Palmer, Spencer J.
Biographical History
Spencer J. Palmer (1927-2000) was a professor of Church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University.
Spencer J. Palmer was born in 1927 in Eden, Arizona. He was raised in Thatcher, Arizona. He attended Eastern Arizona College before transferring to Brigham Young University. He took two years during his time at BYU to serve as a missionary in California. He left Brigham Young with a bachelor's degree. He continued his education at the University of California, Berkeley, obtaining a master's in East Asiatic Studies and a PhD in Oriental history. He married Shirley Ann Hadley in 1956 before he returned to Brigham Young University to teach church history and doctrine as a professor and was a scholar of comparative religion.
Palmer served as a chaplain for the US military in Korea and Japan. He would continue his ventures in Asia in 1993 when the Chinese government asked him to teach comparative religion to Ethnic Minority Groups in China. Palmer's death occurred seven years later, in 2000.