Graveside
Larkin Sunset Lawn Cemetery 2350 E 1300 S Salt Lake City, UT 84108Thursday Jul 3, 2025: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
1936 ~ 2025
Thursday Jul 3, 2025: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
On Saturday, June 21st, 2025, George Holt (Dad), our beloved father, grandfather, great-grandfather, ex-husband, brother, and friend, passed away peacefully in Salt Lake City, at the wonderful age of 88. His passing was an expected and hallowed event, and he spent his final weeks surrounded by his dear family, expressing love and affection for all of the people in his life. In this final time, he was only following the pattern he established throughout his life, of letting others know how loved and how important they were.
From his earliest years, Dad was a loving son and brother. George Erekson Holt was born December 20, 1936, in Salt Lake City, the fourth of thirteen children, to William F. Holt and Irma Marie Erekson. He was an adventurous youngster, and helped his father in the family’s numerous gas station, auto repair, and agricultural ventures. He loved working in the yard, exploring (especially in the gully behind the family home on Yale Avenue), swimming, and riding horses. As much as Dad respected and emulated his father, he loved and admired his mother, who was widely known for her welcoming household, delicious meals, and kind attention. George lived a blessed childhood, and kept in contact with many of his childhood friends throughout his life, including especially those in his East High School Class of 1955. A lifelong member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Dad served a two-and-a-half-year mission in West Germany at 19.
Dad’s professional life was genuinely the stuff of legend. He served as District Attorney in Clark County, Nevada, through the mid-1970s, when Las Vegas was by far the best known of the very few places featuring legalized gambling. This was a place and time more related to the Wild West than the present day, a time when the corruption of its origins had not yet been fully discovered, when organized crime ran rampant, and when the city was growing from tourist destination with town attached to a big city in its own right.
Dad studied Political Science and Law at the University of Utah in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. He married Jerilyn Jones (Mom), a native Las Vegan, in December of 1960, and they moved their young family to Vegas after graduation. He then enjoyed a distinguished career as an attorney in Las Vegas. As an elected D.A., Dad fought every day to protect the innocent and to take criminals off the streets, meanwhile surviving attempts on his life, vandalism, threats, bribe attempts, and jury scandals. In private practice, as a partner to his father-in-law and brother-in-law Robert E. and R. Clive Jones, he fought to bring justice and satisfaction to those in trouble or need. By the time of his retirement, Dad’s name commanded respect from everyone from law enforcement to casino owners, from civic to religious leaders, from work associates to distant acquaintances, and from one side of the valley to the other.
Throughout these years, in the family’s various homes, especially the one on Eldora Avenue, Dad loved raising animals and trees, truly creating an oasis in the desert. At various times, he milked and raised goats, held horses, raised rabbits, kept ducks and geese, and bred dogs. Before heading into his law office, he took time every day to water his trees, many of them fruiting, including apricots, peaches, pomegranates, plums, figs, mulberries, apples, nectarines, and almonds. He never shied away from hard work, and was richly blessed as a result. He never took this for granted, however.
If you asked those who knew him to sum up Dad in a single word, that word would, without a doubt, be “generous.” He was generous with money, yes, but he was also generous with his time, attention, and kindness, to strangers as well as with those he loved. Even at his most busy, he always had time to drop his children off at school, with a hug, a kiss, and some variation of “See you later, alligator.” He believed strongly in—you might say he even embodied—the principle of abundance: the idea that sharing and gratitude engenders ever more to share and be grateful for.
George loved God and Jesus Christ. For years, he would often be caught reading his favorite book, Jesus the Christ, and if you remarked on it, he’d give you a copy. He spent decades serving as a Scoutmaster and youth advisor, guiding and mentoring many young men on their path to manhood. He taught his children the principles of hard work, honesty, generosity, and kindness. He was married to the mother of his children for 37 years, and, even in divorce, maintained a warm and kind relationship with her throughout his life.
