Some 29 years ago this spring, I was hired as a reporter for the Church News. On my first day, then-Church News editor Dell Van Orden gave me an assignment. I wrote and filed a story and was working at my desk when I heard a loud voice from Dell’s office: “Don’t they teach misplaced modifiers at BYU?”
No one needed to ask whom he was addressing. I was still frantically thumbing through my dictionary — trying to figure out what a misplaced modifier was — when I looked up to see Dell standing over me.
Dell managed with high expectations.
The facts were simple — working at Church News under his leadership meant embracing the English language and spelling and Associated Press style and active voice. It meant being willing to read every page proof three times — because errors were not acceptable. It meant staying late with the entire staff once a week on deadline because no one left until the paper was perfect. For me personally, it meant hours in a chair by his side — watching, learning and listening as he edited my articles.
Dell Van Orden, who served as Church News editor for more than 30 years, died Thursday, June 27, 2024. He was 88.
As I thought about Dell over the past few weeks, I came to a certain conclusion. Dell cared about commas and misplaced modifiers and spelling because he cared about journalism and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He cared because he sustained leaders of the Church and because he understood consecration. He cared about these things because the paper he shepherded was published with the Church’s logo and literally bore the name of Jesus Christ.
Dell joined the Church News staff in 1968, after a decade in the profession. He was named editor in 1976. These were years of manual typewriters and hot lead type. Proofs were approved in a white room, and changes were made by literally cutting mistakes off the page with an X-Acto knife.
Shortly after I began working at the Church News in 1995, Dell called me into his office and explained I was going to get a new tool that would help the department communicate. It was something, he said, called “email.”
During his time at Church News, Dell was given the sacred responsibility to record the growth of the Church. When Dell became editor of the Church News, the Church had 2 million members, 13 temples and 450 stakes — mostly in the western United States. When Dell retired in 1999, the Church had 11 million members in more than 160 nations and 2,500 stakes, with more members outside the United States than inside and with 115 temples that were dedicated, under construction or announced.
Former Church News reporter John Hart wrote once that Dell “watched the flow of news, decade by decade, as it grew from a trickle to a torrent.”
Dell originated the Deseret News Church Almanac in 1974. During the past year or so the Church News staff has worked to digitize the almanac — because what he accomplished was so detailed and thorough that it has not been replicated anywhere else in the Church — even to this day.
During his time as editor, Dell traveled to almost 50 nations. He personally knew nine Church Presidents.
When I interviewed for a job at the Church News, Dell asked me to name every member of the current Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and First Presidency in order of seniority. When I could not do it, he insisted I commit the names to memory — in order — before I began my job.
My favorite memory of Dell is not one when he was doing his job — but an evening when he was able to step away from it for a few hours. My husband and I sat at a table with him and his wife, Sharon, and other Deseret News leaders, during the annual Deseret News awards dinner. Seeing him let down his guard and talk with friends was a “wow” moment for me. I realized the pressure he must feel, day in and day out, to have responsibility for the Church News.
Sometimes when I would make a mistake as a reporter working for him, he would call me into his office and point to a random spot on his head and say something like, “See this mark? This is the result of our last mistake.” His assessment was purely theatrical. Still, his message was instructive. He felt the weight of his responsibility as editor. He felt each error personally. They literally pained him.
Gerry Avant, also a former Church News editor, and I visited Dell this past year before Christmas. It was a tender and sweet moment for me to reflect on the foundation laid by these two editors — who literally gave years of their lives to the publication and Church I love. During our visit, we looked at the pictures on Dell’s wall and spoke briefly about his career. But what he really wanted to talk about was his wife and their children and grandchildren.
It was a testimony to me again that the work he did, which often took him away from his family for long assignments, was the result of his testimony of and consecration to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
I graduated from BYU with the goal to become a political and government reporter. When Dell called and asked if I would be interested in interviewing for a job with him, I hesitated. Still, when I left his office after the Church News interview, I was unable to sleep. I knew that there was something I could learn from Dell Van Orden. For decades I concluded it was English. In retrospect, however, I have come to know it was also faith.
— Sarah Jane Weaver is editor of the Deseret News and was editor of the Church News from 2017 to 2023.
