Paul H Dunn

Religious Leader. He was a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Dunn was widely considered one of the most dynamic speakers among the general authorities in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1991, Dunn stated that he had "not always been accurate" in his speeches and writings after questions were raised about the truthfulness of some of the personal experiences he had included in his writings and his speeches. Born in Provo, Utah to Joshua Harold Dunn and Geneve Roberts, Dunn was baptized a member of the LDS Church at the age of eight. Dunn earned a bachelor's degree from Chapman College in 1953 and a master's and a doctorate degree in educational administration from the University of Southern California. Dunn began his long career of full-time service in the LDS Church in 1952 as a seminary teacher for the Church Educational System in Los Angeles. On April 6, 1964, church president David O. McKay asked Dunn to join the First Council of the Seventy and to become a general authority of the LDS Church. While in this position, Dunn was the president of the church's New England Mission from 1968 to 1971. In 1976, Dunn became a member of the newly constituted First Quorum of the Seventy. He remained as a member of this quorum until he received general authority emeritus status on October 1, 1989. Additionally, Dunn served as one of the seven Presidents of the Seventy from 1976 to 1980. Dunn wrote over 50 books during his time as a general authority. Dunn married Jeanne Alice Cheverton on February 27, 1946; they were the parents of three daughters. Dunn was named Utah's Father of the Year in 1972. He died of cardiac arrest in Salt Lake City while recovering from back surgery in 1998. During his time as a general authority, Dunn often included in his speeches and books extraordinary "real life" experiences that he claimed were from his past. In the late 1980s, a number of investigators, including Arizona Republic reporter Lynn Packer and church critics Jerald and Sandra Tanner, accused Dunn of fabricating or embellishing many of these events. When confronted with evidence that several of his stories were either completely falsified or substantially embellished, Dunn admitted that the stories were not completely true, yet continued to defend his use of the stories: "I haven't purposely tried to embellish or rewrite history. I've tried to illustrate points that would create interest. [I was] simply putting history in little finer packages."[4] Dunn compared his stories to the parables of Jesus—although they were not true stories, they were nevertheless valuable means of teaching gospel principles. Later in 1991, Dunn asked the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the church for permission to issue an open letter to all Latter-day Saints. The church agreed, and on October 26 the letter was published in the Church News, a supplement section of Deseret Morning News, a newspaper owned by the LDS Church.