Here are 87 notable Utahns who died in 2024

They served in public office as legislators, judges, an ambassador, a U.S. congressman, the state’s attorney general and the mayor of Utah’s biggest city.

They built businesses in trucking, playground equipment and software. One made motorcycles. Another crafted wooden toy cars to give to children around the world.

They worked in the law, putting criminals behind bars. Two were barely out of the police academy when they died, too young.

They were scientists and scholars. They were leaders in their faiths.

They were artists, expressing themselves in music, painting, dance, theater and sculpture. They promoted the classics — whether Greek plays, silent movies or vinyl records — and new creative work.

They wrote about history, faith and the environment. One wrote about television, delighting the readers of Utah’s two largest newspapers.

Two were little known outside their small circles when they were alive — but their deaths, and the way their family and friends reacted, made them well-known in Utah and across the country.

These 80 people, and seven animals, were notable Utahns who died in 2024. The people ranged from age 20 to 105, and they affected the lives of other Utahns in ways large and small — so we take the time and space here to remember them and what they left to us.

Bené Arnold • As Ballet West’s first ballet mistress, Arnold worked closely with founder Willam Christensen to develop dancers in the company’s early days. She also taught for years in the University of Utah’s dance department, trained young dancers for Ballet West’s production of “The Nutcracker,” and in her later years danced “character” roles such as the evil sorceress Carabosse in “Sleeping Beauty.” Arnold died Jan. 25 at age 88.

Frank Arnold • An Ogden native, Arnold coached the Brigham Young University men’s basketball team from 1975 to 1983 — and, in 1981, took the Cougars, led by eventual NBA star (and current Utah Jazz executive) Danny Ainge, to the school’s only appearance in the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament. Arnold died June 8 at age 89.

Mark Atkinson • A legendary racer and machinist whose motto was “Ride Fast, Safety Last,” Atkinson was a veteran of the Bonneville Salt Flats and, in his shop in Mount Pleasant, designed and built two high-performance motorcycles, the “BMW Alpha” and the electric “Racer-X,” that are enshrined in the Haas Moto Museum in Dallas. Atkinson died May 6 at age 57 after a motorcycle accident in which he took a knock to the head, which led to a fall in his shop two days later.

Dorothy Bale • After her husband, a retired dentist, died in his 60s, Dorothy Bale in 1994 applied for a job at the Arby’s in Millcreek, near the border with Holladay. She worked there for nearly 26 years — her 25th anniversary in January 2019 made national headlines — until health issues forced her to quit in December 2019 at age 95. Bale died Oct. 16 at age 100.

Peggy Boss Barney • Over a three-decade career in journalism, Barney did most of her work behind the scenes — in editor positions at Ogden’s Standard-Examiner from 1984 to 1995 and from 1995 to 2013 as a copy editor and night webmaster at The Salt Lake Tribune. Barney died Oct. 3 at age 66 in a Bountiful hospital after a long illness, her family said.

Shannon Barnson • A larger-than-life figure in Utah’s fandom communities, Barnson — who lobbied for and was voted “Worst Utahn” by Salt Lake City Weekly readers in 2013 — was a charter panelist and resident “wild card” on the “Geek Show Podcast,” bartender and concert booker at the now-defunct Burt’s Tiki Lounge, and co-emcee of a popular pub trivia game that moved from Burt’s to Lucky 13 to Keys on Main over the past 13 years. Barnson died July 2 at age 52 in his sleep, according to friends.

Bruce Bastian • As a computer science grad student at BYU, Bastian teamed with his professor, Alan Ashton, in 1979 to start the word processing software company WordPerfect — which became the fourth largest software maker by 1990, making both men rich. Bastian became a noted LGBTQ+ advocate, and channeled his fortune into the B.W. Bastian Foundation, supporting nonprofits in Utah’s art and LGBTQ+ communities (and, full disclosure, The Salt Lake Tribune). Bastian died June 16 at age 76 from pulmonary fibrosis.

Peter Billings • A lawyer for 45 years with the Salt Lake City firm Fabian & Clendenin (later Fabian VanCott) and the firm’s president for 25, Billings chaired the Utah Democratic Party from 1989 to 1993, and served stints on the state’s liquor commission and the Utah Transit Authority board. Billings died June 29 at age 79 from prostate cancer.

