Richard D. McClellan grew up in Kirtland, Ohio. He received a degree in English from Brigham Young University, where he graduated August 2000 as valedictorian and honors commencement speaker. He received his MBA from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He was an editor for the Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History, for which he contributed several articles; he has also put together two published collections of student essays and edited for the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS). Richard has created an extensive biography on Louis Bertrand, as well as publishing three articles and presenting a lecture at Mormon Historical Association Conference in Denmark in June 2000.