Matthew W Orton
Matthew W Orton
1959 ~ 2024
Our favorite father, grandfather, husband, brother, uncle, and friend passed away unexpectedly in his sleep on April 12, 2024 at his home of 34 years in Highland, Utah. He was 64 years old.
Matt was born on June 29, 1959, to Eugene Mortensen Orton and Patricia Joy (Whitney) Orton in Edgemont, Utah. He was the baby of the family and grew up with two sisters (Patty and Connie) and one brother (Doug).
He grew up in the foothills of Edgemont and was raised by parents who taught him to love the church, music, reading, and card games.
In his youth his parents bought a piece of property up Provo Canyon near a small resort called Timp Haven where Matt, as a young child, had space to ride his Honda Trail 70 and shoot pot guts on the hills and land that would eventually become Sundance Resort.
He got a job as a busboy at Sundance’s restaurant The Tree Room when he was 16 years old and fell in love with working there. His biggest flex in high school was leaving school early with his skis in his F150 truck (which he bought for 100 bucks) and driving up to ski a couple runs before clocking in to work at Sundance.
He found camaraderie with his lifelong friends Brian Stocks, Brian Misbach, and Kurt Jensen. They met as kids at church and remained forever close through high school, playing tennis, playing cards, going on missions, college, being each other’s best men at their weddings, double dating with their spouses, and starting their families.
After graduating high school from Orem High in 1977, he attended BYU and continued working at Sundance till he went on his mission. He served in the Johannesburg, South Africa Mission from 1978 to 1980 and learned to speak Afrikaans.
Post mission he continued attending BYU, working at Sundance, and not missing a single concert at the BYU Marriot Center where he saw Elton John, The Beach Boys, The Doobie Brothers, Kansas, and Barry Manilo. He also attended concerts with his friends and sometimes on dates at the Salt Palace. He saw Aerosmith, ACDC, CSN, KISS, Van Halen, Black Sabbath, Rod Stewart, Peter Frampton, RUSH, REO Speedwagon (his first date with his future wife) and more.
Matt would often reflect on that happy time of life of living at home as a teenager and in his early twenties with good fun parents, not paying rent, and not knowing how his clothes were always clean and folded. He was happy and did well learning as a Tiger at Orem High, and as a Cougar at BYU. Since his dad worked at the print shop at BYU, he could park anywhere he wanted on campus with the ‘M’ maintenance parking pass. He did learn to iron his own tailored work shirts as he advanced to head waiter at The Tree Room at Sundance. He loved working at Sundance and often told us he would have worked there for free. He loved staying late with other employees to eat cold prime rib, play poker, and take the giant serving trays to slide down the ski runs.
Matt and RaVoe were married on December 22, 1982 in the Provo Temple. They soon welcomed five children, and searched for a place to settle and raise their young family. They both felt the spirit strongly guide them to build a home in Highland, Utah. Which turned out to be the best decision of their life, as they found the Highland 11th ward in the Highland East Stake was the greatest ward on the planet and the best place to raise a family and for their kids to make lifelong friends. Matt served as primary pianist (his favorite all time calling), primary teacher, sunday school teacher, scout leader (he earned his Eagle in his youth, along with the Order of the Arrow), young men’s leader (deacon advisor, teacher advisor, priest advisor), young men’s president, nursery (more than once), ward clerk, teaching temple prep, high councilman, and temple worker.
Matt always felt like he lucked out meeting Dale Sandberg who hired him at DHI computing software in 1986. With his degree in mathematics from BYU he worked as a computer programmer for 38 years. He felt blessed to work with such good guys who took such good care of him. He relished the time together with his team when they were able to get away to Las Vegas to get work projects done. Maybe he felt truly blessed to work for DHI because it had a racquetball court right underneath his office. He played multiple times a day, and played many tournaments in the 1990s around the state of Utah. One time even winning best of state in his age and skill division. Later he competed in the senior games down in St George.