Justin Bingham • The CEO and co-founder of the Lindon-based software company Opiniion, Bingham was an “eternal optimist,” the firm’s other co-founder, Devin Shurtleff, said in a statement. Bingham was also an adventurer who had summited Mount Rainier and the Tetons, among other pursuits. Bingham died Oct. 5 at age 40 after falling 200 feet in a canyoneering accident at Zion National Park.

Kent Briggs • After serving as chief of staff to Utah’s past two Democratic governors, Cal Rampton and Scott Matheson, Briggs founded a Denver-based think tank, the Center for the New West, and served 15 years as executive director of the nonpartisan Council of State Governments — becoming a national expert on Western states’ public policy. Briggs died April 19 at age 82 from complications of Alzheimer’s disease.

Kevin Brophy • The Salt Lake City-born actor was known for playing the lead role in the short-lived 1977-78 TV series “Lucan” and the sadistic fraternity leader in the 1981 cult horror film “Hell Night.” Brophy died May 11 at age 70 at his home in California.

Dave Buhler • A prominent Republican politician respected by both parties, Buhler served in the Utah Senate (1995-1999) and the Salt Lake City Council (2000-2007), as well as four years as director of the Utah Department of Commerce, a stint on Gov. Norm Bangerter’s staff, and as commissioner of higher education from 2010 to 2017. Buhler died July 16 at age 67 from natural causes, his family said.

Sue Buys • Buys and her husband, Richard, became owners of four small weekly newspapers in 1974 — The Wasatch Wave in Heber, the Summit County Bee, The Payson Chronicle and The Park Record in Park City. They eventually sold the Chronicle and The Park Record, but their family continues to operate The Wasatch Wave and a related printing business. Buys died Nov. 4 at age 79 from pancreatic cancer.

Chris Cannon • A staunch conservative, Cannon represented Utah’s 3rd District in the U.S. House for five terms, from 1997 to 2009. He was one of the House members to argue, unsuccessfully, for President Bill Clinton’s conviction at his 1998 U.S. Senate impeachment trial. He was known for his expertise in technology policy in the nascent days of the internet. Before his House stint, Cannon and brother Joe launched Geneva Steel in the mid-1980s; it closed in 2001. Cannon died May 8 at age 73.

Richard Carling • Carling served 23 years in the Utah Legislature starting in 1967 and is credited with helping launch the Utah Highway Patrol Honorary Colonels Association, a support organization for the state’s law enforcement agency. After a health scare at age 39 on the floor of the Utah Senate, Carling took up long-distance running — and eventually ran in 175 marathons, including the Boston Marathon 39 times, the St. George Marathon 45 times and the Deseret News Marathon 40 times. Carling died April 30 at age 86, his family confirmed.

Morrie Carlson • As part of a 45-year career in broadcasting that took him to Cincinnati and Detroit, Carlson hosted a radio show on Salt Lake City’s KSL for three hours every weekday from 1979 to 1989. Carlson died April 29 at age 87 in his Salt Lake City home.

R. Don Cash • From 1985 to his retirement in 2005, Cash was president and CEO of Questar Corp., Utah’s natural gas utility (later called Dominion Energy and, as of this year, Enbridge Gas). Cash also sat on many corporate boards, including as a trustee for the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, which staged the 2002 Winter Olympics. Cash died Aug. 25 at age 82 in Lubbock, Texas, where he bought a ranch when he retired.

Chimeegui • A male snow leopard born at Utah’s Hogle Zoo in 2012, Chimeegui (chim-a-gwee) in June sired two healthy cubs with Babs, a 4-year-old brought to Utah from Toledo, Ohio, as part of a species survival plan. (The cubs, Pavlova and Bhutan, were introduced to visitors in October.) Chimeegui was humanely euthanized Aug. 17 at age 12 after an illness.

Frances Darger • Darger played violin with the Utah Symphony for seven decades, starting in 1942 and retiring in 2012, as the organization went from a part-time orchestra to a fully professional one. (She skipped a year, when she and her sisters tried for Hollywood fame.) Darger died July 30 at age 99 of natural causes.

