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SALT LAKE CITY -- Hugh Nibley, an outspoken Mormon historian, professor and defender of the faith, died Thursday at 94.

Nibley, who according to a family spokesman died of natural causes after being bedridden for the last two years, was widely known in the Mormon world for his teachings and writings, but his legacy became clouded recently when one of his children accused him of molesting her as a child.

Martha Beck made the allegations in a book due in stores next month called ''Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith.'' She said memories of the abuse were recovered in therapy sessions.

She confronted her father four years ago, and he denied her accusations, said Beck, a columnist for Oprah Winfrey's O magazine.

''My sister just told me one of the last things he said was, 'I just loved Martha so much, she was my favorite,''' Beck told The Associated Press on Thursday from her Phoenix home.

''He was my favorite, too, and that's why I've done everything I've done,'' she said, through tears.

''I didn't do this to harm anyone. I wanted us all to heal,'' she said. ''I just want everyone to know that I love my father very much.''

Family members, however, have denounced Beck's claims against their father.

''We are saddened by the book's countless errors, falsehoods, contradictions and gross distortions,'' Nibley's seven other children said in a statement this week.

Nibley was a professor at Brigham Young University. His writings were marked by ''brilliance, unbelievable erudition,'' said Daniel Peterson, a BYU professor.

In his work as a defender of Mormon doctrine, he made critical observations of the church and its faithful that, if they had been said by an outsider, would have made people angry, Peterson said.

''He was a real critic of materialism and greed, and social status,'' Peterson said. ''And on more than one occasion, he rebuked church members for doing that when they shouldn't.''

Peterson added: ''He was not only a scholar, but something of a social gadfly, very outspoken.''

Born March 27, 1910, in Portland, Ore., he earned his bachelor's degree in history at UCLA in 1934, and his doctorate at the University of California-Berkeley.

Following his service in World War II, when he said he spent every spare moment reading the Book of Mormon, he began teaching at BYU in 1946. He officially retired in 1975, but continued teaching through 1994.