Wayne J. Lewis was born in Mesa, Arizona. He served a mission in Virginia and North Carolina. He received his BA in political science in 1969 and his master’s degree in history in 1981, both at Brigham Young University. He taught seminary in Mesa and Snowflake, Arizona, and also taught classes in the College of Religion Education at BYU. His master’s thesis identified 6,700 names of Latter-day Saints who lived in the state of Missouri during the 1830s and also identified the property that many of these early Saints owned there. He also pursued work toward a PhD in the College of Family Sciences.

He worked for the Presiding Bishopric Office of the LDS Church and was assigned to the LDS Philanthropies for twenty years to assist in financing various projects of the Church and BYU. He assisted in some of the priority needs with the College of Religion, BYU Sports, and Ezra Taft Benson Agricultural Institute, and served as assistant dean in the College of Biology and Agriculture at BYU.

Wayne and his wife, Maren Barraclough, were married in the Mesa Arizona Temple and have twelve children, fifty grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. He has served as a bishop and has served in numerous other positions in the Church.

Wayne has collected books written about Joseph Smith for over forty-five years and has over five hundred books about the Prophet Joseph Smith in his personal library.

In 2009, Wayne compiled the first complete bibliography of the Prophet Joseph Smith. In 2010, he printed a second edition entitled Joseph Smith Bibliography, Joseph Smith A–Z Volume 1, Reference Encyclopedia.