Max Leon Menlove

After a long and happy life Max L. Menlove died peacefully at home June 13, 2017. Born Jan. 30, 1925 in Payson Utah, Max grew up among the mountains, lakes and streams of Spring Lake and Payson where he attended school, lettering in baseball, basketball and football, serving as student body officer and captain of the regional championship basketball team. Straight from high school he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps where he served as a flight instructor and 2nd lieutenant. He loved to fly and took full advantage of weekend passes and access to his beloved AT6 fighter planes to thrill is hometown friends, spike his mother’s blood pressure and send school children scurrying under desks when he’d fly not so much over as through Spring Lake and Payson.

Back home after his two-year stint in the air force, Max stopped one afternoon for a soda at Daniel's Drug Store in Provo where he was smitten by a beautiful and vivacious young woman behind the counter, Nancy Lant (the story goes she’d been trying to catch his eye for months). The two were married May 8, 1948 and were at one another's side almost constantly until Nancy’s death in 2005. They were sealed for time and eternity in the Salt Lake Temple in 1957.

Max’s primary career was in air traffic control, with a short stay in Oakland and the bulk of his years at the Salt Lake International Airport. After living in Murray, Utah for 11 years where he and Nancy made lasting friendships, he built a home along the banks of Little Cottonwood Creek in Sandy, complete with treehouse, rope swings and carefully curated natural landscaping. Their children raised, Max and Nancy moved to a smaller home closer to family roots in Mapleton where they spent the rest of their lives. He was active in and devoted to his church, serving as scoutmaster and in five bishoprics and as high priest group leader. His volunteer work doing extractions and arbitration in family search indexing is legendary.

Max expressed his creativity, craftsmanship and work ethic in his beautiful gardens and lawns and even more so in his award-winning hand-carved ducks, the last of which he finished just days before his death. He loved games of any sort – cribbage, gin, spades, catch with any kind of ball – with family, friends and most of all his grandchildren.

He is survived by seven children: Susan (David) Pugh of Star, ID; Peggy Walker of Newbury Park, CA; Douglas (Frank) of Morgantown, WV; Mark (Dana) of Boise, ID; Gary of Salt Lake City, UT; Sharla (Michael) Chador of Lake Tahoe, CA; Angela (Tim) McKinney of Salt Lake City, UT; sister LouDene Perry, brother Robert; 17 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by the love of his life and wife of 55 years, Nancy Lant Menlove; parents Walter Leo and Rhea Taylor Menlove; brothers Ted, Ralph and Joseph, sister Ruth Ann Gunderson; and grandson Nicholas Pugh.

Funeral services will be held Saturday June 17 at 11:00 a.m. in the LDS Chapel at 1316 S. Main, Mapleton. Friends may call Friday evening from 6:00-8:00 p.m. at Wheeler Mortuary, 82 W. 400 N., Mapleton or at the Mapleton South Main Chapel from 9:45-10:45 a.m. prior to the services. Burial will be in the Payson City Cemetery. Condolences may be sent to www.wheelermortuary.com