Fred Woods (historian)

Fred Emmett Woods IV (born 1956) is an American academic, historian, author, and documentarian of the Latter Day Saint movement. He is a professor in the College of Religious Education at Brigham Young University.

Early life

Woods was born in 1956 and grew up in Southern California.[1] He is a convert to the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he was a young adult.[1]

Woods earned a B.S. in psychology in 1981 from Brigham Young University, followed by a Master of Science in international relations in 1985.[2][3] In 1991, he received a Ph.D. in Middle East studies with an emphasis on Hebrew Biblical studies from the University of Utah.[2][1] His doctoral dissertation was entitled Water and Storm Polemics against Baalism in the Deuteronomic History. Since that time, Woods has focused his studies primarily on 19th and 20th century Latter-day Saint history.[4]

Career

Woods was an instructor in the at Orem High Seminary in Orem, Utah, from 1981 to 1985.[4] He was an Institute of Religion instructor at Fullerton JC in Fullerton, California from 1985 to 1986 and was the institute director at Harbor College in Wilmington, California from 1987 to 1988 and the University of Colorad Boulder from 1991 to 1993.[4] From 1993 to 1998, he was a professor of religion at Ricks College.[1][4] Since 1998, he has been a professor in the College of Religious Education at Brigham Young University, now called BYU Religious Education.[2] He held the Richard L. Evans Chair of Religious Understanding at the College of Religion from 2005 to 2010.[2] He held the Moral Education Professorship at Brigham Young University from 2019 to 2021.[2]

Awards

  • Richard L. Anderson Distinguished Research Award from Religious Education (2002)[4]
  • BYU University Creative Works Award (2024)[4]

Personal life

Woods is married to JoAnna Merrill.[2] They are the parents of five children.[2]

Select publications

Woods created Saints by Sea, a database that compiles passenger lists and first-person accounts of the Latter-day Saint passengers on ships from 1840 to 1890 that were traveling to America.[5] Some of other publications include the following.

Books

  • Fred E. Woods. Fire on Ice: The Story of Icelandic Latter-day Saints at Home and Abroad. Provo: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2005. ISBN 0-8425-2617-X.
  • Fred E. Woods. When the Saints Come Marching In: a History of Latter Day Saints in St Louis. Millennial Press Inc., 2009. ISBN 978-1932597653.
  • Riley M. Moffat, Jeffrey N. Walker, Fred E. Woods, and Steven C. Walker. Gathering to La'ie. La'ie, Hawai'i: Jonathan Napela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Island Studies, Brigham Young University, 2011. ISBN 9780939154104
  • Riley M. Moffat and Fred E. Woods. "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Islands of the Pacific" in The Palgrave Handbook of Global Mormonism. R. Gordon Shepherd, A. Gary Shepherd, Ryan T. Cragun, editors. London: Palgrave/MacMillan, 2020. pp. 431–454. ISBN 978-3030526153.
  • Fred E. Woods. "A Mission to Washington: Orson Pratt’s Publishing of The Seer" in Latter-day Saints in Washington, D.C.: History, People, and Places. Kenneth L. Alford, Lloyd D. Newell, and Alexander L. Baugh, editors. Provo: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University/Deseret Book, 2021. pp. 67–84. ISBN 978-1-9503-0403-5.
  • Fred E. Woods. "Introduction The Latter-day Saint Gathering" in Liverpool to Great Salt Lake: The 1851 Journal of Missionary George D. Watt. Ronald G. Watt and LaJean Carruth, editors. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2022. pp. xv-xxvi. ISBN 9781496229878.
  • Malcolm Adcock, Fred E. Woods. The Latter-day Saint Image in the British Mind. Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2022. ISBN 978-1589585584.
  • Charles Vance, Mark Mendenhall, and Fred E. Woods. "Missionary Families: LDS Case Study". in Research Handbook of Global Families: Implications for Theory and Practice. Yvonne McNulty editor. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2023. ISBN 978 1 78811 286 4.
  • Malcolm Adcock and Fred E. Woods. Bright Lights in the Desert: The Latter-day Saints of Las Vegas. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2023. ISBN 9781647790714.
  • Fred E. Woods, Jay H. Buckley, and Hunter T. Hallows, eds. The Life and Adventures of Eli Wiggill: South African 1820 Settler, Wesleyan Missionary, and Latter-day Saint. Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2024. ISBN 978-1-58958-804-2.
  • Fred E. Woods. Ports to Posts: The Gathering of Latter-day Saints in the Nineteenth Century. Reno: University of Nebraska Press, 2025. ISBN 9781496230706.

Documentary films

Journal and magazine articles

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Woods, Fred E. | Religious Studies Center". Brigham Young University. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 "Fred Woods | Religious Education". Brigham Young University. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  3. 1 2 "Fred Woods". BYU Jerusalem Center Alumni. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Curriculum Vitae Fred E. Woods". Brigham Young University. Retrieved August 2, 2026.
  5. ↑ "Saints by Sea". Brigham Young University. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  6. ↑ "Bright Lights in the Desert: The Latter-day Saints of Las Vegas". BYUtv. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  7. ↑ "A Swede and A Seed: The Ivar Sandberg Story". BYUtv. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  8. ↑ "Flood of Memories: Remembering the 1976 Teton Dam Disaster & Recovery". BYUtv. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  9. ↑ "Montana Saints". BYUtv. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  10. ↑ "Channeling Hope". BYUtv. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  11. ↑ "St. Louis: Oasis of Tolerance and Love". BYUtv. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  12. ↑ "Denver Latter-day Saints and Their Neighbors". BYUtv. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  13. ↑ "Kelsey Seeds to Texas Roots". BYUtv. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
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