Vivian Beverly Hansen Mitchell, 97, returned Home on Christmas Day 2018. The Columbia trained, founding Dean of Nursing at Brigham Young University, mother of four, therapist of more, was always interested in the well-being of everyone around her. From her children, to her early morning seminary students, from lost kids, and inquisitive tourists in the JSMB, to nurses everywhere, she loved listening, guiding, teaching, and helping.
Vivian was born into a close-knit family of four brothers and four sisters in Salt Lake City. Her parents Holger P. V. Hansen and Anna Hypolita Ejlersen found their ways to Zion after joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Denmark.
Vivian graduated from East High, the University of Utah, and Columbia University. She met Jerry at the Manhattan Ward. They fell in love during a ward outing that included swimming in the Atlantic off Coney Island.
Vivian was an Army nurse in the Presidio during WWII, while Jerry, a Captain in the Merchant Marine, was on the high seas. Later she did graduate work at Duke and was a professor at the University of Colorado.
President Wilkinson worked to convince reluctant Vivian to accept the challenge of setting up the School of Nursing atBrigham Young University. He finally forced her to Provo by bribing her mother with Marzipan and inviting her to stay overnight. Not able to sleep, she went alone to the future dean\s office in the Eyring Science Center. As she watched the sun rise over Mt. Timpanogos, twoboys, scrubbing floors outside her office,startedsingingCome, Come, Ye Saints and the Spirit whispered:this is the place.Vivian designed the first BYU nurse\s uniform, the curriculum, and recruited faculty from her nationwide network of colleagues. Later her four children graduated from BYU and her three sons served missions in South America.
She was accomplished before she married Jerry Mitchell in the Logan Temple. She asked him to give up his seafaring career to marry her and followed him to law school in Washington DC. Together they set off for two years in the Panama Canal Zone, but stayed seven. Jerry was a trial attorney in the Office of the General Counsel and Vivian served as Seminary Teacher, Relief Society President, etc. in the Pacific Branch, adapting lessons and service opportunities to the tropics.
In Panama, Vivian taught her children to love nature and all of God's creatures, no matter how scary or scaly. She pretended to be unafraid, so her sons would be fearless. And she was an explorer who discovered secret beaches deep in the jungles, where we collected a million shells and swam in crocodile infested waters.
After three years in Norfolk, Virginia, including teaching appointments at Hampton Institute and the University of Virginia, the family returned to the San Francisco Bay Area, where Vivian served on the board of Peninsula General Hospital and in many ward and stake callings and was a family therapist for LDS Social Services. They remained in San Bruno until an earthquake encouraged The Honorable Jerry Mitchell to retire, something Vivian had advocated for years.
Vivian and Jerry moved to Salt Lake City, into a house overlooking the Avenues, where Vivian was born. They enjoyed entertaining grandchildren, serving in the temple and volunteering on Temple Square. As a guide in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, Vivian loved to teach people about her hometown and her beliefs, surprised to find herself in the mission field again.
A lifelong faithful believer in Jesus Christ, the power of prayer, the Bible and the Book of Mormon, Vivian spent her final years in Kannapolis, North Carolina in the company of her son Jon and in the care of her dedicated, indefatigable daughter-in-law Sharmyn. No one, in their last years, ever had a more beautiful and peaceful home, and so much love. Sharmyn and Jon were at her side Christmas morning when she headed Home.
Vivian is survived by her four children: Jeffrey, Eve, Jon, and Steven, and their spouses: Reed Stockdale, Sharmyn Mitchell and Sharyl Mitchell, 15 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren; her sister Eva Hansen, and brothers Grant, Richard, and Robert Hansen, and their wives, her brother-in-law Marvel Roper and numerous nieces and nephews.
Vivian's family will welcome visitors at Larkin Funeral Home, 260 East South Temple, Salt Lake City, UT, on Friday night, January 11th, from 7 to 9PM. Her funeral will be held at Arlington Hills Ward Chapel, 1300 East Fairfax Road, in Salt Lake City at 10AM on Saturday, January 12th, 2019. There will also be a viewing from 9 to 9:45 AM in the Relief Society Room on Saturday morning.
