https://bycommonconsent.com/2016/05/...life/#comments
Actually I knew the man. A little. He hired me to work for him. No fancy story to tell here. I was a senior at BYU and was looking for my first job during school. I had always worked in the summers, but never during a semester. I did the typing test and scored well, and Dr. Walker had posted a job for someone who could type.
The job was to read a couple different pioneer diaries, include quotes, and make something of an index. It was fairly brainless and boring. And I made it interesting for myself by watching the World Cup in the background. So I don't know that I was terribly efficient. Every so often I would have to deliver my work to him. I don't know if he thought my work was good, adequate, or crappy. Or if he thought I was being efficient or not. We didn't talk a whole lot. So it wasn't anything like a mentored relationship. I did relate to him that reading the couple of diaries did make Utah Mormon history come alive for me. Real people in a real time. Much more interesting than the texts we had for our Religion classes back then. I did share my new-found idea that for early Mormon pioneers, the church and being Mormon was more wrapped up in just being in Utah and being in a community (and less with the trappings of church attendance or formal practice of religion). He agreed with that.
But he seemed like a kind man. A good guy. And he's really the only Mormon historian I ever had any personal interaction with.
If you can hear me up there, Br. Walker, sorry if I watched too much World Cup! And thanks for the work you did. And I do very much need to read one of your books!