Dr. Richard Netizel Holzapfel completed undergraduate and graduate studies at Brigham Young University (Middle Eastern Studies), Hebrew Union College (Jewish Studies), and the University of California Irvine (Ancient History). He taught at BYU for several decades, including the BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies, before retiring in 2017. For more than thirty years, Richard hosted tours to the Holy Land (In the Footsteps of Jesus), Turkey, Greece, and Italy (In the Footsteps of Peter and Paul), and Latter-day Saint Church history sites (In the Footsteps of Joseph Smith). The author of more than fifty books and nearly two hundred articles, Richard continues researching and writing. He served as a bishop, stake president, mission president, and Area Seventy. He currently serves as the director of the Correlation Research Division, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Salt Lake City. Richard and his wife Jeni are the parents of five children and grandparents to ten amazing grandkids.
