Kenneth R. Mays

Kenny Mays is a retired instructor in the Church’s Department of Seminaries and Institutes (S&I). He began his teaching experience as an early morning seminary teacher while working for Procter & Gamble in Minneapolis, MN. Since that beginning, Kenny served as a full-time seminary teacher, seminary principal, CES coordinator, instructional designer, and institute teacher. His last assignments were at the Salt Lake University Institute adjacent to the University of Utah and LDS Business College.

After high school and a mission to the Italy North Mission, his formal education included degrees in organizational communication from the University of Utah and Brigham Young University. His personal interests have focused on Book of Mormon studies and photographing sites from various periods of Church history. This he has done on numerous visits to those sites, both on his own and as a tour guide for private companies.

Kenny has contributed historical images to dozens of books, magazines, journals, and historical DVDs. In recent months, his images have been in the Ensign, Church News, several new books, Pioneer magazine, Mormon Historical Studies, and BYU Studies.  He has taught about LDS history at Education Week on the BYU campus and has been a presenter at various symposia, including the Association of Mormon Letters and the 2008 symposium on the life of President John Taylor. For ten years Kenny authored the “Picturing History” feature in the Mormon Times section of the Deseret News, providing images of and commentary about Church historic sites. Many of his images can be found at catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org.