Gerald “Skip” Daynes • Running his family’s Salt Lake City business, Daynes Music, Daynes built the company into the largest dealer of Steinway pianos west of New York. He also was a strong supporter of the Utah Symphony, Utah Opera, the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, Ballet West, the Moab Music Festival and the University of Utah School of Music — which, because of him, is fully equipped with Steinways. Daynes died June 28 at age 85.

Stephen G. Denkers • A member by marriage of the prominent Eccles family, Denkers made a career at the family business, First Security Bank, for more than two decades, retiring in 1980. He was deeply involved in Utah philanthropy, as a founding member of the Willard L. Eccles Foundation (named for his father-in-law) and the Stephen G. and Susan E. Denkers Family Foundation. Denkers died July 16 at age 89 in Ogden.

Erika Diarte-Carr • Diarte-Carr, a single mom in Ogden, made national headlines when, after she was diagnosed with a rare lung cancer, she launched a GoFundMe campaign in September to raise $5,000 for her funeral and to support her two children, ages 5 and 7. The campaign went viral and raised more than $1.2 million. Diarte-Carr died Oct. 11 at age 30, her family reported on Facebook.

Mike Dmitrich • Representing Price in the Utah Legislature for 40 years, Dmitrich served as minority leader in the House and Senate, and was praised for his ability to work across party lines. He was the last Democrat south of Salt Lake County to be elected to the Legislature. When he retired in 2008, his fellow lawmakers renamed state Highway 6 in his honor. Dmitrich died Sept. 30 at age 87.

Gene England • England and his brother, Bill, led the Utah trucking company their father, C.R. England, started in 1920 — and grew the company from the 1960s to the 1990s, while advocating for truck drivers and the industry, before passing the company down to their children and now grandchildren. Gene England died Nov. 13 at age 105 in Salt Lake City.

Steve Foote • As South Salt Lake’s fire chief from 1998 to 2011, Foote oversaw the department’s growth, including the building of a third fire station. During his tenure, the department also handled its only six-alarm fire in 2004 and a chemical leak in 2005 that took two weeks to clean up. Foote died Dec. 9 at age 64 from an infection he suffered on a trip to Canada.

Carol Foster • Foster, a national expert in pediatric endocrinology, spent the last 16 years of her 44-year medical career in Salt Lake City, as a tenured professor at the University of Utah and caring for patients at three area hospitals before her retirement in 2021. Foster died June 22 at age 71 from a malignant brain tumor.

Ed Fraughton • The Utah sculptor specialized in figures of the American West, starting with a series of historical portraits for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1967, as well as works commemorating the Mormon Battalion — one of which, a 12-foot bronze of a soldier, stands at the highest point of San Diego’s Presidio Park. His works in Salt Lake City include an 8-foot bronze of Parley Pratt in Sugar House and a bust of Margaret Thatcher in the International Peace Gardens in Jordan Park. Fraughton died June 2 at age 85 of a rare blood cancer.

David Gardner • From 1973 to 1983, Gardner served as the 10th president of the University of Utah, and is credited with raising academic standards and boosting the U.’s status as a research institution. He also chaired a U.S. Department of Education commission that wrote the landmark 1983 report “A Nation at Risk,” launching a national effort to reform public schools. Gardner, for whom the U.’s Gardner Hall is named, died Jan. 2 at age 90 at his home in Park City.

Ken Gardner • A star for the University of Utah basketball team in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Gardner remains one of only four players in school history to average more than 10 points and 10 rebounds per game. After playing professionally in France and on the Utah Stars for its final season in 1976, he launched into a career at Delta Air Lines. In 2020, at age 71, Gardner — after surviving colon cancer and a heart transplant (the donor was a BYU football player) — was told to leave his home after falling three days behind on rent in a case that spotlighted the deficiencies of a COVID-19-era moratorium on evictions. Gardner died May 16 at age 74 at home.

George • One of Hogle Zoo’s longest residents, George was one of the oldest southern white rhinos in human care, zoo officials said. He had been slowing down in his older years and was diagnosed with cancer in his rear left leg in early 2024. In November, the zoo’s health team discovered new masses in the back half of his body. George was humanely euthanized Dec. 18, at age 48.

Jan Graham • The only woman ever to be elected to statewide office in Utah on her own, Graham served two terms as attorney general from 1993 to 2001, leading the state’s efforts to sue tobacco companies, advocating for domestic violence resources and expanding the state’s Children’s Justice Centers. Graham was the last Democrat elected to statewide office, and the last Utah A.G. not to leave office under a cloud of scandal. Graham died Jan. 29 at age 74 from ovarian cancer.

