Vere Lloyd Lancaster II, M.D., passed away from non-small cell lung cancer on April 16, 2015 in Salt Lake City, Utah at the age of 67. He was born on August 23, 1947 to Vere Lloyd Lancaster, Sr. and Sylvia Irene Stockseth. He spent his early years in Salt Lake City and then American Fork. He graduated from Tooele High School with the academic honor of White Buffalo. He played baseball, tennis, and was president of the seminary. While playing the trombone in the band, across the room he saw first chair flute player, Masie Young. Despite a cheeky limerick he penned about her, she went with him to the winter dance. They dated steady all through high school.
He received an Honors at Entrance Scholarship to the University of Utah. He served as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for two years in the British South Mission and developed a deep love for the British people. After returning home, he married Masie in the Salt Lake Temple on September 15, 1970 and graduated with a B.S. in Biology. He then attended medical school at George Washington University. Later he returned to Utah where he accepted a residency in internal medicine at LDS Hospital.
He started the Salt Lake Clinic Sandy Branch in a large trailer on the corner of 9400 South and 1300 East with Dr. Tom Dietz and Dr. Rick Brown, which grew into a prosperous practice purchased by Intermountain Healthcare. He practiced Internal Medicine for 35 years and said he was fortunate to have a job that he enjoyed so deeply. He finished his career as the Chief Medical Director of Intermountain Homecare and Hospice for 10 years working right until the last weeks of his life. Dr. Lancaster was greatly beloved by his patients, known for his extensive knowledge, skill in diagnosis and treatment, and humor and empathetic bedside manner. He was awarded many Patients' Choice Awards and Compassionate Doctor Recognitions.
During the last years of his life, he served as a church service missionary, providing medical clearance for hundreds of young missionaries to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world, a calling he greatly enjoyed and held at the time of his passing. He held many positions in the church throughout his life. He was a talented teacher of the gospel, effective mentor to the youth, and had great wisdom and leadership. He stated that titles and positions did not matter. He believed that the service, devotion, and love one demonstrated to all people was of paramount importance and his life was the exemplification of these principles.
He was a man of diverse interests and talents. He incorporated hitting the slopes at Alta during ski season, playing tennis twice a week, and going on a weekly movie date with Masie into his busy life. He was a member of the University of Utah Crimson Club and a Utah Jazz super fan. He dominated the role of Herr Stahlbaum along with his wife as Frau Stahlbaum in Mountain West Ballet's production of the Nutcracker for 16 years.
He loved nature. He spent much of the last 20 years fly fishing, canoeing, biking, and walking along the banks of the Henry's Fork of the Snake River in Island Park, Idaho. He was happy to walk along the river all morning, even if the fish were not biting.
Family was everything to him and he had total loyalty and support for everyone's endeavors. He found immense pleasure in traveling the country and world with his wife, children, and their families as long as they did not miss the ferry, there were not lines, and the train workers were not on strike. Everything was richer and a great adventure with Vere. Whether touring the Hermitage or Buffalo Bill Museum, riding in canal boats in the English countryside or a bike path in Idaho, sitting on a tropical beach or the hammock on his back porch, hiking to Sawyer's Glacier in Alaska or up the road with his dog, eating lunch in a lemon grove in Sorrento or at The Blue Bayou in Disneyland, he drank in life and wanted to share it with family.
His keen intellect, compassion for others, free-thinking philosophical discussions, unique humor, and total loyalty and support of friends and family are cherished.
He is preceded in death by his parents. Vere is remembered with love by his wife, Masie; three children, Liesel (Michael) Thomas, Zachary (Megan), and Rachel (William) Spencer; his sisters, Sharron Napier and Linda Harris; and his ten grandchildren, Sophie (13), Piper (10), Sarah (9), Preston (8), Sylvia (6), Henry (6), Maxton (5), Caden (4), Rose (4), and Vere (2).
Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, April 25, 2015. Visitations will be held on Friday, April 24 from 5:00-7:00 p.m. and Saturday, April 25 from 9:30-10:30 a.m. Visitations and funeral services will be held at the Granite View Stake Center, 9880 South 3100 East, Sandy, Utah.
Should friends desire, memorial contributions may be sent to the Henry's Fork Foundation.
