Richard Wiser Lufkin

I, Richard Wiser Lufkin was born in Arco, Butte County, Idaho.  October 8 1923.  I was the fifth child born to George Allen Lufkin and Venus Wiser.  I had two older brothers, two older sisters and two younger sisters.  The family moved to Shelley, Idaho when I was two years old.

I attended grade school and high school in Shelley.  My first-grade teacher was my father’s sister and I had a hard time adjusting to calling her Miss Lufkin instead of Aunt Jane.  I played the bass horn in the grade school band.  I played the bass horn in high school and also sang in the boy’s chorus and the acapella choir.  My interests in high school were the music, science and mathematics classes.  We had different chess tournaments and I did well in them.  I didn’t participate in the sports activities.  Graduated high school in May 1941.

I married my high school sweetheart in September 1941.  Bonn Claudia Picher.  We lived in Idaho Falls and was there when World War II was declared.  We moved to Ogden, Utah in 1942 and I worked in the bomb plant in Ogden for about a year.  The post office clerk in the Shelley post office got drafted and I accepted his job and worked there in the post office until 1944, when I went in the Navy.  My post office experience paid off when I was in boot camp and passed the test to become a Mailman in the Navy.  I served in the Fleet Post office in San Francisco and was there when the war ended in 1945.  I served on two different ships in the Navy and had the opportunity to go down and through the Panama Canal.  The ship went to the Brooklyn Navy Yard and was de-commissioned there.  I then served on the USS Juneau, a Light Cruiser.  I was discharged from the Navy in the summer of 1946 and returned to Utah and lived in Lewiston and attended college at Utah State in Logan.  My rating at discharge was MM 3/C.

Our son was born in November 1943, Dennis Richard Lufkin, lives in Hurricane, Utah.  First daughter Marsha, lives in Riverside, California, was born in February 1947, second daughter Fran, lives in Provo, Utah, born February 1951.  They are the parents of my eight grandchildren, twenty-one great grandchildren, and four great great-grandchildren.

My first job after college was with the J I Case Co.  A farm machinery manufacturer as a Territory Supervisor.  We lived in Richfield, Utah the first year, then transferred to northern Utah.  We lived in Lewiston about a year then transferred to Moses Lake Washington.  That was in 1952.  In 1954 when the Grand Coulee Stake was organized, I served as an Elder’s Quorum President in Moses Lake 2^nd Ward.  In 1958 I was called to be a Stake Missionary in the Grand Coulee Stake.  In 1962 we moved to Inglewood, California.  I had some additional schooling at UCLA and USC and obtained a job as an Estimating Engineer for the Byron Jackson Pump Division of Borg Warner Corporation.  In 1963 I was called to be the Bishop of the Lennox Ward in the Inglewood Stake.  I was ordained a High Priest and set apart as Bishop by Spencer W. Kimball.  In 1967 I was released from that calling and was called to be an Ordinance Worker in the Los Angeles Temple.  Two years later I was called to be a Sealer in the Los Angeles Temple and was set apart by President Joseph Fielding Smith.

In 1975 my employer asked me if I would be interested in going to Toronto, Ontario and work on a special project organizing an estimating department for the plant there.  They were planning on bidding on pumps for the nuclear power plant going in up there.  We decided that since our children were all married and gone away from home that we would go to Canada.  It included a raise in pay and a promotion to Chief Cost Estimating Engineer.  The project was estimated to take three to four years.  In 1976 the Toronto Ontario East Stake was organized and I was called to be the Patriarch of the new stake.  I was ordained a Patriarch by Thomas S Monson.  The project was completed in 1979 and we returned to California and lived in Long Beach.  We were there only two months when I was called to be the Stake President.  I was set apart by Mark E Peterson and served until 1985.  That was the year I retired from work.  I then served as Patriarch of the Long Beach Stake until 1987 when we moved to Provo.  I served as a sealer in the Provo Temple.  A year later we moved to Orem, Utah.  When the new Orem Utah Stake was organized, I was called to be the Patriarch of that new Stake.  I was set apart by Boy K Packer.  In the spring of 1990, we moved to St. George to get away from the cold weather.  My wife was terminally ill at that time.  I then served as a sealer in the St. George Temple.  We had a wonderful life together for 51 years.  She died in May of 1992 and is buried in the family plot in the Smithfield, Utah cemetery.  I rented our home and lived in the Temple Apartments and continued working in the St. George Temple.

I was the Sealing Coordinator on the Friday late shift when a new receptionist was called to work that shift.  Her name was Bonnie Jo Goodrich.  We worked together very well and soon had special feelings for each other.  Bonnie Jo had been a widow for the past year and after a few months of being able to express our feelings and love for each other we were married in September that year.  We decided to live in Bonnie’s house in Hurricane and keep renters in my house.  That was in September 1992.  The following July we were called to serve a mission in the Boston Massachusetts Mission.  I was called and set apart as a counselor to the Mission President.  It was a great experience to serve in that calling.

About a year after we returned from Boston, they formed the new Hurricane West Stake.  I was called to serve as Patriarch in the new stake.  Bonnie Jo and I served a stake mission in Hurricane for one year.  About that time the Ward Missionary program was started and we served another year as Ward Missionaries.  We enjoyed sixteen and a half years of life together but sadly that came to an end I was alone again.  Bonnie Jo is buried in the Hurricane cemetery alongside her first husband in the Goodrich family plot.  I lived in the temple apartments in St. George about six months then went to Shoreline, Washington as a care giver for my older sister who needed help.  I was with her three and a half years.  The last year there I was called to serve as a counselor to the Director of the LDS Employment Office in Shoreline.  I returned to St. George to the temple apartments again.  A few months later the renter in my house went to jail for dealing drugs and I lived in my own home in Hurricane until my family convinced me I would be better off in the Summerfield Retirement.  That was in August of 2015.  All and all this life has been a wonderful experience with my family.

Given at Dad’s Graveside Service November 29, 2021

Smithfield City Cemetery Cache Valley Utah

By His Daughter Fran Anderson 

Graveside services for Richard will be held on Monday, November 29, 2021 at 12:00 noon in the Smithfield City Cemetery, Smithfield, Utah.