In Memoriam: Dr. Jeremy J. Chatelain (1974–2025)
Jeremy J. Chatelain, who earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Communication in 2018, died on Sept. 15 in Denver. He was 51.
Dr. Chatelain was a longtime Seminary Teacher for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and an independent historian who studied the power and influence of the 19th-century press in American religious history.
He discovered what he called “an unexpected interest” in First Amendment theory, law, and research during a Free Speech in Society graduate seminar taught by Associate Professor Dave Vergobbi. As a “kindly accepted, unproven, nonmatriculated doctoral applicant,” Dr. Chatelain said the course heightened and assisted his desire to enter the Communication Department’s graduate program.
Dr. Chatelain found his passion for journalism history in a Spring 2012 graduate seminar on historical research methods taught by Associate Professor Kimberley Mangun. They subsequently co-authored a paper for the AEJMC History Division about Abner Cole, publisher of the Palmyra, NY, Reflector and a staunch proponent of the Freethought Movement. Their submission garnered a top-paper award at the 2012 convention held in Chicago. A revised manuscript was published in American Journalism in 2015. That spring, the Department recognized Dr. Chatelain with the James A. Anderson Excellence in Research Award.
Dr. Chatelain’s 2018 dissertation, co-chaired by Professors Vergobbi and Mangun, was a deeply researched cultural history of the influence of 19th-century American print on Mormonism in Kirtland, Ohio, between 1831 and 1837. He located and analyzed more than 1,600 articles published in 325 newspapers to demonstrate how “print culture and texts about and by the Mormons created, shaped, changed, and directed the trajectory of Mormonism in its formative years.” Essentially, he tracked the cross-country spread of articles and editorials about Mormons during the 1830s and showed how editors “created and shaped” a consistently negative perception of the uniquely American religion. Dr. Chatelain also studied the early development of the Mormon press and concerted efforts to dispel or correct disparaging commentary on Mormonism.
His dissertation was awarded an honorable mention, Margaret A. Blanchard Dissertation Prize, by the American Journalism Historians Association at its national conference in Dallas in October 2019. He was delighted to receive the award and discuss his work at the convention.
After earning his Ph.D., Dr. Chatelain continued his research on 19th-century print culture and texts about and by the Mormons, eventually collecting nearly 14,000 articles published in more than 400 newspapers. A manuscript about anti-Mormon rhetoric in the Warsaw (IL) Signal was published in Journalism History in March 2025. He also presented research at several Sperry Symposiums at Brigham Young University and published peer-reviewed essays in books released by the BYU Religious Studies Center.
Shortly before his death, Dr. Chatelain was drafting a book proposal based on his voluminous research that he planned to submit to Oxford University Press.
Scholars interested in newspaper history, religious history, First Amendment theory, and many other topics will soon be able to use his vast collection, thanks to Dr. Chatelain’s generous, forthcoming donation of primary sources to the LDS Church History Library, Salt Lake City.