Ellis T. Rasmussen is dean emeritus of Religious Education at Brigham Young University, where he taught for thirty years. In 1957 he undertook doctoral studies in the language and literature of the Old Testament at Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and completed his Ph.D. at BYU in 1967.

A member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Brother Rasmussen has served as a missionary, a bishop, a high councilor, a counselor in a stake presidency, a temple ordinance worker, and a patriarch.

He and his wife, Oda Fonnesbeck Rasmussen, are the parents of five children.