Gordon B. Hinckley, President and prophet of the Mormon Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died on Sunday at his apartment in Salt Lake City, at the age of 97.

The church released a statement on its website in which it said that Hinckley had died at his home around 7 p.m. “from causes incident to age.” No other details were released.

The statement went on: "Members of his family were at his bedside. A successor is not expected to be formally chosen by the Church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles until after President Hinckley’s funeral within the next few days," AFP reports.

According to tradition, the senior member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Thomas Monson, 81, should be the one to take the role as the president.

Hinckley occupied the top positions in the church for 46 years, 13 of them was the president of it.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) has 13 million members worldwide, but less than half of them live in the United States.

Some 36 percent of them live in Latin America and 17 percent outside the Western Hemisphere. In Canada there is also an important LDS community.

Hinckley succeeded in making Mormonism familiar to the public and was the first church president to give interviews for “60 Minutes” and “Larry King Live.”

Richard Lyman Bushman, professor of history emeritus at Columbia University, a member of the church said about him: “He’s been the face of the church, not only for church members, but more than any other president, to the world at large. He exposed himself to all these interviews and seemed to enjoy it. That has won the admiration of church members. We have been a little bit isolated and clannish, and it’s wonderful to see our church presented to the world,” the New York Times informs.

Hinckley was born in Salt Lake City on June 23, 1910 and was a descendant of a governor of the Plymouth Colony.

He spent his childhood in Salt Lake City. His father ran the LDS Business College and his mother used to be an English teacher and had a library at home.

Hinckley graduated from the University of Utah and wanted to become a journalist, but he changed his mind when he was asked to become a church missionary in England at the age of 23.

Twenty years he was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and afterwards went into the First Presidency, formed out of two members that were the president’s counsels.

He was named as the President of the Church on March 12, 1995.

Hinckley formed a Perpetual Loan Fund in order to pay the tuition for college for church members who had no possibility to do that.

He also issued a proclamation on the family in his first year as president. He condemned the domestic abuse and said that procreation is only meant for a man and a woman as husband and wife.

He is survived by his children Kathleen Barnes Walker, Virginia Pearce, Jane Dudley, Richard Hinckley and Clark Hinckley; 25 grandchildren and 38 great-grandchildren.