E. Hunter Hale • A filmmaker since childhood, Hale for decades programmed silent films at the Organ Loft in South Salt Lake — where movie buffs enjoyed the works of Chaplin, Keaton and more, with live accompaniment on the mighty Wurlitzer organ. Among Hale’s accomplishments was overseeing a DVD release of the 1923 cult film “Trapped by the Mormons.” Hale died Sept. 22, at age 86, from complications from liver cancer.

Michael Harp • A second-generation firefighter, Harp served for 27 years in the Salt Lake City Fire Department, rising to the rank of captain. He was a member of Utah Task Force 1, part of a national response network called to assist where emergencies happen; notably, he was deployed to ground zero in New York after the 9/11 attacks. Harp died June 27 at age 54 in a rafting accident during a private permitted trip on the Green River in the Colorado side of Dinosaur National Monument.

Richard Hendrickson • Hendrickson was president and CEO of Lifetime Products, a Clearfield-based company that makes outdoor furniture and playground equipment, sheds and sporting goods. Hendrickson died July 6 at age 57 in a car accident in Ogden Canyon, when a bulldozer slipped off a tow truck and hit his family’s SUV; his daughter, Sally, was also killed in the accident.

Cliff Hokanson • As owner and executive vice president of Ogden-based HHI Corp., founded by his father, Hokanson oversaw a defense contractor that performed construction work and manufacturing for Hill Air Force Base, Dugway Proving Ground and other military facilities. Hokanson died July 6 at age 53 from injuries suffered in an ATV accident in Spanish Fork Canyon.

Marilyn Holt • An icon in Utah’s theater scene, Holt acted in 120 theater productions, directed 30, appeared in movies, and was a faculty member at the University of Utah theater department for 30 years — including nine as its chair. Holt died Feb. 24 at age 96 in Salt Lake City from dementia and age, her family reported.

Taberon Honie • Honie was convicted in the brutal 1998 killing of Claudia Benn, his ex-girlfriend’s mother — and spent 25 years on Utah’s death row. Honie was executed by lethal injection Aug 8 at age 48 in the Utah State Correctional Facility, the first person in Utah in 14 years to receive the death penalty.

Topher Horman • In 2007, Horman launched the Fear No Film Festival — a short-film competition and curated screening series held in June as part of the Utah Arts Festival — and was its director through 2019. He also was a video editor and creative producer for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and spearheaded the EVE WinterFest in the Salt Palace on New Year’s Eve from 2010 to 2017. Horman died May 11 at age 52 in Los Angeles, where he had lived since January 2024.

Clay Hughes • A name synonymous with boxing in southern Utah, Hughes trained many young fighters and oversaw the sport at the Washington County Fair, on whose board he served for 39 years. The Southern Utah Boxing Club that he ran was to be renamed in his honor, FOX 13 reported. Hughes died Nov. 19 at age 63.

Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye • A scholar of global religions, Inouye found parallels between other faiths and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in which she was raised in California. The marathon-running writer and historian also movingly discussed her faith in the face of a colon cancer diagnosis she received when she was 37. Inouye died April 23 at age 44 of cancer.

JoAnn Barney Ipson • A fixture in southern Utah’s trucking industry, Ipson was operations manager and director of payroll for DATS Trucking and Overland Petroleum in St. George for more than 30 years. She also was married for 59 years to Don Ipson, a Utah state senator. JoAnn Ipson died Nov. 27 at age 77 in Washington, Utah, after a long illness.

Glenn Iwasaki • In 1992, Iwasaki was the second minority judge appointed to Utah’s 3rd District Court, a post he held until his retirement in 2011. The Utah State Bar named him “Judge of the Year” in 2008. He also taught as an adjunct professor at his alma mater, the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney School of Law. Iwasaki died Nov. 6 at age 78.

Patricia Johanson • The New York artist was famous for ambitious projects that incorporated the environment around them — including “The Draw at Sugar House,” begun in 2003, which turned a walkway under an eight-lane highway in Salt Lake City’s Sugar House neighborhood into a miniature canyon and linked to a 30-foot “Sego Lily” sculptural dam. Johanson died Oct. 16 at age 84 at her home in Buskirk, N.Y.

