Fred Woods

Fred Emmett Woods IV (born 1956) is an American academic, historian, author, and documentarian of the Latter Day Saint movement. He is a professor in the College of Religious Education at Brigham Young University.

Early life Woods was born in 1956 and grew up in Southern California. He is a convert to the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he was a young adult. In 1991, he received a Ph.D. in Middle East studies with an emphasis on Hebrew Biblical studies from the University of Utah. He was an Institute of Religion instructor at Fullerton JC in Fullerton, California from 1985 to 1986 and was the institute director at Harbor College in Wilmington, California from 1987 to 1988 and the University of Colorad Boulder from 1991 to 1993. Some of other publications include the following.

Books Fred E. Woods. Fire on Ice: The Story of Icelandic Latter-day Saints at Home and Abroad. Provo: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2005. . Fred E. Woods. When the Saints Come Marching In: a History of Latter Day Saints in St Louis. Millennial Press Inc., 2009. . Riley M. Moffat, Jeffrey N. Walker, Fred E. Woods, and Steven C. Walker. Gathering to La'ie. La'ie, Hawai'i: Jonathan Napela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Island Studies, Brigham Young University, 2011. Riley M. Moffat and Fred E. Woods. "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Islands of the Pacific" in The Palgrave Handbook of Global Mormonism. R. Gordon Shepherd, A. Gary Shepherd, Ryan T. Cragun, editors. London: Palgrave/MacMillan, 2020. pp. 431–454. . Fred E. Woods. "A Mission to Washington: Orson Pratt’s Publishing of The Seer" in Latter-day Saints in Washington, D.C.: History, People, and Places. Kenneth L. Alford, Lloyd D. Newell, and Alexander L. Baugh, editors. Provo: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University/Deseret Book, 2021. pp. 67–84. . Fred E. Woods. "Introduction The Latter-day Saint Gathering" in Liverpool to Great Salt Lake: The 1851 Journal of Missionary George D. Watt. Ronald G. Watt and LaJean Carruth, editors. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2022. pp. xv-xxvi. . Malcolm Adcock, Fred E. Woods. The Latter-day Saint Image in the British Mind. Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2022. . Charles Vance, Mark Mendenhall, and Fred E. Woods. "Missionary Families: LDS Case Study". in Research Handbook of Global Families: Implications for Theory and Practice. Yvonne McNulty editor. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2023. . Malcolm Adcock and Fred E. Woods. Bright Lights in the Desert: The Latter-day Saints of Las Vegas. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2023. . Fred E. Woods, Jay H. Buckley, and Hunter T. Hallows, eds. The Life and Adventures of Eli Wiggill: South African 1820 Settler, Wesleyan Missionary, and Latter-day Saint. Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2024. . Fred E. Woods. Ports to Posts: The Gathering of Latter-day Saints in the Nineteenth Century. Reno: University of Nebraska Press, 2025. .

Documentary films

Fire & Redemption: The Explosion of the Steamboat Saluda (2004) A Swede and A Seed: The Ivar Sandberg Story (2023) Flood of Memories: The 1976 Teton Flood Disaster and Recovery (2024) Montana Saints (2025) Channeling Hope (2025) St. Louis: Oasis of Tolerance and Love (2025) Denver Latter-day Saints and Their Neighbors (2026) Kelsey Seeds to Texas Roots (2026)

