The overseer of the fast-growing missionary efforts for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints died Monday from a “traumatic brain injury.”

General authority Seventy W. Mark Bassett, the executive director of the Missionary Department, was 59.

According to a church news release, Bassett was with his family in St. George when “the incident” occurred. It offered no other details about the injury.

Days before, he had spoken at the faith’s flagship Missionary Training Center in Provo, where he called on listeners to focus their proselytizing on Jesus and his teachings.

“The doctrine of Christ, that is our message,” Bassett said. “For a missionary, that is the hinge point.”

Born in a suburb of Sacramento, California, Bassett graduated from Brigham Young University in 1991 before launching into a successful career in the wholesale automobile auction industry.

From 2007 to 2010, he served as the president of the Arizona Mesa Mission. Six years later, he was made a general authority Seventy. He has served in the Brazil, North America Northeast and North America Southeast area presidencies.

Bassett’s tenure as director of the church’s global missionary program coincided with a record number of convert baptisms of more than 385,000 in 2025. That same year, the church announced plans to add 55 new missions this year, the most since 2013.

He and his wife, Angela had five children and grandchildren.