K9 Bruce • A bloodhound with the Salt Lake City police, K9 Bruce and his handler were responsible for 31 captures of violent offenders, fugitives and missing persons, according to SLCPD. K9 Bruce died March 17 at age 3 from a medical condition previously unknown to his handler or the department.

Ardeth Greene Kapp • As president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Young Women from 1978 to 1992, Kapp established many of the lesson plans that teenage girls in the church used for decades — and though she never had children, she “mothered” hundreds of thousands of girls in her charge. Kapp died March 30 at age 93.

Steve Klauke • For three decades, until his retirement in September 2023, Klauke was “the voice of the Bees,” delivering unflappable play-by-play broadcasts of every strikeout and base hit of Salt Lake City’s minor league baseball team. Klauke also called games for the Utah Jazz and Weber State University’s teams. Klauke died June 11 at age 69 after being hit by a car while on a walk.

Tom Korologos • A reporter for The Salt Lake Tribune (where he’s credited with coining the phrase “The Greatest Snow on Earth” to describe Utah ski conditions) and other papers in the late 1950s and early ′60s, Korologos entered the political sphere in 1962 as Utah Sen. Wallace F. Bennett’s chief of staff, a position he held for nine years. He followed that with White House jobs under Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, leading a Washington lobbying firm he co-founded, helping Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush with Senate confirmations, aiding U.S. efforts in Iraq in 2003, and serving from 2004 to 2007 as the U.S. ambassador to Belgium. Korologos died July 26 at age 91 from heart complications at his home in the nation’s capital.

Dennis Lund • A fixture in Kanab’s “Little Hollywood,” Lund went from working as a bellhop at the Parry Lodge in the 1950s to working on movie sets during Kanab’s “Golden Age of Movies” — as an extra, a set driver, a location manager and even (in the movie “Rough Night in Jericho”) a stunt double for Dean Martin. He also for many years owned and operated Denny’s Wigwam, a curio shop that looked like an old-time Western movie set. Lund died Oct. 25 at age 81.

Emaloni Takitoa Lutui • A Salt Lake County sheriff’s deputy just 18 days out of the academy, Lutui “bravely sacrificed his life,” the department said, when he saved a woman after they both fell through the ice at Settlement Canyon Reservoir in Tooele County. Lutui died Jan. 29 at age 20.

Dolly Makoff • A fixture of Park City’s growth era, Makoff opened a bookstore, named Dolly’s, in 1973 and sold it in 1984. It has maintained her name and its status as a landmark on Old Main Street ever since. Makoff also was instrumental in launching a literary gathering that evolved into the Writers at Work Conference. Makoff died June 12 at age 93 of cancer.

Marbella Martinez • After graduating from the police academy, Martinez was sworn in as a deputy for the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office in January 2024, working as a corrections officer. Tooele police say Martinez was killed July 31 at age 25, and her body was found in her Tooele home the next day; her father, who fled the country, has been charged with slaying and stalking, it was reported on Sept. 7.

Karen Mayne • A Democrat representing the Salt Lake Valley’s west side in the Utah Senate for 15 years, Mayne championed blue-collar workers and union representation. (She was a member of the American Federation of Teachers.) Mayne, who succeeded her late husband, Ed, in the Senate, retired from her Capitol Hill post in January 2023 when her cancer diagnosis worsened. She died Aug 15 at age 78.

Gerri Meyer • With her husband, Darrell (who died in 2023), Gerri Meyer in 1965 founded the Hanging Room Gallery in Park City, later renamed the Meyer Gallery on Old Main Street. It has been owned since 1997 by their daughter, Susan, and specializes in work by artists of the Intermountain West. Meyer also helped launch an art show in 1963 in the “Blue Church,” which six years later was moved outdoors and became the first edition of what’s now the Park City Kimball Arts Festival. Meyer died April 16 at age 84.

Richard Murray • The Salt Lake City-born artist was best known for his much-collected paintings of animals — domestic and wild — combining a sharp eye for detail and proportion with an impressionistic style. Murray died May 14 at age 75 at his home in Richland, Oregon, where he had lived since 2002.

