William Lawrence Love, 3/22/1940 – 12/16/2024 (84 yrs old) By Corey Love, 3rd oldest child.

  As Jessie was putting together the program for today, she asked each of my siblings who they thought should speak today. It was unanimous – they all said, “anyone but Corey.” Well, apparently Jessie only heard Corey, so here I am. First, though, a few highlights of my dad’s life: William Lawrence Love (Larry) was born on 22 March 1940 to Chester Howard Love and Ruth Maree Kisner. He was 2nd of 4 children. His brother, Gordon, was only a year older than Larry and he looked up to him his whole life. He had 2 little sisters, Sue who was 9 years younger and Jan, who was 11 years younger. He attended Olympus High School and had a group of friends who truly helped shape his life. He served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Australia from 1960-1962 and returned home and attended the U of U for a short time before repenting and going to BYU, where he graduated in Physical Education with a Minor in German. Over the next almost 60 years, he had 8 children, 3 adopted children and 5 step children. In addition to those who called him Dad, there were many who looked up to him as a father figure. He has 41 grandchildren and 31 great grandchildren, with more on the way. As I’ve agonized over what to say this week, I quickly realized that there was no way to summarize my Dad’s life of 84 years in 10-15 minutes. So, I elicited help from Larry’s children and grandchildren. Many have shared a favorite memory, a cherished experience or something that my Dad taught them. I’d like to share some of them today. There were 2 things my Dad truly loved to avoid – any confrontation and being in the spotlight. I can understand not wanting confrontation, but not wanting to be in the spotlight seemed ironic to me, because he excelled whenever he found himself in the spotlight. The scriptures teach that there are many spiritual gifts, and some are given certain gifts, whiles others receive different gifts. It seems that my dad was blessed with them all. Nic said it best, I think, when she wrote, “When I was little I thought my dad could do anything. Then when I grew up, I realized that it was true – he could do anything.” I want to share with you what some of his gifts were: He was an excellent skier. He taught us to ski when we were really young. Eric, Nic and I remember him skiing backwards in front of us as we learned to ski. I think people around us were amazed at these little kids flying down the mountain with no poles. When we slowed down on a level straight-away, he would come up behind us and push us through to the down hill portion. Nic’s favorite memory of skiing with dad was going up the ski lift with him when her hands were frozen. Dad would take off his big gloves and put them on her hands and they felt like a heater on her hands. Later in life, his ski trips turned into opportunities to talk and teach and connect with people. Marianne shared this: “I will always cherish our weekday ski trips. We spent hours riding the lifts together in awe of the beauty and quiet around us”. Aaron shared this: “One of the meany memorable experiences I had with my dad was when Corey, Zac and I took him skiing at Alta when he was almost 81 years old. Even with a bad back, it was incredible to see him gliding down the mountain with the greatest of ease. I could only imagine how good he was in his prime.” Another gift – he loved the outdoors. He grew up camping, fishing, hiking and climbing. He especially loved rock climbing and was very good at it. He even showed us in a climbing book one time that there was a climbing route named after him and Ted Wilson. Eric gained his love for climbing from our dad and spent several years as a young man climbing all over the state. He loved taking his kids to hike to Lake Blanch. We went every summer for years. On one of these trips, he took his pocketknife and carved each of our initials in the tree – we called it the Love Tree. We would look for it every year afterward until we found it. It was fun to see the changes in it every year. Another gift – he was an amazing athlete. His best sports were golf and basketball, but he could excel at any sport. Take him bowling and he’d score in the high 200’s. Put him at a ping pong table or tennis court, or a pool table and you couldn’t beat him. He loved playing ping pong against us and would even let us win. I remember him shooting free throws in the backyard with his eyes closed and still making the shot. I love the story Mason shared: “At my graduation party at the Kearns Rec Center, Pops was one of the chaperones. He challenged me to a game of Horse, and of course he beat me. I got my friends to join me from the high school basketball team, and they couldn’t beat him either – 5 games in a row.” Many of his grandkids shared similar memories of watching their grandpa shoot a basketball with one hand and making every shot. Another gift: he was an excellent musician and singer. He loved blue-grass music and listening to Earl Scruggs and even copied his 3-finger banjo picking style. My favorite songs to hear him play eres Foggy Mountain Breakdown and Dueling Banjos. A fond memory most of us share was our Dad with his banjo at every one of our birthday parties growing up. There must have been 20 cousins and friends sitting around in front of him listening to him play and sing Aby-yoyo. He loved the church hymns and would sing them all time. One of his favorite hymns was, “High On the Mountain Top” and I must have heard him sing that a thousand times. And he could yodel! Jenny mentioned that he was always whistling – everywhere he went, and it was always a happy sound. Another gift – he loved to read. His favorite book when we were young was The Hobbit. Eric and Nic remember him reading it to them when they were in grade school. They both gained a love for reading because of those moments. We loved when he would