Richard Grant Horsley

Richard Grant Horsley, 78, died August 19, 2023. Born January 11th, 1945 in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Kenneth and Della Horsley.
Married Violet Jost, in the Salt Lake LDS Temple February 13th, 1970.

He served several missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints. One in the Southwest British Mission, 1967-1969. As a couple with his wife, he served 3 more missions. One in the London South Mission at the Temple Visitor Center, 2012-2014, one in the Vancouver Canada Mission serving in Prince George as Seminary and Institute instructors, 2017-2019, and finally one in the Alpine German-speaking Mission serving in Stuttgart for military relations, 2021-2022.

He achieved Master Sergeant in the Utah Air National Guard where he served for 30 years from 1965 to 1995 as a cook extraordinaire a.k.a. “Master of Disaster”. He was known and heralded by the troops of the 106th Air Control Squadron for his great-tasting meals and procurement of quality ingredients.

He loved baseball all his life. He grew up as a Sandlot kid playing ball with his friends. He played Varsity in High School for West High. He won the Regional Championship with the Air National Guard baseball team in 1972. He coached his daughters’ teams in the Bonnet Softball league. When he retired from the field, he continued to coach little league with his son for 8 years. As a spectator he achieved a personal goal of visiting every major league baseball field and trying out their hotdogs. The only caveat being that some of those fields have been torn down and rebuilt and he ran out of time before he could visit the newest ones. Though he was a lifelong Yankee’s fan and surely had an affinity for Yankee stadium he did confess that Detroit served the best hotdogs.

He was also very proud of his service as a Scout Master and Cub Scout Chairman for 10 years. He loved teaching the boys, even though they could be annoying at times, and watching them grow into men.

His greatest joys and proudest accomplishments were in regard to his family as a father and a grandfather. He took it as a personal honor to be able to celebrate the marriage of all three of his children and the birth of his grandchildren, Jude, Gabrielle, Merrick, and Gideon.

He graduated from the University of Utah with a bachelor’s degree in accounting. Always a numbers guy he worked as an accountant at various enterprises, but most prominently spent 28 years at the Utah State Health Department where he retired in 2011. While there he was an Auditor and Finance Manager.

Dad loved hunting. This too figured prominently into his childhood and upbringing. Stories of riding out to “Humpty Hollow” with his own dad and brothers and relatives were some of the fondest that he would share. He enjoyed passing on similar moments with his own children taking them pheasant and duck hunting out at Salt Creek game preserve and dove hunting in southern Utah in Enterprise. Part of that joy was going out with his furry companion his black lab named Lady Bird. His time out in nature instilled in him an awe, respect and love for God’s creations and God’s bounty.

One thing you learned very quickly about Rick was that he was a die-hard BYU fan. He enjoyed the rivalry with Utah and enjoyed the fun of teasing his co-workers and any other Ute fan in close proximity. One might say that Max Hall was his hero. He also didn’t mind being teased in return as this too occurred frequently. Many of his work-related stories were around various pranks he and his co-workers would pull on each other about the failings or deficiencies in either team. It was always in good fun, and he was a good sport about it.

The thing that animated and defined his life the most was his love and dedication to his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He expressed this through his devoted service to Christ’s church. This is clearly evidenced by his aforementioned missionary service, but he also lived his religion on a daily and regular basis: He served his community and showed his love by visiting member and non-member alike without fail, countless service projects, fasting, prayer, daily scripture study with his devoted wife, never faltering in his church callings, his goodness and service to his wife and family, as well as regular if not daily repentance. He strived to understand God’s will for his life and did his best to carry that out. He was a true disciple of Christ and a Saint of the highest standard.

He is survived by his wife Violet Horsley and three children: Erica Horsley (Tomas Mitchell), Jeannette Mason (Zak Mason), and Brett Alan Horsley (Dallin Cowles). Siblings: Dallas Church (Mary Church), Kenna Gaye Marino (Corby Romano), Don Horsley (Rhonda Horsley), and Marlene Jones (Jack Jones).

He is proceeded in death by his sister Margaret Eastwood and brother Randy Horsley.

Funeral Services Friday, August 25, 11 a.m. Westland 9th Ward, 7115 S 3200 W, West Jordan, UT. Viewings will be held at the same location on Thursday August 24 from 6 pm – 8 pm and Friday August 25 from 10 am – 11 am.

Those wishing to view the services via Zoom can click " Watch Service" or follow the link: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/C-0f1BwytmW3XDC3YlE4iLSEHXH_UZPyymnIPEXSZNb8eSDMq52DM6TT9bYxhqna.ctlPlLxOfyxD6Y3Z?startTime=1692981541000