Ted Nagata • Nagata, who as a child during World War II was incarcerated with his family at the Topaz internment camp, became an acclaimed graphic designer in Utah, designing logos for Salt Lake County, Ken Garff Automotive, the 2002 Winter Olympics bid and, most famously, the blue-and-green wing icon that has represented Snowbird Ski Resort for decades. Nagata died July 24 at age 88.

David K. Nelson • Called an “unsung hero” of Utah’s LGBTQ+ community, Nelson — the founder of Gay and Lesbian Utah Democrats — is credited with writing some of the state’s first hate-crimes legislation and the first anti-discrimination ordinance of its kind in Utah (passed in Salt Lake County in 1992). Nelson died June 11 at age 62 in Salt Lake City, of Lewy body dysmorphia.

Ralph Okerlund • In a 40-year political career, Okerlund rose from Monroe’s City Council to its mayor, followed by three terms on Sevier County Commission, then being elected to the Utah State Senate in 2008 — a seat he held until retiring in 2020, when he was majority leader. Okerlund died Oct. 10 at age 72.

1K • The first wild-fledged California condor in Zion National Park, the bird — nicknamed “1k” because he was the 1,000th to hatch in the history of the California Condor Recovery Program since it started in 1982 — was a fan favorite and a symbol of the success of bringing back the endangered species. The bird, found dead in a juniper tree, is believed to have died in March, just short of his fifth birthday. A necropsy showed that 1K died from lead poisoning, an official for The Peregrine Fund announced in August.

Douglas D. Palmer • For 40 years, from the early 1960s to 2000, Palmer was a reporter and editor for the Deseret News and the Church News. Palmer, a longtime Draper resident, died Aug. 26 at age 89 in Colorado Springs.

Petenka • The second-oldest Pallas’ cat in captivity, Petenka was brought to Utah’s Hogle Zoo in 2015 as part of a breeding program to perpetuate the endangered Mongolian species. He bred with Hal (pronounced “ha-roo”), the zoo’s female Pallas’ cat, producing two litters of five kittens each. Petenka died Sept. 8 at age 13 after experiencing seizures.

Ane Grethe Ballif Peterson • In 1974, Peterson co-founded Exponent II, a scholarly journal examining the intersection of feminism and the Latter-day Saint faith. She directed the University of Utah’s Tanner Lectures on Human Values for 17 years (her husband, Chase Peterson, was the university’s president part of that time), established the Children’s Justice Center program and helped raise money to keep glass artist Dale Chihuly’s “Olympic Tower” permanently in the lobby of Abravanel Hall. Peterson died April 15 at age 92 in Salt Lake City.

Denis Phillips • A fixture of Utah’s visual art scene for more than 60 years, Phillips was a prolific and versatile painter adept in landscapes and abstracts — and, with his wife, Bonnie, owned and operated Salt Lake City’s Phillips Gallery, which has showcased and nurtured generations of Utah artists. Phillips died Feb. 21 at age 85, according to the gallery.

Scott D. Pierce • For 34 years, from 1990 until the week he died, Pierce wrote about television — first for the Deseret News, and for the past 14 years at The Salt Lake Tribune — informing readers about entertaining shows and talking about the serious issues even reality shows could cover. He also wrote general features and early morning breaking news, all in concise and conversational language, while mentoring young reporters. Pierce died May 24 at age 64.

Pilar Pobil • The self-taught Spanish-born painter made Utah her home but incorporated the vibrant colors of her native land and of Mexico into her work. She also became an icon in Utah’s arts community, mentoring young artists through her annual garden events and her foundation. Pobil died Nov. 13 at age 98 in Salt Lake City.

Pyrite • A golden-haired palomino stallion, Pyrite was part of the Onaqui wild-horse herd in a Bureau of Land Management-operated area about 60 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. Pyrite’s body was found Nov. 10 at age 5 south of the Dugway Proving Ground. He was believed to have been shot between Nov. 3 and 8. The Wild Beauty Foundation, a wild-horse advocacy group, called it a “senseless killing” and, by Nov. 22, had amassed pledges for a $30,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of those responsible.

Julia Reagan • Julia Reagan was married for 58 years to Bill Reagan, founder of Reagan Outdoor Advertising, and was matriarch to the Reagan family. She was involved with numerous community groups. After she died, the company put her name and photo on billboards across its network to memorialize her. Reagan died June 12 at age 81 in Salt Lake City.

