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| Hugh Winder Nibley (March 27, 1910 – February 24, 2005) was an American scholar and member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) who was a professor at Brigham Young University (BYU) for nearly 50 years. He was a prolific author, and wrote apologetic works supporting the archaeological, linguistic, and historical claims of Joseph Smith. He was a member of the LDS Church, and wrote and lectured on LDS scripture and doctrinal topics, publishing many articles in the LDS Church magazines. | | '''Hugh Winder Nibley''' (27 March 1910 – 24 February 2005) was an American scholar who trained at [[Camp Ritchie]] in [[:Category:Class 7|Class 7]], served as an order-of-battle specialist with the 101st Airborne Division in World War II, and later taught at Brigham Young University for nearly fifty years as a prolific author and apologist of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. |
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| == Biography == | | == Biography == |
| Nibley was born in Portland, Oregon, and his family moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1921, where Nibley attended middle school and high school. Hugh Nibley was born in Portland, Oregon, son of Alexander ("El") Nibley and Agnes Sloan. Nibley's parents were worried about his social development and felt that an LDS mission would help him have more contact with people. | | Hugh Winder Nibley was born on 27 March 1910 in Portland, Oregon, the son of Alexander Nibley and Agnes Sloan; his grandfather Charles W. Nibley was Presiding Bishop of the LDS Church. The family lived in Medford, Oregon, from 1917 to 1919 and moved to Los Angeles in 1921. At eight Nibley was baptized into the LDS Church. He graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1927, where he was a friend of John Cage, pursued astronomy, art, and literature, taught himself Old and Middle English, German, Latin, and Greek, published poems in 1926, and took part in ROTC. From 1927 to 1929 he served an LDS mission in Germany, where he learned German, followed by six weeks in Greece. He majored in history at UCLA, graduating summa cum laude in 1934, served briefly in 1933 as a mission stenographer, and earned his PhD at UC Berkeley in 1938 with a dissertation on the Roman games. |
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| He instructed officers and other men in the 101st Airborne Division about the German Order of Battle. | | Nibley taught at the Claremont Colleges, without pay in 1939–1940 and then as an instructor in history, humanities, Greek, and German, and added Irish, Akkadian, Russian, Italian, and Spanish to his languages. He resigned in June 1942 and enlisted as a private at Los Angeles in October 1942. After basic training he completed weather-observation school and served as an observer with the 2nd Weather Detachment in March 1943, and on his commanding officer's recommendation he was sent to Camp Ritchie, graduating with [[:Category:Class 7|Class 7]] (IPW Ge) on 12 June 1943, classified as a documents typist. He then took the German order-of-battle course (Class 6 OB) and was promoted to master sergeant on 26 October 1943 with his fellow graduates. In England he helped compile information on German officers for the June 1944 Order of Battle Book and in spring 1944 briefed the pathfinders of the 101st Airborne Division at the Pathfinder School at RAF North Witham, Lincolnshire. He landed at Utah Beach on D-Day and by glider near Eindhoven during Operation Market Garden, gathering intelligence from civilians, documents, and prisoners; he was the only survivor of Order of Battle Team 5, and in March 1945 he was transferred to OB Team 81 with the 101st Airborne Division. He visited Dachau a few days after its liberation and was discharged in November 1945. |
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| Hugh Winder Nibley (March 27, 1910 – February 24, 2005) was an American scholar and member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) who was a professor at Brigham Young University (BYU) for nearly 50 years. Nibley attended Alta Loma Middle School from 1921 until 1923. He graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1927, where he was friends with John Cage.
| | In 1946 Nibley became a managing editor of the ''Improvement Era'' and wrote ''No, Ma'am, That's Not History'', a response to Fawn M. Brodie's biography of Joseph Smith, which became a turning point in LDS apologetics. He married Phyllis Draper in September 1946, and they had eight children. That year he joined Brigham Young University as a professor of religion and history, teaching languages and early Christian history; he became a full professor in 1953, studied Egyptian and Coptic at UC Berkeley as a visiting professor in 1959–1960, and in 1973 became director of BYU's Institute for Ancient Studies. He wrote extensively on LDS scripture, the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price, and the Joseph Smith Papyri, as well as social commentary critical of materialism; he was a Democrat, conservationist, and pacifist who opposed the Vietnam War. His work influenced the founding of the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) in 1979, which later published his collected works with Deseret Book; his scholarship remains debated. Around the time of his death, his daughter Martha Beck published a memoir alleging abuse, claims that other family members and some reviewers considered false. He retired from his staff position in 1975 but worked as professor emeritus until 1994. Nibley died at his home in Provo, Utah, on 24 February 2005, aged 94. |
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| After his mission, he attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he graduated in 1934. He also studied Latin, Greek, and Spanish and graduated summa cum laude in 1934. He received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) in 1938.
