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Richard Douglas Poll (1918-1994) was a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), a first lieutenant in the United States Air Force, a Vice President for Administration at Western Illinois University (WIU), a successful professor and writer of Mormon history, and a civic-minded individual who spoke out on anti-communism and academic freedom. During his life he wrote six books, seven pamphlets, and many articles about his political views, history, and significant members of the LDS Church. Poll was born on April 23, 1918, in Salt Lake City, Utah. His family moved to Fort Worth, Texas, when he was ten years old. There, he graduated from W. C. Stripling High School in 1934, and then went to college at Texas Christian University (TCU) and graduated in 1938 with a degree in history. He was awarded the Wilber Kidd Fellowship from 1938 to 1939, and completed his master's studies at TCU in 1939. Soon after graduating from TCU, Poll began a mission for the LDS Church in Germany. However, as World War II approached, the LDS Church recalled its missionaries from Germany and reassigned them. Poll finished his mission in Canada and returned home in 1941. During World War II he served as a first lieutenant in the United States Air Force from 1942 to 1945, without seeing the front. He obtained his first teaching position at the United States Army Air Force Administrative Officer Candidate School, working there from 1942 to 1944. He met Emogene (Gene) Hill after giving a sermon in 1943; later that year, they were married in the Salt Lake City LDS Temple.

After World War II, Poll returned to school to obtain his Ph.D. in history. Financial assistance for these studies, from 1946 to 1948, came through the Willard D. Thompson Fellowship. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1948. He then began teaching history at Brigham Young University (BYU). Poll had an extensive teaching career. He taught regular classes at BYU until 1969. He also taught occasional classes at the University of Maryland, European Division, during the 1958 and 1965 academic years. In 1959, he was elected the Charter President for the American Association of University Professors at BYU, and he became the director of the Rocky Mountain Assembly in 1961. In 1970, he moved to Illinois to accepted the position of Vice President for Administration at Western Illinois University (WIU). He stepped down from this position in 1975. During his administrative years at WIU, he also taught history classes and continued teaching there until his retirement in 1983. However, even in retirement his teaching skills and knowledge of Mormon history were in great demand, and he continued to teach occasional classes at BYU from 1983 to 1994. Poll was active in academic and civic affairs. For example, in 1969 he became president of the Mormon History Association. He became the associate director of the BYU Honors Program in 1962, and he was named Honors Professor of the Year at BYU in 1969. He received the Presidential Merit Award in 1979 for his constant effort to maintain the highest quality and accuracy in his work. He was elected Secretary/Treasurer at the BYU Academy Foundation in 1985. In addition, from 1978 to 1993 Poll and his wife taught adult education classes in basic reading and writing skills offered through the LDS Church. Beginning in the late 1940s, Poll wrote articles and gave speeches on anti-communism and Mormon history. Poll used his spiritual teachings and beliefs to define two distinct types of active and dedicated Mormons. Symbols for the two types came from the Book of Mormon. The "Iron Rod" came from Lehi's dream, and "Liahona" from Lehi's experience in the wilderness. In "Liahona and Iron Rod Revisited" (located in box 73, folders 7-10), Poll explains his conceptualization of this dichotomy within the membership of the LDS Church, and it has become a defining metaphor within the discourse of the LDS culture. He explained this philosophy by stating, "The Iron Rod Saint does not look for questions but for answers, and in the gospel he finds or is confident that he can find the answer to every important question. The Liahona Saint, on the other hand, is preoccupied with questions and skeptical of answers; he finds in the gospel answers to enough important questions so that he can function purposefully without answers to the rest." Poll and his wife both considered themselves to be Liahona Mormons. The best known article that Poll wrote is considered to be, "What the Church Means to People Like Me," and was prepared in 1963. In 1975, his first book was published. It was co-authored by Eugene E. Campbell and entitled Hugh B. Brown: His Life and Thought. Poll's second book, Utah's History, was originally published in 1978, and was republished in 1989 after a revision. Howard J. Stoddard: Founder, Michigan National Bank was published in 1980. Poll became chairman of the WIU North Central Association Self Study Committee in 1979, and used this experience to write and publish Western Illinois University, 1980: A Self Study. In 1985, he published The Honors Program at Brigham Young University, 1960-1985, a book which evolved from Poll's work with the BYU Honor Program. History and Faith: Reflections of a Mormon Historian, the last of his books published while he was still living, was published in 1989. This book, written over a twenty year period, is a compilation of essays concerned with the "new" Mormon history. Poll also wrote a book about Henry D. Moyle, but it did not meet the Moyle family's expectations and they would not allow him to publish the manuscript. Posthumously in 1994, Poll's family donated his extensive collection of papers to the University of Utah. The Henry D. Moyle manuscript was among the papers donated. Special Collections Manuscripts Curator Stan Larson, Ph.D., edited Poll's manuscript on Moyle and directed its publication in 1999, with the title Working the Divine Miracle: The Life of Apostle Henry D. Moyle.