Quinton Smith Harris, loving and beloved husband, father, and grandfather, passed away peacefully on January 26, 2018, after a long and happy life. He was born March 18, 1928, in Logan, Utah to Alvin Edward Sandgren Harris and Olena Wright Smith. He grew up in Rexburg, Idaho and graduated from Madison High School where he excelled academically and on the basketball court.
He served an LDS mission to the Mexican Mission from 1948 to 1951 and was one of the first missionaries to serve in Guatemala and Costa Rica. After his mission, he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Washington and married Ruth Ann Anderson on August 28, 1953, in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. Quinton graduated from the University of Utah's College of Medicine, completed his residency in internal medicine in Chicago, Illinois, and then served as a Captain in the United States Air Force from 1957 to 1959. After being honorably discharged, he and Ruth Ann returned to Salt Lake City, where he had an extremely successful and satisfying career practicing internal medicine for more than 30 years.
Quinton and Ruth Ann had a wonderful life together with five children, Edward, Mary Sue, Richard, James, and Steven. He was devoted to his family, friends, and the LDS Church. He was especially supportive and encouraging of his grandchildren, who knew him as Grandpapop. He loved sending them daily emails with inspirational quotes, often in Spanish, to help them with their language skills. Quinton was a voracious reader and a continual student of virtually everything. He found great pleasure in his large and well-worn library. He instilled in his family the value of education and was unmatched in striving for excellence in everything he did. He also enjoyed playing games ‚ especially with his grandchildren ‚ and always loved a good joke. We will miss his laugh.
Quinton served in numerous Church callings, including as a Bishop in a University of Utah Student Ward, in bishoprics, in the presidency of the Utah State Penitentiary Branch, and in the Young Men's organization. As an Eagle Scout, he especially enjoyed working with his sons as their Cub Scout Den Leader and Scoutmaster. He was also an avid genealogist and was instrumental in leading several family organizations. He was thrilled to return to Mexico when he was called to serve with Ruth Ann as President of the Mexico City North Mission from 1984 to 1987. He loved his missionaries and the people of Mexico.
Throughout his medical career, Quinton tirelessly helped his patients achieve the highest quality life possible while at the same time working diligently to improve the medical profession. He was an active member of the Utah Medical Association (President 1991-92), the Utah Society of Internal Medicine (President 1970), the Collegium Aesculapium Foundation, The American College of Physicians, and the New York Academy of Sciences. Quinton served as President of the Staff of LDS Hospital (1975) and was on the faculty of the University of Utah's College of Medicine throughout his career.
While Quinton deeply appreciated the recognition he received over the years from his professional friends and colleagues ‚ including being named Doctor of Year for the State of Utah in 1993 and receiving distinguished service awards from the Collegium Aesculapium and the University of Utah and the Laureate Award from the American College of Physicians ‚ his greatest satisfaction came from practicing medicine in the service of the Church. Quinton took on the most significant and rewarding challenge of his life in 1988, organizing and chairing the Medical Advisory Committee of the Church's Missionary Department. The 17 years he spent in the Missionary Department, advising mission presidents and addressing missionaries' health concerns around the world, brought him tremendous joy. Ruth Ann mistakenly thought their retirement years would be filled with travel to Paris, Vienna, and Florence. Instead, Quinton's work for the Church took him from Manaus to Yaound√© and from Phnom Penh to Chernobyl. At virtually any time of the day or night when he was home, Quinton was on the phone talking with a mission president or doctor, helping a sick or injured missionary somewhere in the world. He became an expert in diagnosing and treating parasites and tropical diseases, and he traveled to more than 80 countries, assessing health conditions, meeting with mission presidents and missionaries, providing health training sessions, identifying and establishing relationships with the best local medical professionals and medical facilities throughout the developing world, and encouraging LDS doctors to serve as medical advisors when they retired. Quinton's unfailing dedication to the Church's missionary program ‚ supporting the missionaries, mission presidents, medical advisors, and Church leaders ‚ was exemplary.
Quinton was preceded in death by his dear Ruth Ann and their two precious children, Mary Sue and Steven, and his brother, Alvin Edward Harris, Jr. He longed for the day when he would be able to see them again, and he is now reunited with them. He is survived by his sons, Edward (Anne Taylor), Richard, and James (Ana Disarz); his grandchildren, Devon (Cameron Rothlisberger), Kyrsti (Mason Christensen), Brynn and Taylor X; and his sister-in-law, Francis Ellen McKay.
The family gives special thanks to the wonderful staff at The Ridge Senior Living facility and the nurses and caregivers of Solstice Hospice whose extraordinary compassion and kindness made Quinton's final year so enjoyable and his final days comfortable. They also provided his family with tremendous support.
Funeral services will be held Saturday, March 17, 2018 at 11:00 a.m. at the Monument Park Crestview Ward Chapel, 2795 E. Crestview Drive. Family and friends may call Friday, March 16, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Larkin Sunset Lawn Mortuary, 2350 East 1300 South. Interment at Salt Lake City Cemetery, 200 \"N\" Street. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations in Quinton's name to the Intermountain Research and Medical Foundation (formerly The Deseret Foundation). Donations may be made by phone at 801-507-2040, by mail to 5171 S. Cottonwood Street, Bldg. 1, Suite 115, Murray, Utah 84107, or online athttps://intermountainhealthcare.org/giving-volunteering/intermountain-foundation/what-we-support/intermountain-research-and-medical-foundation/
