Ronald W. Walker

Ronald Warren Walker (1939 – May 9, 2016) is a historian of the Latter Day Saint movement who was formerly a professor at Brigham Young University (BYU) and president of the Mormon History Association.

Walker was born in Missoula, Montana, and raised in Iowa and the San Joaquin Valley of California. He graduated from high school in Bakersfield, California.

Walker attended BYU, where he received a bachelor of science in 1961 and a master of arts in 1965. He received a master of science from Stanford University in 1968, and a Ph.D. from the University of Utah in 1977, writing his dissertation on the Godbeites. During his graduate studies, Walker had worked in the Institute of Religion of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in southern California and at the University of Utah. He joined the LDS Church Historical Department under Leonard Arrington in 1976. In 1980, he was transferred to BYU to become a professor of history and inaugural member of the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Church History. He would later serve as a senior research fellow at the Smith Institute and acting director of the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies. He was president of the Mormon History Association during 1991–92.