About Bert Reed Holfeltz: Curator of the Newest UVA Mormon Studies Library Collection

UVA Mormon Studies is pleased to announce the Bert Reed Holfeltz Collection, coming Summer of 2025.

Bert Reed Holfeltz (1935-2019) was a devout member and lay leader within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His collection of diaries, letters, and Church instructional and devotional pamphlets will shed light on lay and ecclesiastical Mormon interactions, negotiations, and practices throughout the latter-20th century.

Bert Reed Holfeltz’s Life

Holfeltz was born in 1935 in Salt Lake City, Utah to Samuel and Ruby Leonora Nielsen Holfeltz. After graduating high school at 17, he served in the U.S. Army Reserve, attending college at the University of Utah and serving a mission in Northern California during his eight-year service.

He married Violet Baldwin in 1958 in the Salt Lake Temple. The couple settled in the city, where they raised four daughters. Throughout his adult life, Holfeltz worked as a book binder and county land purchaser, in addition to volunteering for over 60 years with The Boy Scouts of America.

Holfeltz was also an active member within the Latter-Day Saint Church. He served as bishop of one of the founding wards of the Salt Lake Valley on three separate occasions for a total of 11 years, beginning in the mid-1970s. He also served in the Salt Lake Temple as a veil and ordinance worker and, from 2003-2004, served a mission to New Zealand with his wife.

Holfeltz’s Personal Collection

When he was first called to serve as a bishop in the 1970s, Holfeltz began recording his experiences and thoughts as a lay leader into what are now three dozen bound volumes of diaries. He curated these diaries to include Church materials and pamphlets from his mission in the 1950’s, his personal correspondence as bishop, and copies of the newsletter he and his wife, Violet, published every week during his bishopric, entitled “The 20th Century.” These newsletters depict the ebbs and flows of life in a Utah ward during the late 20th century, including its weekly activities, announcements, and service opportunities.

Holfeltz viewed this collection and curation as a religious obligation; a duty to pass on his experiences of Mormon history to future generations. Not only did he want to document the activity and teaching of the institutional church during his lifetime–he wanted to leave his own personal experiences, particular encounters, and practical interpretations behind for others to study. For this reason, the collection will also include his 1966 publication on the Holfeltz family history and lineage, his personally curated Book of Remembrance, and even a journal of his eulogies and sermons from over 100 funerals he conducted as bishop, memorializing the lives of the congregants under his care.

The Holfeltz Collection at UVA

UVA Mormon Studies hopes that this collection will complement The Gregory Prince Collection by adding even greater detail about 20th-century life in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This collection will also provide a comprehensive look at the “lived religion” of Latter-Day Saint congregants in their daily lives, as well as faithful membership to and negotiation of the Church writ large.

UVA Mormon Studies is indebted to the Holfeltz family for the curation and gift of this collection. The program would also like to give a special thanks to Bert Holfeltz’s grandson, UVA PhD student and Scholars & Saints host Nicholas Shrum, for spearheading this acquisition and sharing his grandfather’s work with the University and broader academic community.