The interviews in this volume tell the stories of remarkable men and women who have made careers out of researching, writing, and teaching about the past. Friends and colleagues conducted these conversations over a decade, and all were subsequently published in the Mormon Historical Studies journal of Religious Educator periodical. Now they are brought together as a single book of personal essays. As we review and reflect on the personal lives and remarkable careers featured in this volume, we sense that many of these historians feel they were prepared or given a definite sense of mission and professional calling that stretches well back in time.