Richard L. Anderson

Richard Lloyd Anderson (born 1926) is an emeritus professor of Church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University (BYU). His book Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses is widely considered the definitive LDS ('Mormon') work on this subject. Anderson is the brother of Karl Ricks Anderson.

Anderson was born in Salt Lake City to Lloyd Anderson and his wife Agnes Ricks. His father was an advertising executive with local newspapers. His family moved in later years so he attended high school in Provo, Ogden and Pocatello.

Anderson served in the United States Naval Air Corps during World War II. He was a radio-man because of an overbite that disqualified him from being a pilot. He took a correspondence course from BYU on the New Testament while in the Navy. He also asked LDS missionaries about their teaching methods and went to teaching appointments with them, which was the beginnings of his later standardized gospel-teaching plan.

Anderson became known in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) when he created the "Anderson Plan," one of the earliest organized systems for Mormon missionaries to teach lessons to non-members. This was developed with the encouragement of his mission president, Joel Richards (brother of LeGrand Richards). Anderson developed this plan while serving as a missionary in the church's Northwestern States Mission, from 1946 to 1949. This plan helped his mission be the first to baptize 1,000 converts in a year. By 1951, 11,000 copies of the plan were published and circulated to missions throughout the world, and helped to increase the overall number of converts per missionary. This contributed to the church publishing its own plan in 1952, "A Systematic Program for Teaching the Gospel." After his mission Anderson was consulted by Gordon B. Hinckley as he was developing a standardized missionary teaching plan for the use of all missionaries.

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