Armand Mauss
Armand Lind Mauss (June 5, 1928 – August 1, 2020) was an American sociologist specializing in the sociology of religion. He was Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Religious Studies at Washington State University and was the most frequently published author of Sociology works on Mormons during his long career. A special conference on his work in Mormon studies was held in 2013 at California's Claremont Graduate University (CGU), the papers from which were subsequently published by the University of Utah Press in the format of a "Festschrift", where he was honored as "one of the most prominent Mormon  intellectuals of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries." Early life and family. Mauss was born on 5 June 1928 in Salt Lake City, Utah, and grew up in California, graduating from Oakland High School in 1946. A lifelong member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as a young adult he served a full-time, two-year mission for the church in New England, and he served throughout his life in many other lay ecclesiastical roles. In 1949, he accompanied his family to Japan where his father was called to preside over the missionary work  of the LDS Church in east Asia. In 1954, Mauss graduated from Sophia University of Tokyo, a distinguished Jesuit institution, with a B.A. in History and Asian Studies. While in Japan, he was also inducted into the US Air Force, serving four years in military intelligence. In 1950, he met Ruth E. Hathaway, and they married in 1951. They eventually became parents of six sons and two daughters. After returning to California, Mauss earned in 1957 an M.A. degree in History, with an emphasis on Asia, and in 1970, he earned a Ph.D. in Sociology, with a dissertation titled "Mormonism  and Minorities", both at the University of California, Berkeley. Academic work. After several years of community college teaching in California, Mauss joined the faculty at Utah State University (USU) for two years. He next served on the Sociology faculty at Washington State University (WSU) for three decades, starting in 1969 and formally retiring from WSU in 1999. During his career, he taught and published in several different fields of Sociology and Social Problems, but his work in the Sociology of Religion was ultimately the most visible. He has enjoyed invitations as a visiting professor to several universities in California, Canada  and the United Kingdom. During 2004-2010, he was a visiting scholar in the School of Religion at CGU, where he taught courses on the History and Sociology of the Mormons. While at CGU, he helped develop the Mormon Studies Council and the Howard W. Hunter Chair in Mormon Studies, first occupied by Richard L. Bushman. Author or editor of several books and scores of academic articles, Mauss also served as editor of the "Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion" from 1989 to 1992. He has received three different awards from the Mormon History Association for his books and  other works and two awards from the Dialogue Foundation for his articles in "", the major independent scholarly journal in Mormon Studies. Mauss had a formative influence on the rise and survival of "Dialogue", serving 20 years on its editorial or advisory boards and then ten years as either chairman or member of the Dialogue Foundation's Board of Directors. Mauss was, additionally, president of the Mormon History Association from 1997–1998.