Richard Lloyd Anderson: The Foremost Scholar of the Book of Mormon Witnesses (1926–2018)

Richard Lloyd Anderson (1926–2018) was described as 'a scholars' scholar'—the dean and master of two fields, the New Testament and early Latter-day Saint history. He held a BA in history with honors from BYU, a JD from Harvard Law School, an MA in Greek from BYU, and a PhD in ancient history from the University of California, Berkeley. He served as a navy air crewman—logging over five hundred hours of search-and-rescue flight in World War II—before spending nearly forty years as a professor of ancient scripture at BYU. He authored some 150 scholarly articles and the landmark book "Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses" (1981), which established the historical credibility of the Three and Eight Witnesses through rigorous, lifelong examination of their lives and testimony. In retirement he served as a senior research fellow with FARMS, the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History, and as a senior review editor for The Joseph Smith Papers. His life's work—bringing careful historical method to the testimony of those who saw and heard the angel—was itself a witness: that their testimonies stand up to scrutiny, and that the Restoration can be investigated and found true.