Dad was a big boy, a 13 pound baby at birth. The youngest of five children raised in the depression, from a broken family. He lived alone during most of his formative teen age years. He worked as a cowboy, and was fun loving, but not focused on his education.  He played football and basketball, had a lot of friends and that was his motivation to attend school. It showed in his grades. He was very resourceful, raising rabbits to eat, and worked at any job he could find to make money to provide for himself. He lived on his own since he was 13, and stayed home to wash his clothes one day a week. He took care of himself the best way he knew how.

After he married mom, he studied hard and got very good grades in college. It even surprised him. He was always a leader at six feet- three inches and a broad grin made him easy to love. Focused and determined to be a good provider, he successfully completed electronics trade school in Pocatello, Idaho. He knew he could advance and move up with more schooling in the FAA or Federal Aviation Administration.  He would go to computer and radar school most of his life. He did very well, usually in top of the class. He became well educated, was faithful in his callings, volunteered to serve many others, and was a loving husband and father.

When I was a little girl I remember Dad being asked to pray in Sacrament meeting. He could hardly get the words out. He had painfully long pauses, he was so very frightened. My mom and I were praying on the bench that the next word would come out and he could finish to the Amen. I am sure he broke out in a cold sweat!  We marvel at how he later learned to give a talk, teach a class, and bear his testimony so easily after knowing how he started out.

Mom’s influence and love really had a powerful impact on him. He was baptized as a child, but never was active in the Church. He said he leaned on Mom’s and my testimony and was content because he knew we knew it was true.  He later gained a powerful testimony, it stuck, and he moved forward. He had made a commitment to mom to take her to the temple. The Lord prepared him not to go along on her testimony, but to have his own testimony of the Savior and to know that the church was true.  He never looked back. 

We both developed a passion for genealogy. He and I proceeded to collect information and he would enter it into the computer.  He became a volunteer at the family history center when they were first transferring the program to computer from microfiche and microfilm.  He was determined to collect every name in his family and take it to the temple to have their work done. He loved the gospel and being an eternal family and he wanted everyone to have the same joy.

He was a man who was completely baffled by spelling, which is why he hardly ever composed an email. But he loved all of the family correspondence and global Internet information.  He loved to learn. He loved to read. He loved to improve. Once he believed something was right he never faltered and did all in his power to lock onto the path and to be a better man, a better husband, and better father.  Mom said he would always be open to change. That is the trait of humility. He was teachable and was without guile. He would sincerely try to see your side and not judge, he was unconditionally loving.  No matter what I shared he tried to be accepting, even though he might not have agreed. He loved me and all our family regardless and we all knew it.  That is true charity.  He loved us as Christ would. If he could help, he did.  He was a man of few words and his actions spoke his mind and heart.