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| His dissertation, "The Roman Games as a Survival of an Archaic Year Cult", was accepted, and he graduated in 1938. Nibley volunteered to teach at Claremont Colleges, and he taught without pay for the 1939–1940 school year, living frugally. He taught various subjects at Claremont Colleges until he enlisted in the United States Army in 1942, where he was trained as an intelligence officer as one of the Ritchie Boys.
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| In the army, Nibley completed weather observation school in March 1943 after he finished basic training. Nibley became a professor at Brigham Young University (BYU) in 1946, where he taught foreign languages and Christian church history. He attended Taught language in college and worked as translator.
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| He attended Taught languages in college. He attended University of California (PhD, History and Philology). The summer he was 17, he attended Brigham Young Academy's Aspen Grove summer school.
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| In a letter to his friend from UC Berkeley, Paul Springer, Nibley wrote that two of his friends at Scripps College were discovered to be Nazi agents. Nibley became a Master Sergeant along with his fellow Order of Battle graduates.
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| He resigned from Claremont in June 1942, and then enlisted as a private in the United States Army for World War II.
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| His commanding officer recommended him for officer training, and he attended military intelligence training in the United States Army Intelligence Center at Camp Ritchie in western Maryland.
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| Nibley's family moved to Los Angeles in 1921, where Nibley's father participated in the burgeoning real-estate market and was part of Los Angeles's high society. He spent the summer of 1925 working in a lumber mill. In June 1933, Nibley used his knowledge of shorthand and typing when he served a short-term mission in the northwestern states as the mission stenographer.
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| He returned in time to start his PhD at UC Berkeley in September 1934. In March 1943, Nibley served as observer with 2nd Weather Detachment. After an OB training in Hyde Park Corner, he was assigned to help compile information on German officers for the June 1944 Order of Battle Book.
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| After being discharged from the army in November 1945, he went camping near Hurricane, Utah. He continued to study Egyptian and Coptic, and became the figurehead of the Institute for Ancient Studies at BYU in 1973. Nibley's rhetorical style became popular with defenders of the church, and in 1979, Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) was founded and published "Nibley-style apologetics and polemics".
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| Around the time of Nibley's death in 2005, his daughter Martha Beck published a memoir where she claimed to have recovered repressed memories of Nibley sexually abusing her. Hugh attended PhD Univ of California (History and Philology). He served as Mormon missionary in Near East (3 years). | |
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| He served as Mormon missionary in Near East. He was a prolific author, and wrote apologetic works supporting the archaeological, linguistic, and historical claims of Joseph Smith. He was a member of the LDS Church, and wrote and lectured on LDS scripture and doctrinal topics, publishing many articles in the LDS Church magazines.
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| Nibley served an LDS mission in Germany, where he learned German. Hugh Nibley's complete works were published jointly by the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) and Deseret Book. Among their other sons were Sloan Nibley, Richard Nibley, and Reid N.
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| Their father, Alexander, was the son of Charles W. Alexander's mother, wife of Charles, was Rebecca Neibaur. Rebecca was the daughter of Alexander Neibaur, one of the first Jewish people to convert to Mormonism.
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| The next year at age eight, Nibley was baptized into the LDS Church. Nibley was particularly interested in astronomy, art, and English. He spent his first three weeks in Germany learning German in Cologne with other missionaries.
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| After his mission, he received special permission to visit Greece for six weeks to contact other members of the LDS Church there. He found a job translating Latin, but because his funds were severely limited, he moved from the expensive International House to a cheap apartment, where his neighbors spoke Arabic. The next year he worked as an instructor, and taught history, social philosophy, modern European history, humanities, U.S.
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| He acted as a secretary when prominent intellectuals spoke at the Committee on War Objectives and Peace Aims. He sought out native speakers to converse with when possible. He completed intelligence training on June 2.