Ruby Ream • In 1976, Ruby married Paul Ream, founder of Ream’s Food Stores, and together they grew the company into a chain of seven stores in northern Utah. Ruby took over the business when Paul died in 2007. Ruby Ream died Aug. 20 at age 91 after a long illness, her family said.

Golden Richards • A Salt Lake City native, Richards was a receiver and punt returner for BYU’s football team for three seasons, from 1969 to 1971, before transferring to Hawaii for the 1972 season. He then played seven seasons in the NFL, five of them with the Dallas Cowboys, for whom he famously caught a touchdown pass off a trick play in Super Bowl XII in 1978. Richards, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2011, died Feb. 23 at age 73 from congestive heart failure at his home in Murray.

Catherine “Kasha” Rigby • A hard-charging, aggressive skier called “the pioneer of extreme telemarking,” the Utah-based Rigby skied first ascents in such places as Lebanon, India and Mongolia. She also appeared in a 2001 Warren Miller movie and the third season of the NatGeo series “Ultimate Survival Alaska.” Rigby died Feb. 13 at age 54 from injuries suffered when hitting a tree during an avalanche at a resort in Kosovo.

Thomas Rogers • A playwright and BYU professor, Rogers wrote the plays “Hübener,” about a German Latter-day Saint teen who in 1941 and 1942 wrote pamphlets warning about Hitler’s evils, and “Fire in the Bones,” about John D. Lee, the only person executed for taking part in the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre. Rogers died June 24 at age 91.

Ryder • A male black-footed cat — a member of a species native to Africa, considered one of the world’s deadliest cats — who had lived at Utah’s Hogle Zoo since 2021, Ryder was brought from San Diego Zoo Safari Park as a part of a breeding recommendation by a group dedicated to the species’ survival. Ryder was euthanized on July 22 at age 4 after being treated for advanced kidney disease.

Andre Seldon Jr. • After playing two seasons at Michigan and two at New Mexico State, Seldon joined Utah State’s football team in the offseason and was expected to play as a cornerback for the Aggies in the 2024 season. Seldon died July 20 at age 22 in an apparent drowning after a cliff-jumping accident at Porcupine Reservoir in Cache County.

Jyl Shuler • Shuler was hired in 1988 as the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s first development director, and held that post for 29 years, raising money for the Cedar City festival. Shuler is credited with instrumental work in raising millions to build the Beverly Taylor Sorenson Center for the Arts. Shuler died July 13 at age 70, the festival announced.

R. Gail Stahle • Coming from a newspaper family, Stahle was publisher of the Davis County Clipper — the paper his grandfather started in 1891 — from 1989 until its closure in 2020. In 1972, he launched the Color Country Spectrum (now simply The Spectrum, owned by the Gannett newspaper chain) in St. George. In 2008, he started the weekly Iron County Today in Cedar City, running it until its sale in 2023. Stahle died March 30 at age 88 in St. George.

Jim Stiles • Inspired by reading Edward Abbey’s “Desert Solitaire” to move to Moab, Stiles in 1989 founded the Canyon Country Zephyr, a newspaper that covered news in Moab and broader questions on the environment and social issues, publishing a variety of voices (including, in its inaugural issue, one of Abbey’s last essays). In 2007, he wrote “Brave New West: Morphing Moab at the Speed of Greed.” Stiles died March 11 at age 74 in Coldwater, Kansas, where he had lived since 2011.

Randy Stinson • Stinson founded Randy’s Records, Salt Lake City’s enduring home for music on vinyl, in October 1978, and ran the store for 40 years — watching the popularity of LPs decline and rebound in a retro revival. When Stinson retired in 2018, he handed ownership of the store to his son, Sam. Stinson died Dec. 14 at age 83, according to his family.

Eileen Hallet Stone • An author, oral historian and social activist, Hallet Stone often chronicled Utah’s minority populations. She wrote seven books — including “A Homeland in the West: Utah Jews Remember” (2002) and “Selling Sex in Utah: A History of Vice” (2023) — and the “Living History” column in The Tribune from 2005 to 2016. Hallet Stone died April 25 at age 80 in her Salt Lake City home.