When he wasn’t working and playing racquetball, Matt was a very involved playful dad. He told bedtime stories of being raised by wolves and meeting his wife while soaring as a trapeze artist in the circus. He was a dad that read books to his kids, and was always on the ground playing with legos, tinker toys, etc. He played hide n’ seek, went for family walks, had random competitions with his kids to see who could throw a rock the furthest or balance the longest on one leg, he taught and played board games and card games, built snow forts and blanket forts, taught his kids to play tennis, set up a network of computers so we could all play Warcraft II or Duke Nukem together. He played the piano for family home evening lessons. He helped with math homework and science projects.
He was the guy in the neighborhood that arranged lawn games for all the kids, handed out firecrackers to the boys trick-or-treating, and welcomed and hung out with all the youth that came to hang on the back deck or play card games.
After his kids had all grown he started skiing at Sundance again which brought him lots of joy. He loved skiing by himself listening to his music in his headphones, something that was new to him since skiing in the 80s. (check the link below for his Spotify ski playlist) He also loved any chance he had to ski with his kids. He was often seen sporting jeans on the slopes and hiding a diet coke in a secret snow bank near his car for after the last run of the day. He had a season pass at Sundance till a couple years ago when he felt like things were getting too commercial. He was so mad about the new season passes not having your picture on them!
He and RaVoe loved roadtripping together to explore random places. The two of them enjoyed kayaking, binge watching West Wing and Longmire, and were always on hunt for the next great burger. But you ask him and his wife what they loved most, and it’s spending time with their adult children. Anything they wanted to do, and they were up for it. He loved going to concerts with them, taking them shooting, going out to eat, camping with them, spending Sunday afternoons with them, and playing yard games, board games… but especially card games. If you asked him what he wanted for his birthday or Father’s Day he just wanted to spend more time with his kids. He loved sharing his favorite songs, passing along books he had read, telling the newest joke he had heard, sending funny reels, and his daily Wordle attempt.
Matt had a testimony of the gospel and shared that testimony with his kids often. He loved spending time in the temple and served faithfully as a temple worker at Mount Timpanogos Temple every Wednesday night the past few years. His greatest joy was being able to be in the temple with all of his kids and their spouses and being able to have spiritual moments and lessons as a family. He loved watching his children grow up in the gospel and often reflected about how he learned from his kids, and that they were all his heroes.
Matt left this life just as he always wanted to… in his sleep and without growing old. The week leading up to his death he played games with his family after Sunday dinner, played racquetball with his sons, and served his shift at the temple. His death has left us heartbroken.
We will think of him always, but especially whenever we see a deck of cards, a can of Diet Coke, a pack of firecrackers, a wienerschnitzel restaurant, butterscotch lifesavers, ketchup on anything, or whenever we hear a can of tennis balls being opened, the rumble of a chair lift, a Dire Straits rift, the primary song “My Heavenly Father Loves Me”, the hymn “Abide With Me Tis Eventide”, or anyone say “sulsa” instead of “salsa”.
He is survived by his wife RaVoe (Ormond) Orton, his children Whitney (Orton) Dodge, McKay (Orton) Opeifa, Max Orton, Sam Orton, and Andie (Orton) Allred, his grandchildren David Dodge, Burl Dodge, and Toni Opeifa, his daughter-in-law Johanna (Donaldson) Orton, his sons-in-law Michael Dodge, Dele Opeifa, and Jordan Allred, as well as his siblings Doug Orton, Patty (Orton) Standifird, and Connie (Orton) Randall.
He is preceded in death by his parents, Gene and Joy Orton.
Funeral services will be held on Saturday, April 20, 2024, at 12:00 pm at the Highland East Stake Center, 4679 West 11000 North (Timpanogos Highway), Highland, Utah. Family and friends are invited to attend a visitation from 10:00 to 11:30 am prior to services at the church. Interment will be at the Highland City Cemetery.