Ronald F. Nielson

Surrounded by his family, Ronald Farrell Nielson passed away peacefully in his home on April 8, 2023 at the age of 90.

The oldest of three children, Ron was born to Melba Gladys Nish Nielson and Byron Lafayette Nielson on December 8, 1932 in the home of his maternal grandparents in Clarkston, Utah. When he was about 6 years old, Ron and his family moved to the small Utah town of Hinckley so that his father could purchase his own land to farm alfalfa seed. Their first home in Hinckley was extremely humble without indoor plumbing. Though Ron’s family always had enough to eat, it was difficult to make ends meet with farm work alone. As such, for part of Ron’s youth, his father worked and lived Monday through Friday at Dugway Proving Grounds. He would return on weekends to help with the farm. While their father was gone during the week, Ron and his younger brother Joe were in charge of managing the farm. Through this responsibility, Ron learned the value of diligence and hard work from a young age, values which he practiced throughout the rest of his life. Ron lived in Hinckley until he graduated from high school and loved his time there. As there were only 20 people in his high school graduating class, Ron was able to participate in numerous school activities including football, basketball, track, school operas, band, and student government.

Ron left Hinckley to attend Brigham Young University where he majored in marketing and minored in economics and chemistry. He was also a member of the Air Force ROTC program while he was at BYU. He graduated from BYU in 1958 with honors in the top 10% of his class.
Ron’s time at BYU was interrupted by a 2 year period from 1953-1955 during which he served as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Great Britain Mission. He loved his mission and the people of Great Britain. He was blessed to reunite with many of the people he had taught and baptized when he returned to England to serve as a senior missionary with his wife in 1998. He experienced much joy to see that so many of his friends and their families had remained strong in the gospel.

After graduating from BYU as part of his ROTC commitment, Ron served as active-duty Air Force for 6 months in Los Angeles, California (this was followed by 7 ½ years in the Air Force reserves). After completion of this active-duty commitment, Ron moved to Chicago to attend Northwestern University business school. He graduated from Northwestern with his MBA in 1960 and was offered a job with United California Bank in Los Angeles.

Ron worked for United California Bank for 34 years. He had many different assignments with the bank over the years including branch manager, branch administrator (at one point, he was in charge of as many as 25 branches in Northern California), and executive vice president. One of his favorite bank assignments was the 3 ½ years he spent in Tokyo during which he opened up the first branch of the bank in Japan.

After many years of being single, Ron met the love of his life Doris Faye Humphries on a blind date. They were married in the Los Angeles Temple 8 months later on November 23, 1968. They were blessed with 4 children. Ron was a kind, caring father who was a great example of honesty, integrity, and dedication. He taught his children to love the gospel and to work hard.

Ron loved the gospel of Jesus Christ and spent much of his free time serving in the church. He had many church callings over the years including Stake Mission President, Stake Young Men Superintendent, High Councilor, Bishopric Counselor, and Bishop. He and Doris also served in the Family History Mission in 2003 at the Family History Center in Salt Lake City. After the completion of this mission, he served for another 11 years at both the Salt Lake and Riverton Family History Libraries. He served as a temple worker in 3 different temples over the years.
Ron loved his family and loved being “Poppy” to his 23 grandchildren, each of whom was his “very best friend.” Ron loved running every morning in his younger years and walking every morning in his older years. He loved to read and learn new things. He had a brilliant mind and could converse with anybody on numerous topics. He also loved to travel and was able to visit numerous countries with Doris over the years.

Ron is survived by his loving wife Doris and their four children: Kimberly Pettit (David), Brett Nielson (Andrea), David Nielson (Jody), Karin Nelson (Casey). In addition, he leaves behind 23 beloved grandchildren as well as 3 great grandchildren (with 2 more great grandchildren set to arrive in the next few months). Ron was preceded in death by his parents, his brother Joseph and his sister Carolyn.

Funeral services will be held at 12:00 noon on Saturday, April 15, 2023 at the South Mountain 7th Ward, 272 East Traversepoint Drive Draper, Utah with a viewing from 10:30-11:30 am. If you would like to watch the services please click on the blue "Watch Services" button above.