Journal and magazine articles Fred E. Woods. "The Church in Iceland". LDS Living (January 25, 2016). Fred E. Woods. "'They Called It Hell, and We Called It Heaven': The Story of Exiled Saints in Kalaupapa Leprosy Settlement". LDS Living (February 27, 2017). Fred E. Woods. "Sacrament Over the Internet, Church in Sub-Zero Weather + Other Things You Didn't Know About Saints in Alaska". LDS Living (April 27, 2018). Fred E. Woods. "The Unbelievable True Story of Saints Shipwrecked on their Way to Zion". LDS Living (July 21, 2018). Fred E. Woods. "The Faith of the Scottish Saints + How the View of the Church Is Changing in Scotland". LDS Living (February 15, 2019). Fred E. Woods. "Uniting East and West: Latter-day Saints and the Transcontinental Railroad". LDS Living (May 10, 2019). Fred E. Woods. "Osmondmania: The Latter-day Saint Family Who Took the UK by Storm as 'Musical Missionaries'". LDS Living (November 17, 2019). Fred E. Woods. "Leavening the Sourdough: A History of Latter-day Saints in Kodiak". Latter-day Saint Historical Studies, vol. 21, no. 2 (Fall 2020): 55–78. Fred E. Woods. "The 'Crowning Jewel': Lesser-Known Stories Behind the Building of the Las Vegas Temple". LDS Living (November 11, 2020). Fred E. Woods. "The Balance Between Church and State in Tonga: A Study in Mutual Respect Between the Latter-day Saints and the Royal Family". Journal of Mormon History, vol. 46, no. 1 (Winter 2020): 53–84. Fred E. Woods. "Beneath the Pages: McClintock’s Mormon Settlement in Arizona". Latter-day Saint Historical Studies, vol. 22, no. 1 (Spring 2021): 115–155. Fred E. Woods and RIley M. Moffat. "The Genesis and Rise of the Nuku'alofa Tonga Temple". Mormon Historical Studies, vol. 21, no. 1 (Spring 2021): 91–114. Fred E. Woods. "The Rise of the Sitka Saints". Latter-day Saint Historical Studies, vol. 22, no. 1 (Spring 2021): 37–56. Fred E. Woods. "African American Baptists and Latter-day Saints in Las Vegas". Nevada Historical Society Quarterly, vol. 64, no. 3 (Fall 2021): 259–267. Fred E. Woods. "The Ascension of Abraham: A Mortal Model for the Climb to Exaltation". Religious Educator, vol. 23, no. 2 (Spring 2022): 47–63. Fred E. Woods. "St. Johns Saints and their Friendly Neighbors: Early Conflict to Community Cohesion". Latter-day Saint Historical Studies, vol. 23, no. 1 (Spring 2022): 183–204. Fred E. Woods. "'Our Mormon Neighbors Gave': Mancos Colorado Saints Intertwined with Community". Latter-day Saint Historical Studies, vol. 23, no. 1 (Spring 2022): 205–223. Fred E. Woods. "The Pluck and Luck of the Irish Saints: A Brief History of the Church in Ireland". LDS Living (March 16, 2022) Sean E. Brotherson and Fred E. Woods. "Each One was Going to Put the Hand to the Plow and Sow the Precious Gospel Seed: Early Latter-day Saint Missionary Work in North Dakota". Great Plains Quarterly, vol. 42, no. 4 (Summer 2022): 275–303. Fred E. Woods. "After Accidentally Causing his Friend’s Death, this Swede Found Peace through the Gospel in the US". LDS Living (August 10, 2022). Fred E. Woods. "Bright Lights in the Desert: How Latter-day Saints Have Shaped Las Vegas Culture, Community, and Politics". LDS Living (March 2, 2023March 02, 2023). Mason J. Cameron and Fred E. Woods. "Ping’s Inspired Dream: How an Unlikely Friend Helped open the Philippines for Missionary Work". LDS Living (May 18, 2023). Fred E. Woods. "A Seed and a Swede: The Ivar Sandberg Story". South Dakota History, vol. 53, no. 2 (Summer 2023): 127–155 Fred E. Woods. "Century Gathering of Latter-day Saints". Pioneer, vol. 69, no.2 (2023): 3–9. Fred E. Woods and Cheryl Jensen. "Picketing Against Porn in Mesquite: Community Values vs. a 'Vice' Enterprise". Nevada Historical Society Quarterly (December 2023) Fred E. Woods. "Cassia County Community Unity: Reflections on the Flood Prevention Fight of 1984". Latter-day Saint Historical Studies, vol. 25, nos. 1–2, (Spring and Fall 2024): 225–246.