Dad had a very humorous, even silly, side, and always had a joke waiting. Most of the time these were “dad jokes,” but he also loved to share funny movie quotes, impromptu dances, or even creep up on you in one of his (in)famous collection of full-head masks, and if you weren’t careful, you’d find yourself facing Dracula, Frankenstein, or a Caveman when you thought you were safe in the living room.
In his early retirement, Dad traveled extensively in Europe, South America, and Asia with his partner Liz Mapelli, and gained many dear friends all over the world, and in their homes in Washington’s Columbia River Gorge, and later in Guanajuato, Mexico.
Dad lived his final years in the devoted care of his dear daughter Valerie, who gave him the kind of loving attention he had given to so many. Because of this, his time on earth was greatly extended, as was his enjoyment of his old age and the ability of his many friends and descendants to be with him. For this, we are all forever grateful.
He is preceded in death by his brothers Bill, Don, and Dwight, his sisters Marlise and Kalma, his daughter Jennifer, and by several descendants of the first, second, and third generations who, though anxiously anticipated, never fully arrived on earth. With them, among many others, he is now blessedly reunited. He is survived by Jerilyn, brothers Eric, Mark, Todd, Lynn, and Tim, sisters Karma and Yvonne, his children Jillmarie, William James, Katherine, Valerie, Rebecca, Mark, and Timothy, his 19 grandchildren, and his 24 great-grandchildren, with more on the way. We all miss him keenly.
Funeral services will be held on Thursday, July 3rd, at the Grace Street LDS Chapel, 3100 East 3000 South in Salt Lake. The viewing will take place from 9:30 to 10:30 AM, followed by the funeral at 11:00 to 12:30. Please join us in celebrating his life, his love, and his laughter.
See you later, alligator, when your legs are straighter.
Some of my fondest childhood memories were spent in the Holt household. It was always full of love and laughter. You Holts build beautiful people.
I am sending hugs to your hearts, and am grateful to know that he returns home to so many loved ones and leaves such a beautiful legacy.
He was my very favorite priest quorum adviser. To this very day I use his examples, wisdom, and stories. I am so sorry for your loss. He was a great man in my eyes.
George was our neighbor on Logan Ave. Since are family was all girls, he and his brothers were as a close to a brother as I ever had.
During my growing up years, I baby sat his siblings and loved the whole family.
I have lost a life time friend.
The Holts were all very special people.
Nancy & all of the Withers Family
I'm sorry for your loss. He was always so friendly and kind to me. He was a good man. Actually, I have this memory of a woman coming out of the Eldora house when your dad was having a meet and greet type thing. He was running for some office and a lot of people were coming and going. This woman must have mistaken me for an adult because she said, "Are you going in there to see Mr. Holt? He's a great man!"
From that moment on, every time I thought about your dad, every time I heard his name mentioned, and every time I saw his face, the words "great man" would echo in my head.
As I grew to know him over the years, I always felt that he deserved to have the words "great man" associated with him. It was an accurate assessment of the man.
I will miss him.
I'm sorry for your loss. He was always so friendly and kind to me. He was a good man. Actually, I have this memory of a woman coming out of the Eldora house when your dad was having a meet and greet type thing. He was running for some office and a lot of people were coming and going. This woman must have mistaken me for an adult because she said, "Are you going in there to see Mr. Holt? He's a great man!"
From that moment on, every time I thought about your dad, every time I heard his name mentioned, and every time I saw his face, the words "great man" would echo in my head.
As I grew to know him over the years, I always felt that he deserved to have the words "great man" associated with him. It was an accurate assessment of the man.
I will miss him.
So sorry to hear of your Dad's passing. He was a very memorable seminary teacher. Made me want to get up to go to see what he had planned for his lesson every day.
George was a great friend. We will miss him.
