Keith W. Perkins was a professor of Church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University. He received his BA degree from Arizona State University in Secondary Education (history) and his MA and PhD degrees from Brigham Young University in Church history and doctrine. For three years he served as principal of Granite Seminary in Salt Lake City and for four years as an instructor at Tempe (Arizona) Institute of Religion. He has published widely in LDS periodicals, with emphasis on the Kirtland, Ohio, period of Church history.