Kimball Taylor Harper

Kimball Taylor Harper

BORN: February 15, 1931

DIED: October 2, 2011

LOCATION: Spanish Fork, UT

Kimball was born in Oakley, Idaho the sixth of nine children, to John Mayo Harper and Mary Ella Overson.

Ranch life taught him to work hard and love the outdoors. He served a mission to Western States Mission, and then was drafted into the Army and sent to Korea. He was assigned to the signal corps. He continued to teach the gospel he loved and baptize people.

Kimball married Caroline Frances Stepp in the Manti Temple in 1958. They were married 53 years and traveled to many countries exploring the diversity of the indigenous plants and animals. They are the parents of six children, Ruth Long, James K. (Emily) Harper, Gay Harper, Denise (Bryce) Adams, Karla Allan and Steven (Abbey) Harper. They are grandparents of 12 grandchildren and 2 great granddaughters. Kimball is also survived by 3 sisters, Joanne (Don) Drussel, Julia Simpson, and Carolyn Morgan.

Kimball returned home and used his G.I. bill to get his B.S. and Master's degree at Brigham Young University in Range Management and Plant Ecology. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1963. After graduation, he joined the faculty at the University of Utah. After ten years, he came to BYU as the Dept. chair of Botany and Range Science. Kimball was an outstanding administrator, teacher and researcher. He authored and edited more than 130 scholarly works. He was editor for the scientific journal "Ecology and Ecological Monographs". Kimball received the Karl G. Maeser award for "Excellence in Research and the creative arts." He was also awarded the 32nd annual Karl G. Maeser Distinguished Faculty Lecturer, which is the University's top academic honor. However, the awards he most treasured were the "Excellence in Teaching" awards he received, because these were the awards based exclusively on student votes.

He served on many committees and served as president of the campus chapter of Sigma Xi, as well as president of Phi Kappa Phi. He loved Utah's wild country and spent years taking students as well as his six children, to do research and collect specimens for the herbariums at BYU and UVU. He also established a scholarship at UVU to help educate future botanists.

Kimball was very active as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He served in several bishoprics, as well as serving as Bishop and a Stake High Councilman. He also served faithfully in many other callings, and most importantly as an admirable Patriarch and example to his family. His kind heart and generous nature positively impacted a wide variety of people during his lifetime.

After retiring from BYU, Kimball and Caroline served in the Missouri Independence Mission and then came home to serve as ordinance workers in the Provo Temple for 10 years. Kimball continued to mentor and train students as adjunct faculty at UVU. He is preceded in death by grandson Tyrel Adison Long, both parents and six of his siblings.

Thanks are extended to the Sunbrook Hospice group for their compassionate and caring service during the last months of Kimball's life.

A celebration of his life will be held Friday, Oct. 7th 2011 at 11:00 a.m. at the 12th Ward Chapel, 310 East Center Street in Spanish Fork. A viewing will be held from 6:00 to 8:00 pm Thursday, Oct 6th at Walker Mortuary 187 South Main Street, and on Friday morning at the church from 9:30-10:30 a.m. prior to services. The funeral will be at 11:00 a.m. the next day. Burial will be in the Spanish Fork cemetery, under the direction of Walker Family Mortuary.

Gay designed the program for the funeral and it looked amazing.  Sorry this picture does not do it justice. 

The American Legion was there and performed the Military Funeral Honors burial ceremony.  They placed military boots, rifle and helmet at the head of Dad's coffin, fired their rifles, played Taps then presented Mom with the flag that was draping Dad's coffin.  

Mason wrote a song in honor of Grandpa and played it his funeral.  It was beautiful and he did a great job.

Goodbye Dad. We love you and we are happy that you are finally free of your broken, tired body.  

So say it loud and let it ring
We are all a part of everything

The future, present and the past

Fly on proud bird

You're free at last.

- Charlie Daniel

This is the trench that Tony and I had to dig last Sunday because our air conditioner hadn't been working for several weeks due to a wiring issue that had blown the fuse. Though it was October, it had still been really hot and miserable in our house. 
 So, In order to fix it, we had to dig a 1 foot deep trench from the fuse box to the a/c so we could run the new wiring.  

It took all day, but we got it fixed and a few days later it freakin snowed.  OY

You gotta love Utah....