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| In August he started attending the second Order of Battle course. Before leaving for Europe, he courted and proposed marriage to Anahid Iskian, but she refused. He was part of the Utah Beach division during the D-Day invasion, and landed by glider at Eindhoven as part of Operation Market Garden.
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| He was the only survivor of OB team #5. He visited Dachau concentration camp a few days after its liberation. The response, entitled No, Ma'am, That's Not History, identified flaws in Brodie's work, including the way she read the sources, but it did so using "dismissive and patronizing language".
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| Dale Morgan, a historian who helped Brodie while she wrote the biography, found Nibley "intoxicated with his own language". Richard Bushman, famed for his own biography of Joseph Smith, after hearing the criticisms of No, Ma'am, was surprised by how "on the mark" it was. While living in Salt Lake City, Nibley improved his Russian by insisting that he and his Ukrainian roommate only speak Russian.
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| Nibley promised to pay his roommate one cent for every mistake he made in Russian and two cents for every English word he spoke. Nibley was a Mormon folk legend during his lifetime, and frequently members of the LDS Church told fantastic stories about him. A Sunstone magazine article documenting several common folk stories (some of questionable veracity) reported that Latter-day Saints would talk of Nibley, for example, shouting quotes from the Illiad while a parachutist in World War II in an attempt to convince Greeks he was friendly, or absent-mindedly recommending German readings to a student without considering the student's inability to read the language.
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| Nibley's grandfather, Charles, and his brother, Philip, died in 1931 and 1932, respectively. Alexander Nibley served as mission president of the Liège Conference. He taught alongside scholars fleeing from Germany, including Thomas Mann, and once co-taught a class with retired professor Everett Dean Martin.
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| He studied more languages, including Irish, Akkadian, Russian, Italian, and Spanish.
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| == Research notes == | | == Research notes == |
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| <div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed soldier-timeline"> | | <div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed soldier-timeline"> |
| <div class="soldier-timeline-body"> | | <div class="soldier-timeline-body"> |
| * October 1942 — Enlisted in Army at ___as Pvt (ASN: 19160134). | | * 27 March 1910 — Born in Portland, Oregon. |
| * 12 June 1943 — Graduated with Class 7 (IPW Ge). | | * 1927–1929 — LDS mission in Germany. |
| | * 1934 — Graduated summa cum laude from UCLA. |
| | * 1938 — PhD, University of California, Berkeley. |
| | * June 1942 — Resigned from the Claremont Colleges. |
| | * October 1942 — Enlisted in Army at Los Angeles, California, as Pvt (ASN: 19160134). |
| | * March 1943 — Served as observer with 2nd Weather Detachment. |
| * 12 June 1943 — Graduated with Class 7 (IPW Ge). Classified as Documents Typist. | | * 12 June 1943 — Graduated with Class 7 (IPW Ge). Classified as Documents Typist. |
| * 26 October 1943 — Promoted to M/Sgt. | | * 26 October 1943 — Promoted to M/Sgt. |
| * March 1943 — Served as observer with 2nd Weather Detachment.
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| * March 1943 — Served as observer with Weather Detachment.
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| * 1944 — Provided mission briefings to Pathfinders of 101st AB Division.
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| * Spring 1944 — Provided mission briefings to Pathfinders of 101st AB Division at the Pathfinders School at RAF North Witham, Lincolnshire, England. | | * Spring 1944 — Provided mission briefings to Pathfinders of 101st AB Division at the Pathfinders School at RAF North Witham, Lincolnshire, England. |
| * March 1945 — Transferred to OB Team 81 assigned to 101st Airborne Division. | | * 6 June 1944 — Landed at Utah Beach. |
| | * September 1944 — Landed by glider near Eindhoven (Operation Market Garden). |
| * March 1945 — Transferred to OB Team 81 attached to (101st Airborne Division). | | * March 1945 — Transferred to OB Team 81 attached to (101st Airborne Division). |
| | * November 1945 — Discharged from the Army. |
| | * September 1946 — Married Phyllis Draper; joined the BYU faculty. |
| | * 1973 — Director of BYU's Institute for Ancient Studies. |
| | * 24 February 2005 — Died in Provo, Utah. |
| </div> | | </div> |
| </div><div style="clear: both;"></div> | | </div><div style="clear: both;"></div> |