Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
OREM -- A retired BYU professor is being remembered for his work to further The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Africa.
Dale LeBaron, 75, died from injuries sustained in an auto-pedestrian accident in Orem on Thursday. LeBaron was on a walk with his wife and their friend early Thursday when they were struck by a small pickup truck in the crosswalk.
Police say the driver was making a left turn with the sun in his eyes and never saw the couple.
His wife sustained minor injuries and the friend was hospitalized.
Dale LeBaron was a professor for many years at BYU, but he may be best remembered for his efforts to document the history of early LDS converts in Africa.
Family members say Dale LeBaron developed a love for Africa while serving an LDS mission there as a young man and later organizing the Church's educational program.
In 1976, he returned as a mission president, overseeing the Church's missionary effort in South Africa. Things changed dramatically in 1978 when the Church made the announcement that blacks could be ordained to the priesthood.
"It was during that time that the revelation on the priesthood was received by President Kimball," says Laura LeBaron, Dale's wife.
LeBaron later welcomed LDS Church leaders who visited the continent as the Church's membership began to grow. It was then, his family remembers, that LeBaron began to focus on preserving the Church's history in Africa by collecting more than 800 personal histories from the early LDS converts.
"He realized that they were not a written history people, it was an oral history," says Laura. "He wanted to have a written history of the early pioneers of Africa and went back to Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and other countries collecting histories."
LeBaron wrote a book based on many of those histories and continued to make visits to Africa, as recently as three years ago. He maintained regular contact with many LDS members he knew there.
Laura says, "He had loved the people of Africa of all nationalities, but he had a fondness and a tenderness for the black Africans and their humility, their love of the Church, their simplicity of life. He was very touched by them."
Dale LeBaron is survived by his wife and six children.
Funeral services are scheduled for next Saturday afternoon at the Timpview Stake Center in Orem.
E-mail: spenrod@ksl.com
