Richard S. Van Wagoner

Richard S. Van Wagoner (July 23, 1946 – October 10, 2010) was an amateur historian who published works on the history of Utah and the history of the Latter Day Saint movement.

Van Wagoner was a Lehi, Utah native and a fifth-generation Mormon. He was an Eagle Scout and was a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the church's Central States Mission. In 1970, he graduated from Brigham Young University with an M.S. degree. He was trained as a clinical audiologist and beginning in 1977 operated a hearing center in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Van Wagoner wrote the books Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess and Mormon Polygamy: A History. His 1994 biography of Sidney Rigdon won awards from the Mormon History Association and the John Whitmer Historical Association.

Van Wagoner was a member of the board of Signature Books, and was described after his death as a "trailblazer in Mormon studies", having published historical articles in Utah Historical Quarterly, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, and Sunstone. He lived in Lehi, Utah and acted as the town's historical archivist.

From the early 1980s, Van Wagoner lost his hearing due to otosclerosis; he received a cochlear implant in 2001, which partially restored his hearing.

Van Wagoner died unexpectedly at his home in Lehi, Utah at age 64.

Works

Books

Articles

Sunstone Symposium presentations

• Van Wagoner, Richard; Allen D. Roberts (August 27, 1982). "From Grace to Grace"
• Bradley, Martha; Richard Van Wagoner (August 23, 1985). "Changed Faces: Offical [sic] LDS Positions on Pologamy [sic], 1890-1-80"
• Van Wagoner, Richard S.; Lynne Watkins Jorgensen (August 12, 1995). "The Making of a Mormon Myth: The 1844 Transfiguration of Brigham Young - and - The Mantle of the Prophet Joseph Passes to Brother Brigham and the Twelve Apostles: A Collective Spiritual Witness"
• Van Wagoner, Richard S. (August 17, 1996). "Sidney Rigdon and the Elect Sisterhood"
• Ehat, Andrew E.; Richard S. Van Wagoner (August 22, 1996). "Pseudo-Polyandry: Explaining Mormon Polgyny's Paraboxical Companion"
• Van Wagoner, Richard; Breck England (August 23, 1996). "Orson Pratt, Jr"

External links

• The Richard S. Van Wagoner Papers (J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah)

• "Utah, LDS historian won acclaim", Salt Lake Tribune, 2010-10-12.
• Michael DeGroote, "Richard Van Wagoner, historian, dies at 64", Deseret News, 2010-10-12.