Edward L. Kimball, American legal scholar and biographer, Died at 86

  Educator

Edward Lawrence Kimball was born on September 1930 and died on November 21, 2016.

He was an American scholar, lawyer, and historian.

Kimball was an emeritus law professor at Brigham Young University (BYU) and wrote biographies of his father, Spencer W. Kimball, and his mother, Camilla Eyring Kimball.

However, Mormon historians have described these as “well crafted” biographies.

His biography of his father, a president of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), has also been listed among “60 Significant Mormon Biographies”.

Also to that, Lengthen Your Stride, his history of his father’s church presidency, has also been widely recognized.

He was born in Arizona and suffered from polio as a child.

Kimball served as a missionary for the LDS Church in the Netherlands.

Kimball received a bachelor’s degree in history and a law degree from the University of Utah.

He then went on to earn two further law degrees from the University of Pennsylvania.

Kimball wrote an article on Henry Eyring and Harvey Fletcher published in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought.

Kimball served as the editor of his father’s book Faith Precedes the Miracle.

Kimball was also the compiler and editor of the widely cited work, The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1982).

Kimball has published an in-depth study on the 1978 Revelation on Priesthood received by his father.

Kimball has also written an article on the history of LDS Church temple admissions standards.

Whilst he was a lawyer, Kimball specialized in evidence law.

Kimball also wrote a biography of Frank J. Remington.

Kimball also wrote on criminal cases in appellate courts.

He has served in several positions in the LDS Church, including bishop.

He married the Evelyn Bee Madsen (1929-2012) in 1954.

They were the parents of seven children.

Before joining the faculty of BYU, Kimball was a law professor and chairman of the Curriculum Committee at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

He began his career as a law professor at the University of Montana, where he taught from 1956 to 1962.

Edward L. Kimball was a professor at the University of Wisconsin from 1962 to 1973. He was at BYU from 1973 until 1995, when he was granted emeritus status.

He died in Provo, Utah.

Edward L. Kimball passed away at 86 years old.