waite(1816)   
          British monarch/matriarch,Victoria(1819)   
      
   1887...LDS president,Wilford Woodruff(born 1807)   
          Pope,Leo XIII(1810)   
          Chief Justice,Morrison R. Waite(1816)   
          British monarch/matriarch,Victoria(1819)   
      
   The first of only three LDS successions to an OLDER man,this shows the   
   establishment of gerontocracy there,and since the beginning of the   
   period under survey Victoria has remained the youngest on the list...   
   it has become entirely old people,those older than any of them,   
   let alone those older than all of them,have dwindled to a select few.   
   (Victoria's age of 68 at this point was much older relative to   
   expectancy that that age would be now).   
      
   1888...LDS president,Wilford Woodruff(born 1807)   
          Pope,Leo XIII(1810)   
          British monarch/matriarch,Victoria(1819)   
          Chief Justice,Melville Weston Fuller(1833)   
      
   1898...Pope,Leo XIII(born 1810)   
          LDS president,Lorenzo Snow(born 1814)   
          British monarch/matriarch,Victoria(1819)   
          Chief Justice,Melville Weston Fuller(1833)   
      
   Woodruff died at 91,his living seniors few indeed and probably hardly any   
   remaining in positions of influence.   
      
   Jan 1901...Pope,Leo XIII(born 1810)   
          LDS president,Lorenzo Snow(1814)   
          Chief Justice,Melville Weston Fuller(1833)   
          British monarch,Edward VII(1841)   
          British matriarch,Queen Alexandra (1844)   
      
   Oct 1901...Pope,Leo XIII(born 1810)   
          Chief Justice,Melville Weston Fuller(1833)   
          LDS president,Joseph Fielding Smith Sr.(1838)   
          British monarch,Edward VII(1841)   
          British matriarch,Queen Alexandra (1844)   
      
   Two quick successions made the "older than the..." crowd much larger for   
   the moment.The oldest reliably recorded Pope ever had two more years...   
      
   1903...Chief Justice,Melville Weston Fuller(born 1833)   
          Pope,St. Pius X(1835)   
          LDS president,Joseph Fielding Smith Sr.(1838)   
          British monarch,Edward VII(1841)   
          British matriarch,Queen Alexandra (1844)   
      
   At last all were in a narrow,not extremely old but well on,band...and   
   their seniors shrank quietly for seven years...   
      
   May 1910...Chief Justice,Melville Weston Fuller(born 1833)   
          Pope,St. Pius X(1835)   
          LDS president,Joseph Fielding Smith Sr.(1838)   
          British matriarch,Queen Alexandra (1844)   
          British monarch,George V(1865)   
      
   Dec 1910...Pope,St. Pius X(born 1835)   
          LDS president,Joseph Fielding Smith Sr.(1838)   
          British matriarch,Queen Alexandra (1844)   
          Chief Justice,Edward D. White(1845)   
          British monarch,George V(1865)   
      
   Fuller had actually died in July.   
      
   1914...LDS president,Joseph Fielding Smith Sr.(born 1838)   
          British matriarch,Queen Alexandra (1844)   
          Chief Justice,Edward D. White(1845)   
          Pope,Benedict XV(1854)   
          British monarch,George V(1865)   
      
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)