Davis Bitton
| Davis Bitton | |
|---|---|
| Photo of Davis Bitton | |
| Assistant Church Historian | |
| 1972 – 1982 | |
| Called by | Leonard J. Arrington |
| Predecessor | E. Earl Olson |
| Successor | None until 2008 Richard E. Turley, Jr. |
| End reason | The LDS Church transferred its History Division to BYU in 1982 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Ronald Davis Bitton February 22, 1930 Blackfoot, Idaho |
| Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. Salt Lake City, Utah |
| Resting place | Salt Lake City Cemetery Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
| Education | Ph.D. in history |
| Alma mater | Brigham Young University Princeton University |
| Occupation | Historian Professor of History |
| Employer | University of Utah |
| Notable works | Author of notable Mormon histories |
| Title | Charter member and president of the Mormon History Association |
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Ronald Davis Bitton (February 22, 1930 – April 13, 2007) was a charter member and president of the Mormon History Association, professor of history at the University of Utah, and official Assistant Church Historian in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).
Contents
Biographical background
Bitton was born in, and grew up in the area of, Blackfoot, Idaho. He was a talented pianist, having begun at the age of six.[1] After two years at Brigham Young University (BYU), he served as an LDS missionary to France, where he edited the church's L'Etoile periodical.[2] He then served in the United States Army during the Korean War.[2][3] Bitton returned to BYU, where he was president of his Phi Alpha Theta chapter and graduated in history in 1956.[2] He afterward studied at Princeton University, where he received an M.A. in 1958 and earned his Ph.D. in French History in 1961.[3]
Bitton was a professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin until 1964, when he moved and joined the University of California, Santa Barbara.[2] He then joined the University of Utah faculty in 1966,[2] where he taught for 29 years[4] until his retirement in 1995.[3] From 2005–2006, he was a visiting professor at Brigham Young University Hawaii.[5]
Although his specialty was French history, Bitton made many contributions to Mormon history. He won many awards for his work in Mormon history, including the "Silver Award" from Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, awarded for an essay on B. H. Roberts.[4] He was an original member and founder of the Mormon History Association[6] in 1965 and he served as president from 1971–1972.[7]
Bitton served as an official Assistant Church Historian to his mentor Leonard J. Arrington from 1972–1982. Bitton referred to this time as "Camelot", an exciting time of unprecedented development of new Mormon historical research. During this period and after, Bitton published several works with Arrington.[6] In 2006, the Mormon History Association awarded Bitton the Leonard J. Arrington Award for "distinguished and meritorious service to Mormon history".[8]
Bitton married his wife JoAn in 1984,[9] and later in life they served together as guides on Temple Square for five years.[10]
He died at the age of 77 in Salt Lake City.[5]
Published works
Books
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Winner of Outstanding Bibliography Award (Mormon History Association)[8] - Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Winner of Best Book Award (Mormon History Association)[8] - Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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Winner of Best Book Award (Mormon History Association) and Evans Biography Award (Utah State University)[11]
Articles
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Winner of Best Article by a Senior Author (Mormon History Association)[8] - Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Notes
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 (Arrington 1998, pp. 82–3)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ (Arrington 1998, p. 235)
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References
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External links
- Works by or about Davis Bitton in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
- Davis Bitton at the MLCA Database
- Talk given by James B. Allen at Bitton's funeral: Davis Bitton: His Scholarship and Faith
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- Pages with broken file links
- Latter Day Saint biography Infobox with missing parameters
- 1930 births
- 2007 deaths
- 20th-century Mormon missionaries
- American military personnel of the Korean War
- 20th-century American historians
- American Latter Day Saint writers
- American Mormon missionaries in France
- Brigham Young University alumni
- Brigham Young University–Hawaii faculty
- Historians of France
- Official historians of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- People from Blackfoot, Idaho
- Princeton University alumni
- University of California, Santa Barbara faculty
- University of Texas at Austin faculty
- University of Utah faculty
- Writers from Utah
- Burials at Salt Lake City Cemetery
