Richard S Van Wagoner

Richard S. Van Wagoner (July 23, 1946 – October 10, 2010) was a non-academic historian who published works on the history of Utah and the history of the Latter Day Saint movement.

Van Wagoner was a Lehi, Utah, native and a fifth-generation Mormon. He was an Eagle Scout and was a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the church's Central States Mission. In 1970, he graduated from Brigham Young University with an M.S. degree. He was trained as a clinical audiologist and beginning in 1977 operated a hearing center in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Van Wagoner wrote the books Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess and Mormon Polygamy: A History. His 1994 biography of Sidney Rigdon won awards from the Mormon History Association and the John Whitmer Historical Association.

Van Wagoner was a member of the board of Signature Books, and was described after his death as a "trailblazer in Mormon studies", having published historical articles in Utah Historical Quarterly, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, and Sunstone. He lived in Lehi, Utah, and acted as the town's historical archivist.

From the early 1980s, Van Wagoner lost his hearing due to otosclerosis; he received a cochlear implant in 2001, which partially restored his hearing.

Van Wagoner died unexpectedly at his home in Lehi, Utah, at age 64.