has anyone found out wut happened to backyard professor? i've tried to find him for at least a year.any info will be greatly appreciated,God bless y'all. p.s. i've been worried for a lonnnnnnnnng tiiimmme i hope he's alright.

I too have been trying to find Kerry Shirts. He disappeared from Facebook, last I checked. I keep hoping he'll show up again on YouTube, but nothing yet. Maybe he took the blow about the LDS church not being true harder than we think. I do hope he's all right. A lot of people miss him. Old fans still visit the Backyard Professor channel, hoping he will answer their comments.

(now Fair but FARMS back then) over a decade ago at Alta Ski Resort in the summertime. I also met Daniel Peterson there. I now can't believe I paid for the conference and attended a whole day of presentations as a quasi-undercover exmo.

I acted as if I were just one of the curious/faithful, made few if any comments or counterpoints because arguing with Mopologists is a great way to waste time.

Kerry presented some novel theory of his about a PofGP facsimile problem and appeared quite proud of himself for concocting the same. He is a jovial and fun-loving sort of fellow and considered him quite harmless.

I was glad to learn that lost his Mo-faith and assumed that he would remain active on Internet with all things Mormon and ExMormon.

I too hope that he's ok and I believe he resides in Idaho. Any Idaho folks know of Kerry's status? Please return and report.

"concocting" is an apt description of the basic apologetic activity.

No chess either? He had a lot of chess videos up. He also does a lot of wood carving, IIRC.

i watch some of his videos and find it very easy to digest in my mind rather than my professor

kerry shirts is now operating actively on the mormon discussions board- you can pick up his handle by going to the discussions on the book of abraham of which he is writing a book- quite the poster and ex apologist.

Does he have a pen name?

Philo Sofee

As far as I've been able to determine, it would seem Kerry Shirts, aka Backyard Professor, aka Philo Sofee of the Mormon discussions board, is now aka The Late Kerry Shirts.

But what is very frustrating is not being able to find a single obituary on the man. I called Vital Records in Idaho, and to my surprise Public Records are not considered Public in Idaho. I would need some kind of notarized or certified letter just to find out if he is in the death records.... I'm glad I wasn't actually trying to get a copy of the death cert.

It was fascinating to watch him explore archaeological data, and how it tantalizingly got him excited about validating his Mormon views... and then suddenly totally up-ended all those views.

But I digress.

There must be some way we can verify that he has truly passed. I don't feel very comfortable calling his home and asking his widow, "Is your husband dead?"

Does anyone have any ideas?

My facebook ID is "GeorgeOfTampa"

George Brooks
Currently in Georgia

ADDENDA:
I contacted the Idaho Chess Association. They say they have no information. At the very least, they aren't offering any.

I contacted his former Freemason Lodge. Apparently he was active for a few years and then didn't renew.

I will have to go back to where I first read something about him having a stroke sometime in 2016, and that he then died. Could this possibly be a "cover story"? If he died, it would have to be after January of 2017, which is the last datestamp I saw for him posting as aka Philo Sofee.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/07/2017 07:09PM by backyardprotege.

He is alive and still posts on the board mentioned.

I Have been hearing rumors of Kerry Shirts' death for years. But then he would pop back up again somewhere on the internet. He tends to go away for a while, and then get a voice again when he's ready. Maybe he simply doesn't want anyone to know whether he's dead or not.

And this is why I do not call his home and speak to his wife. It would be too humiliating if I believed he was dead and he was not.

Why not call his home and speak to him? If he doesn't answer, ask to speak to him. In the (apparently unlikely) event he is dead, you will be informed of it at that point. Not complicated.

Kerry (Backyard Professor) has not renewed his USCF membership in years. He only played in two tournaments. If he is still alive, he no longer is involved in chess.

Charlotte is his wife's name. Someone braver than me should call and see if he is still alive.

If KS is having a crisis of faith or died, divorced, or disappeared then who cares? Is it important to you? Maybe being a Mormon apologist is just too much weight to carry. Maybe there’re more important things to take on in ones spare time than aligning oneself with something that isn’t provable in the way the world requires. Faith is about ones personal efforts toward finding the truth of all things. If you know something then you know it. You can’t make someone else know it unless they have a desire to know it. Then and only then do interesting things begin to happen. The biggest suckers of all are those that require empirical evidence to support spiritual matters. If something physical supports something that one already knows to be true then wonderful. All the more blessed are they.

Gosh that was a fun read!! And when you read the Voluptuous words again, it gets even better!!

What's your favorite part?

Mine was, "All the more blessed are they" because of the implication that you can be blessed and then get all the more blessed! I immediately asked myself, 'just how tight should a cock ring be?' and I realized that it's not up to me to answer, not even for myself!!!

Even when he was making pro LDS apologetic videos, you couldn't help but really like the guy, despite him defending con man Smith. Hope he is doing great.

Ironically, when I was a TBM, I would often watch the professor on youtube because it helped so much the incredible cog dis that I as experiencing. Amazing that he flipped...but I shouldn't be surprised - he was probably fighting cog dis too. Very convincing though in his defense of the BOM, etc.

Just learned of him here and watched a few of his videos. He admitted he is a motor mouth and I agree with him. Likable and interesting but he takes too long to make his point for me. I got bored listening.

Felix, It depends on the topic I suppose.

If you are interested in the Council of the Gods.... there really aren't too many places to find discussions on that topic. And he's pulled together some great resources!

Things would be better for them if they just admitted all and reverted to being a cult like Scientology.


But they won't do that, will they?

charlotte shirts is his wife??? I checked her fb. I saw a lot of photos of Kerry posted within the last 2 weeks

Are Kerry and his wife divorced? I don't understand the reasoning. Why not fall his wife and ask to talk to Kerry. Whatever she say will probably resolve the questions be asked.

I miss Kerry. Even when he was on the wrong side of the Mormon issue he was a kick.

I am sure he and Mrs. Shirts are still dancing in the romance. His poor wife... must be like being married to a cartoon Tasmanian devil with a burr in his fur...

A shout out to Kerry if he reads this. An honest man seeking further light and knowledge. He's one of the good ones.

HH =)

Happy_Heretic Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I miss Kerry. Even when he was on the wrong side
> of the Mormon issue he was a kick.

ummmmmmmm you might consider expanding your entertainment/amusement horizons

The BYP has new YouTube videos online as recent as a few weeks. I think that reports of his death have been greatly exaggerated.

We all have work, and Kerry Shirts, put your shoulder to the wheel.

If you see this, Kerry, I watched your videos and enjoyed them.

Push along.

See Here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7CcjdeDD3w

HH =)