Karl Ricks Anderson is a Latter-day Saint historian whose specialty is the Kirtland period in the history of the Latter-day Saints. He is a brother of Richard Lloyd Anderson and they were the second recipients of the Junius F. Wells Award from the Mormon Historic Sites Foundation in 2006. Anderson was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and grew up in Kaysville, Utah. He served as a Mormon missionary in the Swiss–Austrian Mission from 1957 to 1960. Anderson has also served as the secretary of the Joseph and Hyrum Smith foundation. Anderson currently serves as the Patriarch of the Kirtland Ohio Stake.