Remembering Dean C. Jessee

We are saddened to announce that Dean C. Jessee passed away on 31 December 2025. Dean’s herculean efforts made The Joseph Smith Papers possible. He was the project’s founder and its lead general editor for many years.

Dean, born in 1929, joined the Church Historian’s Office in 1964. He worked initially in the Manuscript Division. Dean published numerous articles and books that offered transcripts of or insights into manuscripts of the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In the 1970s, Dean began gathering, researching, and transcribing documents relating to the life of Joseph Smith. After moving to Brigham Young University as part of the newly formed Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Church History, he continued that work, publishing two volumes of The Papers of Joseph Smith. In the early 2000s, he and others decided to expand this work and begin The Joseph Smith Papers, with Dean serving as one of its three original general editors. Dean was present in summer 2023 at a large gathering celebrating the completion of the project’s print edition, which spans twenty-seven volumes.

Dean’s lifelong care in combing the archival record for Joseph Smith documents is the foundation on which The Joseph Smith Papers rests. His research was the basis for the project’s document files, his editorial style spawned the project’s editorial approach, and his careful review, emotional support, and quiet mentorship made a lasting impression on the scores of individuals who worked on the project.

He will be sorely missed, but his legacy will be long-standing. Dean Jessee reaches anyone who opens a Joseph Smith Papers volume or clicks a josephsmithpapers.org link to discover more about the founder of the church.