Davis Bitton

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 (1930-02-22)February 22, 1930 Blackfoot, Idaho
Died	April 13, 2007(2007-04-13) (aged 77) Salt Lake City, Utah
Resting place	Salt Lake City Cemetery 40°46′37.92″N 111°51′28.8″W / 40.7772000°N 111.858000°W / 40.7772000; -111.858000
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

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).

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. 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. He then served in the United States Army during the Korean War. Bitton returned to BYU, where he was president of his Phi Alpha Theta chapter and graduated in history in 1956. He afterward studied at Princeton University, where he received an M.A. in 1958 and earned his Ph.D. in French History in 1961.

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. He then joined the University of Utah faculty in 1966, where he taught for 29 years until his retirement in 1995. From 2005–2006, he was a visiting professor at Brigham Young University Hawaii.