David J. Whittaker

David J. Whittaker is a Church historian and bibliographer. He worked with the Joseph Smith Papers project. He has authored or co-authored seven books and about fifty scholarly articles. He was the curator of Western and Mormon history manuscripts for the L. Tom Perry Special Collections Library of the Harold B. Lee Library and Brigham Young University. He was also a professor of history at BYU.

Whittaker received his bachelor’s and PhD degrees from BYU and his master’s from California State University at Northridge—all in American history. He taught in the Institute program of the Church Educational System in Southern California before he moved to BYU.

He was president of the Mormon History Association from 1995 to 1996.

He was born in Lakeview, Oregon, in 1945. He and his wife, Linda, have four children.