Glen Frederick Werner

Glen Frederick Werner was born in Salt Lake City, UT, on April 3, 1925, to loving parents Guy (Kaj) Florian and Rosabell (Rose) Miller Werner. He died at The Abbington at Murray, Utah, on October 10, 2023, of extreme old age. He was 98 years too old and resented every bit of advanced old age.

Glen grew up in Sugarhouse and while still in his youthful eighties he created a blog of his hometown: http://www.sugar-house.blogspot.com. Salt Lake City, Murray, South Salt Lake, Saratoga, etc., are also included this blog. A mouse click on his “Profile” will also enable viewing of all of his fascinating blogs: gfschools: Class of 45-A; A/C Class of 45-A; Sugarhouse. These blogs are major accomplishments considering he suffered from dyslexia his entire life and reading and writing were difficult tasks for him. Glen would love you to view his blogs.

Glen did not graduate from South High School where he attended. Instead, he attended a school for welding and machine shop training. He enlisted in the U.S. Army where he traveled extensively in the southern states. He attended college in Tennessee and graduated as a Flight Officer at the age of 19. He was assigned to a few pilot pools for aerial gunnery training, but while on leave, he hitchhiked back home from Maxwell Field Air Force Base in a B-25. World War II ended while he was on leave and on his return was assigned to another pilot pool and worked in the Control Tower at Craig Field. He was honorably discharged from the Army Air Corps in 1945. After arriving home, his brother, Leonard, and he extensively traveled the states. They ended up in California and got jobs because they ran out of money. Glen studied Aeronautical Engineering at Northrop Aeronautical Institute. He took a five month break from school and he and Leonard continued to travel going to Birmingham, AL. In 1947 in Salt Lake City, he met Elva Larsen at Woolworths where she worked - he asked a friend to introduce him to the pretty clerk with the great smile – and three months later they married in the Salt Lake Temple on August 13, 1947, and honeymooned in Yellowstone. He returned to Northop with his new wife and graduated in July 1949. They returned to Salt Lake with their baby daughter in 1952 and moved to Rose Park and finally settled permanently in Murray City. Two other daughters followed.

Glen was employed by Allen Steel Company as a designer. He organized a credit union for his co-workers so they could save interest on home and car loans. In 1958, he was hired to work as a Senior Designer for Sperry Utah Engineering Laboratory (UNIVAC/UNISYS). He always took night classes for his wide variety of interests. He then earned his high school diploma and graduated from Granite High School in 1963. He started taking an interest in computers in 1964 when taking a group of Explorers on a field trip to the IBM Building where an IBM 1401 was on display. Glen was their Explorer Leader and he hated teaching classes which he considered akin to public speaking so instead he took these teens all over the county to explore real life working factories like the Sugar Beet Factory and IBM. When he saw the tall IBM climate-controlled room-sized computer and discovered all the wonderful things it promised, his obsession was born. The film Hidden Figures shows the kind of computer he later programmed for Sperry at the U of U (his favorite job). Glen had several titles while at Univac. His title was Mechanical Engineer when he fortunately retired at age 56.

After his retirement, he and his wife Elva traveled the continent, visiting the northeastern and north central states, Alaska, Hawaii, and visited Mexico a lot. They loved their experiences traveling to visit far-off places with and to relatives that were once-in-a-lifetime visits. Their travel ended when Elva was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. In 2004, he and Elva were featured on Channel 13 local TV news and in the Salt Lake Tribune in conjunction with the Alzheimer’s Association Support Group. He lovingly took excellent care of her until she died in 2005.

Glen was very active all of his life. He worked as a life guard in high school, loved being a pilot in the military, continued to fly in a few flying clubs, still worked freelance for Univac for a few years, helped his children with home remodeling and repairs, developed a game called Rhyme-Time and held a copyright for it, held a U.S. patent for designing an ED device, wrote several blogs, volunteered his time to tutor students in math and volunteered his time to help seniors at the Murray’s Heritage Center to learn computers. He also volunteered at the Humane Society of Utah. He organized and printed weekly programs for church services for 17 years. He received a 15 year volunteer award and was honored by Mayor Snarr. (When sitting at the banquet next to Mayor Snarr, he said that the Mayor nearly took out his eye with his mustache which was about a foot long on each side of his face.) He was an excellent husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. He was dearly loved by his nieces and nephews, their children, and many friends, neighbors, and co-workers. His was highly intelligent even though he thought otherwise, was interesting, very skilled in many areas, a very funny (humorous, witty) man and greatly loved by his family and extended family. He was always merciful, generous, frugal (not cheap), and always tried his best to be fair and humane. He was a feminist and respected the efforts and accomplishments of women. Why a feminist? Because he only had daughters.

His family and he would like to posthumously thank and express their sincere appreciation to nurses and aides, Amelda, Crystal, Annie, and his Abbington nurses and aides, Kaycee, and ALL her staff, Josie, Glen’s grand niece, Heidi, the hospice crew, and his caregiver, aide, and friend, Heather Kelley.

He was preceded in death by his beloved wife, Elva, his devoted parents, Guy and Rose Werner, his brother and fellow traveler/wonderer, Leonard Werner, his dog, Saycee, and cats Snoopy and Frisky.

He is survived by his daughters, Leslie Jean Werner (Mike) Bell, Charlotte Rose Werner (Kurt) Ovard, and Judy Ann Werner (Larry) Sorensen, his grandchildren, Nicole Bell Roche, Aimee Bell McDaniel and Addam Bell, and Kari Sorensen Cardon and Todd Sorensen and their children.

No funeral services will be held because all of Glen’s outstanding qualities and amazing accomplishments could not be covered in a 2-4 hour service and would not possibly do him justice, BUT a viewing on Tuesday, October 17, 2023, from 6-8 p.m. will be held at Larkin Sunset Lawn located at 2350 East 1300 South, Salt Lake City, UT (please avoid 13th South going East as it is riddled with road blocks). Graveside services will be held at Murray City Cemetery on Wednesday, October 18, 2023, at 12 p.m., located at 5490 South Vine St., Murray, UT. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Alzheimer’s Association or Macular Degeneration Association.