Van Summerill • A lifelong fan of Ogden’s Peery’s Egyptian Theatre — where he worked as a ticket taker and other jobs in his youth — Summerill is credited with forming the group that spent 12 years raising money and building awareness for the theater’s restoration. The effort resulted in the iconic theater’s 1997 reopening. Summerill died March 17 at age 81 after having Parkinson’s disease for several years.

Karen Suzuki-Okabe • In three decades of public service, Suzuki-Okabe was deputy mayor of Salt Lake County from 2004 to 2008, and before that was executive director of the state’s Department of Human Resources Management under both Gov. Scott Matheson, a Democrat, and as the only Democrat in Republican Gov. Mike Leavitt’s Cabinet. Suzuki-Okabe died Sept. 19 at age 76 in Salt Lake City.

David Sundwall • A primary care physician who saw patients into his 80s, Sundwall was director of the Utah Department of Health from 2005 to 2011, under Govs. Jon Huntsman and Gary Herbert. He also served in Washington, D.C., as U.S. assistant surgeon general and worked for Sen. Orrin Hatch on health policy. Recently, he commented on health issues in op-eds in The Tribune, praising health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and, in 2023, endorsing the use of psychedelics to treat mental health disorders. Sundwall died April 8 at age 82 in Salt Lake City.

James Svendsen • In 1971, Svendsen founded the Classical Greek Theatre Festival of Utah, in which drama students perform the canon of Greek plays. The event, the oldest of its kind in the country, began at the University of Utah and now is housed at Westminster University. Both schools offer scholarships in his name. Svendsen died April 8 at age 81.

Alton Thacker • Thacker launched the nonprofit Tiny Tim’s Foundation for Kids in 1996, with a goal of getting toys into the hands of children who never had one. From the foundation’s founding, Thacker (who retired in 2022) and volunteers have made more than 1.5 million wooden toy cars and distributed them in developing countries. Thacker died Nov. 26 at age 89, the foundation announced.

Darl Thomas • Working with metal, Thomas created public art works familiar across Utah, including the 20-foot-tall “Plane and Sphere” in front of the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City, “The Power Station” TRAX stop on Salt Lake City’s North Temple, “16 Triangles” in front of Sandy’s Mountain America Expo Center and the 19-foot-high bronze ATK Space Systems Memorial Sculpture in Corinne. Thomas died June 5 at age 74 at home in Salt Lake City.

Raymond Uno • Uno was the first member of an ethnic minority to serve as a judge in Utah. Born in Ogden and held as a child during World War II in Wyoming’s Heart Mountain internment camp, Uno was also a civil rights advocate in the 1960s and active in Utah’s Japanese American community. Uno died March 8 at age 93 at Salt Lake City’s George H. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Frederick L. Wenger • Wenger was the only rabbi in Utah when he took charge of Salt Lake City’s Congregation Kol Ami in 1987, tasked with merging a Conservative congregation with a Reform one. Before his retirement in 2003, Wenger led an expansion of Kol Ami’s synagogue and the remodeling of the old Fort Douglas Country Club into the Jewish Community Center. Wenger died Nov. 6 at age 84.

Ted Wilson • Describing himself an “eternal optimist,” Wilson was Salt Lake City’s mayor from 1976 to 1985, overseeing airport expansion and the city’s response to downtown flooding in 1983. The Democrat, an accomplished mountaineer and a leader on environmental issues, ran against Sen. Orrin Hatch in 1982 and narrowly lost a bid for governor to Norm Bangerter in 1988. His daughter, Jenny Wilson, is Salt Lake County’s current mayor. (Disclosure: His widow, Holly Mullen, is a former Tribune metro columnist and editor.) Wilson died April 11 at age 84 from congestive heart failure and Parkinson’s disease.

David Yocom • As a deputy district attorney, Yocom led the 1976 prosecution of Ted Bundy for aggravated kidnapping — the first time the serial killer was convicted of a crime. He was a special prosecutor who, in 1978, put Ervil LeBaron in prison for ordering the murder of polygamist leader Rulon Allred. As Salt Lake County’s district attorney from 1986 to 1994, and again from 1998 to 2006, Yocom oversaw such high-profile cases as bomber Mark Hofmann and murderer Mark Hacking. Yocom died Jan. 19 at age 85.