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.^[1] 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.^[1]

Van Wagoner is best known for his books Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess and Mormon Polygamy: A History.^[1][2] His 1994 biography of Sidney Rigdon won awards from the Mormon History Association and the John Whitmer Historical Association.^[1][2]

Van Wagoner was a member of the board of Signature Books and was described after his death as a "trailblazer in Mormon studies",^[2] having published historical articles in Utah Historical Quarterly, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, and Sunstone.^[1] He lived in Lehi, Utah and acted as the town's historical archivist.^[1][2]

Beginning in the early 1980s, Van Wagoner lost his hearing due to otosclerosis.^[2] He received a cochlear implant in 2001, which partially restored his hearing.^[2]

He died at his home in Lehi, Utah.^[1][2]

Publications

Books

• Van Wagoner, Richard S.; Steven C. Walker (1982), A Book of Mormons, Midvale, Utah: Signature Books, ISBN 978-0941214063 
• Van Wagoner, Richard S. (1989) [1986], Mormon Polygamy: A History (2d ed.), Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, ISBN 978-0941214797 
• Van Wagoner, Richard S. (1990), Lehi: Portraits of a Utah Town, Lehi, Utah: Lehi City Corp., ISBN 978-1560850014 
• Van Wagoner, Richard S. (1994), Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess, Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, ISBN 978-1560851974 
• Van Wagoner, Richard S. (2001), Pioneering Lehi City: A 150-Year Pictorial History, Lehi, Utah: Lehi City Corp., ISBN 978-0971419100 
• Young, Brigham (2009), Richard Van Wagoner, ed., The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, 5, Smith-Pettit Foundation, ISBN 978-1560852063 

Articles

• Van Wagoner, Richard; Steven C. Walker (July–August 1981), "The Return of Thomas B. Marsh", Sunstone (28): 28–30, https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/028-28-30.pdf 
• Van Wagoner, Richard S.; Walker, Steven C. (Summer 1982), "Joseph Smith: The Gift of Seeing", Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 15 (2): 48–68, http://content.lib.utah.edu/u?/dialogue,16483 
• Van Wagoner, Richard S. (November–December 1983), "To Beard or Not to Beard", Sunstone (42): 8–10, https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/042-08-10.pdf 
• Van Wagoner, Richard S. (Fall 1985), "Mormon Polyandry in Nauvoo", Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 18 (3): 67–83, http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/dialogue&CISOPTR=14306&REC=4 
• Van Wagoner, Richard S. (Summer 1986), "Sarah Pratt: The Shaping of an Apostate", Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 19 (2): 69–99, http://content.lib.utah.edu/u?/dialogue,19427 
• Van Wagoner, Richard S.; Steven C. Walker; Allen D. Roberts (Fall 1987), "The 'Lectures on Faith': A Case Study in Decanonization", Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 20 (3): 71–77, http://content.lib.utah.edu/u?/dialogue,17893 
• Van Wagoner, Richard S.; Mary C. Van Wagoner (Spring 1988), "Orson Pratt, Jr.: Gifted Son of an Apostle and an Apostate", Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 21 (1): 84–94, http://content.lib.utah.edu/u?/dialogue,26557 
• Van Wagoner, Richard S. (Spring 1991), "The Lehi Sugar Factory—100 Years in Retrospect", Utah Historical Quarterly 59 (2): 189–204, http://content.lib.utah.edu/u?/USHSArchPub,7335 
• Van Wagoner, Richard S. (1994), "Lehi", in Allan Kent Powell, The Utah History Encyclopedia, Salt Lake City, Utah: University of Utah Press, ISBN 0874804256, http://www.media.utah.edu/UHE/l/LEHI.html 
• Van Wagoner, Richard S. (1996), "Sidney and Me", Journal of Mormon History 22 (1, 2): 151 
• Van Wagoner, Richard S. (Spring/Summer 2001), "The Making of a Mormon Myth: The 1844 Transfiguration of Brigham Young", Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 34 (1, 2): 159–182, http://content.lib.utah.edu/u?/dialogue,27486 

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"

Notes

External links

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