Osborne J. P. Widtsoe

Osborne John Peder Widtsoe (December 12, 1877 – March 14, 1920) was principal of the Latter-day Saints University in Salt Lake City, Utah and a professor of English at the University of Utah. He was also the first missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon or LDS Church) to serve in Rarotonga,

Biography

Widtsoe was born in Namsos, Norway. He was the brother of John A. Widtsoe. He was baptized in 1886 in Utah. From 1897-1901 Widtsoe served as an LDS missionary in the Society Islands and in the Cook Islands including Rarotonga. Rarotonga has since issued a stamp featuring Widtsoe.

Widtsoe married Rosetta Homer and they had at least two children.

Widtsoe received his bachelors degree from what is now Utah State University and his masters degree from Harvard University. He had also been a student at Brigham Young College in Logan, Utah. At the time of his appointment as head of the English Department at the University of Utah he was also serving as an LDS Bishop.

Widtsoe also served for a time as assistant editor of the LDS publication, the Juvenile Instructor.^[1]

At the time of his death Widtsoe was serving on the general board of the YMMIA.

Publications

In addition to his own writings, Widtsoe worked with Albert E. Bowen and Franklin S. Harris in compiling the sermons and writings of Joseph F. Smith into the book Gospel Doctrine.^[2]

The following is a list of Widtsoe's own writings:

• Widtsoe, Osborne J. P. (1912). The Restoration of the Gospel. Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press. http://books.google.com/books?id=uZRBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR1#v=onepage. 
• —— (1914). "The Schools of the Mormon Church". Report of the Commissioner of Education (Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office) 1: 409–413. http://books.google.com/books?id=GJkVAAAAIAAJ&lr=&pg=PA409#v=onepage. 
• —— (1917). [1918] What Jesus Taught. Salt Lake City: Deseret Sunday School Union. 1918] [http://www.archive.org/details/whatjesustaught00widt. 
• ——; B. Roland Lewis (1920). Community of Impression: A Manual of English Prose Composition. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. 
• —— (1920–1921). A Guide for the Study of Gospel Doctrine. Salt Lake City, Utah. 
• ——; B. Roland Lewis (1923). Effective Writing. New York, Chicago: C. Scribner's Sons. 

Notes

1. ^ Andrew Jenson. Encyclopedic History of the Church. p. 386
2. ^ Gospel Doctrine, introduction, p. v

Sources

• Andrew Jenson. LDS Biographical Encyclopedia. Vol. 2, p. 403
• LDS Church News, Jan 15, 1994
• Thomas G. Alexander. Mormonism in Transition. (Champaign, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1999) p. 174-175

Persondata
Name	Widtsoe, Osborne J
Alternative names
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Date of birth	December 12, 1877
Place of birth
Date of death	March 14, 1920
Place of death