In 1984 my husband, Jim Ririe, accepted a position as an attorney with a real estate development company, and moved our family to Las Vegas. Because Jim soon realized that the business was eventually going to fail, he resigned and set up a private law practice. George Holt rented us an office in his building, at a very reasonable price, and even referred clients to Jim. This was a difficult time in our lives, and George helped us survive. Jim became ill in 1985 and died in 1987. Unknown to me, Jim had referred a case he was working on to George. When the case was successfully resolved a year or so after Jim's death, George brought me a check to cover the work Jim had done on the case. It was an example of his honesty, as I knew nothing about their arrangement and didn't expect that check. My family and I are grateful for the help, encouragement and friendship we received from George Holt during those years in Las Vegas. He was a wonderful friend to us.
Dear Holts, many of us have had the joy of meeting your beloved dad George. We noticed he liked trees and thought we'd plant a grove of ten trees in his honor. George was a joyful and friendly person to us and we would sometimes meet him when visiting Katy and Derek's home. We love you and honor your dad for the amazing person he was and the life he lived. May you be comforted with the memories and stories you hold dear about your beloved father.
love, The Larsens
Dear Val, so sorry to hear about your father’s passing. It is always hard to lose a parent no matter the situation. The pictures you posted are beautiful. He was a handsome man. Our condolences to your family.
A super and very interesting soul has moved on and we will miss him. In our early teenage years George wanted everyone to call him "Mouse" which we did never knowing why he liked that moniker. I am one of the many Yale Ward and neighborhood friends of George who also found great adventure with him and others in the vast gully behind the wonderful Holt home. We all liked to swim and often found ourselves enjoying late night swims in various private pools near the great gully [we were uninvited I think]. We had neighborhood dirt clod wars in various places and we were all saddened when George got both his arms burned and scarred in a gasoline fire in the Gilmer Drive [empty field] war underground that we had we had built. In our college years the Yale Ward boys, including John Hale, the Gibbs brothers, George and myself became interested in the Spiker girls in the University Ward at the U and we enjoyed competing for their attention. Great memories and a fine friend. My condolences go to his lovely former wife Jerilyn who I only met once in LV and to their impressive nine children at this tender time. George was a fine and fun person. Go for it "Mouse". May the Lord bless this great family! f
My deepest sympathies. Katy, Derek and family
Sending so much love to all the Holt/ Jones family. I'm sorry I wasn't able to join you to give you my love in person. But please know, you all mean so much to me! I always loved visiting your home in Vegas and the magic that your parents created there. So many fruit trees - even with hidden rabbit cages among them! The first time I drank goat milk was in your home... though my taste of it did not convince me to give up cows milk! The first animal birth I saw was a goat in your way back yard. Diving off the trampoline into the pool- not sure who was behind that genius invention, but what a thrill! I remember visiting the Jones/Holt law office in Vegas and playing with the things on Uncle George's desk (I loved the Newton's cradle, and sand pendulum that made interesting designs). Thinking of him in those years, I can imagine him pulling a coin from my ear, giving a chuckle and sharing a silly joke. He was still full of charm and mirth when I last saw him a couple years ago at my mother's birthday in Sundance. It was a beautiful occasion and I feel blessed that he and so much of the wonderful Holt family were able to join us. I will be keeping you all in my thoughts and prayers. Love, Sara (Sally)
My heart goes out to the Holt family during this most difficult time. What an amazing life your father lived, filled with love, kindness, hard work, and a constant curiosity about the world around him. Brother Holt made everyone feel that we belonged as we were, no need to change or think differently to fit in. I remember during the youth performances of plays, as we waited for our turns to go on stage, the movie Superman was playing on a VHS tape to keep over 100 of us entertained. Just as the big make-out scene between Clark Kent and Lois Lane started, the lights were turned on, and George was smiling and waving to the crowd of angry teenagers by the light switch. At the time, I felt so annoyed; today, I laugh at that memory. Once, driving to the Saturday night dance with Katy and a bunch of friends in her car, the police pulled us over. When Katy gave them her driver's license, they asked if her father was George Holt. She said yes. The officers told her that her dad was a good man, and next time, be sure to use her blinker. So many people respected George Holt. I'm grateful to have known him and had his influence in my youth. He used his talents to enrich the lives of others. George simply made the world a better place. A life well-lived radiating with love.