make up stories to tell us. Nobody tells a story like our dad could. He would make up names and places, but we were always in the stories he told. We would often find ourselves in danger in those stories, but Raz pa taz pa taz would give us a pill that would make us invisible, so we always survived. Another gift – golf. He learned to golf by working as a caddie during the summers. He would caddie for the best golfers around and he would learn from watching them and asking them questions. He never took a golf lesson, but his swing was as smooth as any you’ve ever seen. Many shared memories of going to a park or school with dad, and he’d take a bucket of golf balls and his 9 iron or wedge. He’d pick something to aim for 100 yards out and hit ball after ball right at it. Heidi shared this, “I’m a sports fan just like dad, and we got to spend a day together at a Senior Pro Golf tournament. We got to see Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus among others. Dad was in heaven. We had the best day together, walking all day following all the players. It was more than 20 years ago, and I will never forget it.” Another gift – he loved seeing his children excel. Zac and Aaron both remember dad at their basketball games taking stats. He would record every shot, make, miss, free throw, steal, block, rebound and turnover. He created his own stat sheet and had one for every game. Aaron shared this, “I loved when my dad came to my games – I don’t remember him missing many of them from 4th grade up until high school and beyond – even recreational games after my mission. He would let me know he was there and supporting me by shouting out encouraging words and addressing me by an endearing nickname that only he called me. I don’t know where he came up with the nickname, but every time I heard “Let’s go McGee!!” I knew my dad was there and it gave me a boost of energy and extra focus.” Even while stuck mostly at home an often in bed – he would watch Jaiden and Taylor play college basketball. He loved watching Tim or Alessia perform in musicals. He loved hearing his grandchildren sing or play any sport. He had many other talents and gifts that I haven’t even had time to mention. He could knit! He made sweaters and other items of clothing. He was a skilled carpenter – self-taught. He helped Kobi, Eric and I finish our basements in our homes. His yard in the West Jordan home was the nicest in the neighborhood. He was an artist with excellent handwriting. He took broken pieces of 1X8 boards, stained them and painted, free-hand ,his favorite scriptures or quotes from prophets on them and gave them away. One that we remember hanging in our own house was one that had one of his favorite Bible scriptures, 3 John 1:4 “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” He had all our pictures hanging around it. He could memorize anything. His mission companions thought he had the whole Book of Mormon memorized because he seemed to know every verse and its reference. He tried teaching us how to use word association to memorize. He helped us memorize all 50 states in alphabetical order then would come to our school class and demonstrate by having us recite the states. He could imitate Donald Duck perfectly – the grandkids loved hearing him do that! Hearing all this, you might think my Dad is perfect. But he wasn’t. He made mistakes, like we all do. I mentioned earlier how he would do anything to avoid confrontation. Sometimes that would lead to a lack of communication. It was hard at times to know what he was actually feeling or thinking. Sometimes his mistakes affected others and sometimes his mistakes lingered with him. However, one of the most important gifts he was blessed with though, was his constant love for and faith in His Savior. No matter what was happening in his life, he never wavered in his testimony. He knew the Atonement was real because he felt it work in his own life. Many of you shared with me that what you learned from him was a love for the Gospel and the scriptures. While it is sad for those of us who knew and loved my Dad to lose him, I am even more sad for those who didn’t. Many of his grandchildren and most of his great grandchildren will never get to see him swing a golf club, shoot a free throw with his eyes closed and make it, walk around the whole house and even go up and down the stairs - on his hands, glide down a ski slope in perfect form, or hear him play the banjo, sing a song, yodel, hear him tell a story with made up characters, hear him recite scripture passages from memory, hear his Donald Duck impersonation, see him scale a rock wall with ease, hear him laugh, or hear him tell them he loves them. Nic said it best in her memories: His legacy lives on in his children, grandchildren and even great grandchildren. There are gifted athletes, great artists, amazing musicians, beautiful singers and Christlike individuals in his family. He has helped shape many lives for the good. Jessie shared with us yesterday that my Dad kept a copy of the Primary song, “If the Savior Stood Beside Me” on his nightstand and read it often. In a perfect world, we would now get to hear Alessia, Tim and Zac sing it for us, or better yet my Dad.But let me read some of the words to the song: Read from Primary Song A few of us had the opportunity to be with my dad the day before he passed away. We spent about an hour chatting with him, laughing with him and feeling peace with him. He told us he was ready to go. He mentioned how much he was looking forward to seeing his brother Gordon again – that he had left this world too young. I know Gordon was there to greet him, along with his granddaughter, Jaimie, who also left this world far tool young. I challenge us all to strive to live as though the Savior were standing beside us. I know my dad tried to and succeeded far more often than not. We love you, Dad. I love you, Dad. Love, Your Kids, Grandkids and Great-grandkids