Robert “Bob” William Edwards

Robert W. Edwards “Bob” passed away on May 2, 2023, in Salt Lake City after a courageous battle with acute myeloid leukemia.

Bob was born May 14, 1937, in New York City to Catherine Eyring and William Foster Edwards. He was the third of six children. As a young man, he moved with his family to Provo, Utah, where he attended Brigham Young University High School. In August 1957, he graduated from Brigham Young University and, the following month, he left to serve in the East German Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

After his mission, Bob attended Harvard Law School. When he graduated in 1964, he took his first position in Salt Lake City with Fabian & Clendenin for whom he had clerked the previous summer. That was the beginning of a satisfying legal career. Following his years at Fabian & Clendenin, Bob joined a small firm that would ultimately come to be known as Fox, Edwards, Gardiner & Brown until ending his career at Kirton & McConkie.

During his summer clerkship with Fabian & Clendenin, Bob went on his first date with Judy Fetzer. Bob had met Judy seven years earlier when Richard Fetzer, Judy’s brother and Bob’s companion at the Mission Training Center, invited Bob to the Fetzer home for dinner. Bob’s closeness to the Fetzer family grew during his mission as Bob served as second counselor to Judy’s father, Percy K. Fetzer, President of the East German Mission. Bob and Judy dated through that summer of 1964 and, when Bob returned to Harvard Law School, Judy sent him the linden blossoms they had gathered together. Their regard for each other blossomed into love and they were married in 1965 in the Salt Lake Temple. They became the parents of six children.

Bob lived his life–to borrow words from Tennyson’s “Ulysses”–“strong in will” and with “heroic heart.” He earned a living for his family, carried children and grandchildren through challenges, and collected Utah art, all with unflinching determination and an abiding appreciation of beauty.

A runner all his life, Bob began racing in his later decades. He has been a fervent supporter of the HighFives 5K–the course passes his house–and currently holds the records for the 70-79 Male (28:17) and 80+ Male (34:07) categories.
Bob had enormous energy for doing what he knew to be right.

Bob and Judy were united in their love of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Service in the church brought them together and continued throughout their lives. Bob served as a bishop and a stake president. One of his sweetest callings was as president of the Primary Children’s Medical Center Branch in the original “Pennies-by-the-Inch” facility on 11th Avenue. Their church service only increased following Bob’s retirement: they served a humanitarian service mission to Romania and later as first counselor to the president and assistant to the matron in the Salt Lake Temple.

Bob and Judy built a loving family. Bob is survived by his wife Judy, his children Catherine, Robert (Jen), Christine (Keith), Stephen (Mary), Rebecca, and John (Lori), and twelve grandchildren. He is also survived by his siblings Caroline Clive, Midge Evans (Kirk), Catherine Poelman Weight (Harold), and Sylvia Edwards. Bob is preceded in death by his brothers Weston (Jaroldeen) and Bill (Kathy), his brothers-in-law Clifford Clive and Lloyd Poelman, and his grandson Torsten Nielsen.

The funeral service will be held at 12 noon on Saturday, May 13, 2023, at the Church of Jesus Christ Hilltop Ward Chapel at 589 East 18th Avenue in Salt Lake City.

Visiting time will be held from 6:30-8:00 pm at the chapel on Friday evening, May 12, 2023, and again from 10:30-11:30 am at the chapel prior to the service. Interment is at the Salt Lake City Cemetery at 3:00 pm.

Instead of flowers, please make memorial contributions to the Humanitarian Aid Fund of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.