Archives West Finding Aid

Stan Larson was born on 26 February, 1946 in Tacoma, Washington. His family moved to Boise, Idaho where he attended school. Subsequent to graduation from Boise High School, Larson matriculated at Brigham Young University. After spending a year on the Provo campus, he was called to serve on a LDS mission in 1965. In the process of receiving this assignment, Larson exhibited an independence of mind by refusing to be sent to Brazil as a church missionary. Authorities at the highest level of the church became aware of this situation and ultimately reassigned him to carry out his missionary responsibilities in Great Britain. As noted in his 1989 interview, Stan regarded himself to be a very devoted member of the LDS Church who viewed the study of his faith to be the most important dimension in his life. Following two years of service to the church, he resumed his undergraduate studies at BYU graduating with a B.A. in history in 1970. Larson's academic life continued as he pursued a graduate degree at BYU where he earned a M.A. in Ancient Scripture in 1974. It is important to note that at this early point in his professional career Stan's scholarly interests were focused upon textual anaylses of religious historical documents within a comparative context. An example of this methodological approach was manifest in his master's thesis which compared the texts of four editions of the Book of Mormon.

In 1974, Larson commenced an eleven year employment as a scripture translation researcher and guide writer for the LDS Church. Four years later he enrolled in the department of theology's doctoral program at the University of Birmingham in Great Britain. While Stan researched various topics associated with biblical studies, he worked full time for the LDS Church. The simultaneous investigation of the New Testament and the Book of Mormon impacted Larson's views on the question of the authenticity of Joseph Smith's translations. According to Larson's recollections, he observed significant textual and language discrepancies which led him to conclude that the Book of Mormon and the publications of LDS scholars lacked veracity. The 1985 manuscript comparing non-LDS scholarship on the Sermon on the Mount with Joseph Smith's rendition represented the culmination of Larson's abandonment of his LDS faith. An immediate consequence of the manuscript's circulation among church officials was Larson's resignation under duress of his position in the church's translation department. Within a few months after his departure from this job, Stan joined the University of Utah's Marriott Library staff as a religious archives specialist. In 1988 BYU awarded him a master's degree in library and information sciences. Larson was promoted to the position of an associate librarian and curator of manuscripts in 2001, a position which he held until his retirement from the library in 2011.

Larson's scholarly achievements are substantial. He is the author of "Unitarianism in Utah: A Gentile Religion in Salt Lake City, 1891-1991" and "Quest for the Plates: Thomas Stuart Ferguson's Search for the Book of Mormon" in addition to editing nine publications including B .H. Roberts' "The Truth, The Way, The Life", "A Ministry of Meetings: The Apostolic Diaries of Rudger Clawson," "What E'er Thou Art, Act Well Thy Part: The Missionary Diaries of David O. McKay," and Sterling Talmage's "Can Science Be Faith-Promoting?" His numerous scholarly articles (1976-1998) have appeared in publications such as "Ensign," "Sunstone," "Dialogue," " BYU Studies," "Journal for the Study of the New Testament," "The Evangelical Quarterly," "Trinity Journal," and the "Journal of Mormon History."