Jean Rio Baker Oblad Calder passed away peacefully at home on October 26, 2023 after a long illness, surrounded by family from both sides of mortality’s veil. Jean was born in Springfield, Pennsylvania to Bessie Elizabeth Baker and Alex Golden Oblad on December 10, 1955. She grew up in Short Hills, New Jersey, and moved to Salt Lake City, subsequently graduating from Highland High School and the University of Utah, where she earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing with high honors.
Jean considered the greatest accomplishments of her life to be building her unshakeable faith in Jesus Christ while gaining the adoration of her husband Scott, her five children, and eleven, soon-to-be-twelve, grandchildren. The namesake and great-great granddaughter of noted and oft-quoted Mormon Pioneer Jean Rio Baker, Jean took pride in her pioneer heritage and paid forward that legacy through an exemplary life well-lived, surrounded by true friends, and characterized by love and service.
Jean loved deeply, instinctively, and unconditionally.
Her service was first to her family, but also included many callings within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Boston, Massachusetts, Menlo Park, California, and in Salt Lake City, Utah. She served in numerous roles in the Church, including multiple times as a counselor in the Church’s auxiliaries and as the president of her ward’s Primary and Relief Society organizations. But her most beloved and profoundly satisfying role came through her twenty-five years of service in the Salt Lake Temple, where she was a faithful patron, an ordinance worker, a shift coordinator, and a staff coordinator.
She was most herself as she served others.
Serving others included culturing an expanded circle of true friends who recognized Jean’s sincerity, absolute integrity, and her love of laughter. Among her favorite expeditions were numerous “girl trips” to New England and San Diego, quality time away spent with friends sharing mirth punctuated with lessons of life and building friendships that extend into the eternities.
Jean surrounded herself with beauty; she loved music and art, particularly artworks of celebrated Utah painters, which she regarded as a reflection of the sublime life and handiwork of her Savior Jesus Christ. Her conviction of Jesus Christ’s divinity and His atonement infused every part of her life as she lost herself in serving others.
Jean married Scott Eyring Calder in the Salt Lake Temple on August 1, 1977, igniting a forty-six year romance that crossed five continents but found its center at home. Together, Jean and Scott raised five children with love, laughter, and occasional mischief, but above all, with abundant joy. As the years passed, Scott and Jean reveled as they welcomed their grandchildren William, Phoebe, Lucienne, Marlowe, Truman, John, Jr., James, Genevieve, Luke, Anne-Sophie, and Marie-Claire, and they now eagerly anticipate a soon-to-arrive grandson (David and Vanessa).
Jean’s highest aspiration was to see her posterity come to a knowledge of their Savior.
Jean is survived by her husband Scott, their children Scott, Jr. (Tara), Grant (Jamie), David (Vanessa), John (Jacqueline), and Elizabeth, and by Jean’s older siblings Edward, Elizabeth, Virginia, John, and Bruce.
Funeral services celebrating Jean’s life of beauty, love, and service and her devotion to Jesus Christ will be held at the Federal Heights Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints located at 1300 Fairfax Road, Salt Lake City, Utah 84103 on Friday, November 3, 2023 at Noon.
Jean’s family invites friends to gather the night prior to the funeral, on Thursday evening, November 2nd from 6:00pm until 8:30pm at the Larkin Sunset Lawn Mortuary located at 2350 East 1300 South, Salt Lake City, Utah 84108, and at the church from 10:30am until 11:30am before the funeral. Interment will follow the funeral service at Larkin Sunset Lawn Memorial Park located at 2350 East 1300 South, Salt Lake City, Utah 84108.
You may watch a recording of the service online through Zoom using the following link:
Dear Scott,
We just learned of Jean’s passing and we are saddened and filled with wonderful memories when we lived in the Arlington Hills Ward. Jean was loved and admired by all who knew her. She was kind, always interested in others, and humble. Paula and Jean became very close and we were sad when our street was moved to another ward and we missed dear friends like the Calders. We are sad to be out of town but will zoom the service tomorrow. Love, Richard and Paula Spencer