Hilton A. Robertson
Hilton Alexander Robertson (1891–1983) was a mission president and leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in Hong Kong, Japan, and Hawaii.
Robertson was raised in Springville, Utah. His father Alexander Robertson was a Scottish convert to the LDS Church who arrived at Kanesville, Iowa, in 1850. Hilton Robertson married his wife Hazel in the Salt Lake Temple in 1912. He and his wife first went to Japan as Mormon missionaries in 1921. They spent time in Tokyo, Osaka, and Sapporo. In October 1923, Robertson was appointed the mission president. He oversaw the closing of the Japanese Mission the next year.
Robertson served as a bishop and then a counselor in a stake presidency in Utah. He was also a member of the Utah County Commission. He worked as an insurance salesman.
In 1936 Robertson, was made president on the Japanese Mission headquartered in Hawaii. He made a visit to LDS Church members in Japan in 1939. He then returned to Utah in 1940, where he again served as a bishop and worked in insurance and real estate. In 1949, Robertson was made president of the newly formed Chinese Mission, with Henry Aki, a Chinese man from Hawaii, serving as first counselor in the mission presidency. He served in Hong Kong until 1951. From 1951 to 1953 Robertson oversaw missionary work among the Chinese in San Francisco. In 1953, this was merged into the San Francisco Stake Mission and Roberson returned to Utah. Then from September 1953, Robertson as mission president oversaw all LDS Church operations in Japan and China.
References
- Muriel Jenkins Heel, "'We Will Go': The Robertson Response", Ensign, April 1982