Noel Beldon Reynolds is a political science professor at Brigham Young University where he has also served as an associate academic vice president and as a director for the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS).

Biography

Reynolds grew up in Cody, Wyoming and served as a missionary

Mormon missionary

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of the most active modern practitioners of missionary work, with over 52,000 full-time missionaries worldwide, as of the end of 2010...

 for the LDS Church in Uruguay

Uruguay

Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...

 and Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, 1961-1964. Reynolds earned his bachelors degree at BYU and received his M.A.

Master of Arts (postgraduate)

A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...

 and Ph.D.

Ph.D.

A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 from Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

.

Reynolds has also been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School

Harvard Law School

Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...

, Edinburgh University and Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ; ; abbreviated HUJI) is Israel's second-oldest university, after the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The Hebrew University has three campuses in Jerusalem and one in Rehovot. The world's largest Jewish studies library is located on its Edmond J...

.

Reynolds was one of the editors of the Encyclopedia of Mormonism

Encyclopedia of Mormonism

The Encyclopedia of Mormonism is a semi-official encyclopedia for topics relevant to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...

, published in 1992 by Macmillan

Macmillan Publishers

Macmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.-History:...

.

Reynolds is married to the former Sydney Sharon Smith

Sydney S. Reynolds

Sydney Sharon Smith Reynolds was the first counselor to Coleen K. Menlove in the general presidency of the Primary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from October 1999 until April 2005. She then served for three years with her husband Noel B...

. She was a member of the general presidency of the Primary of the LDS Church from 1999 to 2005. They are the parents of eleven children.

Reynolds has published books and articles in several fields, including: legal and political philosophy (20), American founding (8), authorship studies (11), ancient studies and Dead Sea Scrolls (11), and Mormon studies (18).

Reynolds edited On the History of the Idea of Law authored by Shirley Robin Letwin, which was published by Cambridge University Press

Cambridge University Press

Cambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...

 in 2005.

Among other callings in the LDS Church, Reynolds has served as a bishop and as a stake president. From 2005 to 2008, Reynolds was the president

Mission president

Mission president is a priesthood leadership position in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . A mission president presides over a mission and the missionaries serving in the mission...

 of the Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

 Fort Lauderdale Mission

Mission (LDS Church)

A mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a geographical administrative area to which church missionaries are assigned. Almost all areas of the world are within the boundaries of an LDS Church mission, whether or not Mormon missionaries live or proselytize in the area...

 of the church. During part of this time, the mission included the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos.