Running was simply what Richard Carling did — whether for political office, which he did numerous times during a 23-year career in the Utah Legislature, or in more than 175 marathons.
Carling died April 30 at age 86.
He was born Dec. 6, 1937, in Salt Lake City to Jacob Junius Carling and Reba Olsen Carling. He graduated from East High School, served a mission in southern Australia for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and married Diane Saxey, his wife of 62 years, in 1961 in the faith’s Salt Lake Temple.
He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Utah in 1962 and his law degree in 1965.
In 1967, Carling, a Republican, joined the Utah House and served seven years in that body before moving to the Utah Senate, where he served 16 more years.
“Richard Carling was truly a statesman,” said former Senate President Lane Beattie, who came into the Senate as Carling was leaving.
“He was both passionate and wise,” Beattie said. “He would look to the future and see where the needs were going to be, and I just remember him being one of the real leaders as far as the University of Utah was concerned and higher education as a whole.”
When he was 39, Carling had a health scare while on the Senate floor.
“I was sitting at my desk in the Senate, and they thought I was having a heart attack,” Carling told KSL in 2017. “They pulled me off the floor and into the lounge and had some medical people look at me. They said, ‘You’re not having a heart attack, but you’re on the verge of it. You’ve got to get rid of this stress or you’re not going to be with us.’”
That advice transformed his life.
He began running with former Mayor Ted Wilson, who died last month, and entered his first race, a 7-mile road race, a short time later.
“That’s when I got hooked on running,” Carling told the Deseret News in 2002.
Over the next 40-plus years, according to his obituary, Carling ran more than 175 marathons. He ran the Boston Marathon 39 times, the St. George Marathon 45 times, the Honolulu Marathon 37 times, the Deseret News Marathon 40 times. And he posted elite-level times, including a personal best of 2:32:21.
Carling’s grandfather, Elmer, was among the first Utah Highway Patrol officers hired and, in 1985, Carling was instrumental in the creation of the Utah Highway Patrol Honorary Colonels Association to support the police agency.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Former state Sen. Richard Carling sports his running shoes in 2004. He has died at age 86.
“He was always personable and very committed to what he did,” said former state Sen. Lyle Hillyard, who met Carling when Hillyard was a first-year law student at the U. and Carling was a senior. Hillyard stayed connected to Carling and his wife through the Honorary Colonels.
“He was the kind of legislator you loved to work with because you knew where he was coming from … his word was his bond. If he said he’d do something, you’d know he’d do it,” Hillyard said. “It was so sad to lose Diane [she died in December] as well as now to lose Richard.”
After leaving the Legislature, Carling headed the Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice and served as vice chair of the ethics committee for the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Carling is survived by his two siblings, four children, 11 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held at the Crestview Latter-day Saint Ward, 2795 E. Crestview Drive, Salt Lake City, at noon on Saturday, May 11. A viewing will be held Friday at 6 p.m. at Larkin Sunset Lawn Mortuary and another at 10:30 a.m. at the ward before the funeral.
