Roger W. Nielsen was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, and raised in Idaho Falls, Idaho, with eight brothers and two sisters. At age 16 his parents moved the family to Gering, Nebraska. Following high school graduation he attended Scottsbluff Western College before being called by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to a two-year mission in Southern Argentina.

Upon his return he married Carolyn Ririe while both were attending Brigham Young University. In 1973 he received a Bachelor of Arts degree and joined a trade magazine publishing company in Idaho Falls, Idaho. In 1975 he founded Tarmigan Publishing in Bozeman, Montana. When the company failed in 1978, he joined the editorial staff of Harcourt, Brace, Javonovich’s magazine division in Columbus, Ohio. Two years later he joined the editorial staff of Farm Journal magazine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Five years later he founded R.W. Nielsen Company, an award-winning magazine publishing firm in Kansas City, Missouri. In 2002 he and his wife, author Carolyn Ririe Nielsen, lived and worked in Bolivia for 18 months as humanitarian missionaries for the LDS church.

Nielsen is the author of five books, including “Writing Content, Mastering Magazine and Online Writing,” “One-Mission Man, An American POW’s Struggle to Survive Hitler’s Nazi Prison Camp,”and “Big Group Games, Games and Activities for Large Youth Groups.”

The father of five children and grandfather of 15 grandchildren, Nielsen currently resides in Idaho Falls, Idaho, with his wife.