"[8] In addition to his mission, Jessee has served in his local Salt Lake City congregation as a home teacher[9] and counselor of the high priest group,[10] as well as a stake family history coordinator.
[12] Jessee's younger brother Donald served in the LDS Church as president of the Oregon Portland Mission[13] and as a Regional Representative.
[15] Arrington later recalled that at the time Jessee was "Intelligent, well-informed, hardworking, and modest," and that "he knew more about the documents of LDS history than any other person.
[18] Jessee was also assigned by Arrington to locate, collect and transcribe all of Joseph Smith Jr.'s writings, a work inspired by the Thomas Jefferson Papers of the 1950s and those of other Founding Fathers.
[19] Jessee was considered the preeminent expert on early Mormon handwriting, especially Joseph Smith's, and he authenticated and defended a number of Hofmann's forgeries,[20][21][22] including the famous "Salamander Letter".
[23] Hofmann's extensive deception of document and forgery experts led him to be called "unquestionably the most skilled forger this country has ever seen".
[24] Jessee served as a research historian in the church's Historical Department until 1981, when he was transferred to the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History at Brigham Young University (BYU).