Gerald Allan Frazier

Gerald Allan Frazier

Born: 19 June 1937 Died: 1 February 2026

Why knock the wall down even when the plaster has a few cracks?

Springville. Utah - I was born the third son and fourth child of goodly parents Rene Dillon and Annie LaVelle Foote Frazier in Woodruff, Utah, with Sarah Cornia, midwife, assisting.

Our family moved to Springville in 1939 when I was almost two when my father had determined he could not eke out a living to support the family in Woodruff. We first lived and farmed on what is called the straight line between Springville and Spanish Fork. After that we moved to 400 North Street next to classmate Jim Whiting and his family and finally to what is the Frazier family homestead at 1050 East 400 South which included the house, a barn, 40 acres of farm land and an orchard. I was about five and this is when I first met lifelong friend Linda Weight (Cluff) who was standing on the ditch bank between our houses with her sister Joyce "gawking" at us. Dad later sold the farm and it was made into Spring Acres race track. While farming I retrieved the cows from the pasture for milking, gathered the eggs, and cleaned out the chicken coops several times. My sister Pat and I survived sitting on the back of the hay baler pushing and pulling the wires which held the bales together. We also picked cherries for 3 cents a pound for several local farmers.

All of my schooling from K-12 began at the Grant School (K-5) to Springville High School (6) and ended at Springville Jr. and Senior High School (7-12). I learned the Virginia Reel and the two-step in grade school and from there became a dancing enthusiast. I took art classes all six years of my junior and senior high school years. I was the L 'Artiste yearbook art editor my senior year and was named the outstanding high school art student receiving the Hafen-Dallin Club $60 cash scholarship which I used to help pay my first quarter term tuition and fees at Brigham Young University.

I graduated from BYU in 1962 with a bachelor's degree in journalism. I served on the Banyan yearbook staff as art editor, copy editor, assistant editor and twice as the editor-in-chief. These were all paying positions helping me to meet my costs of attendance. I was a member of the Gold Y Chapter of Intercollegiate Knights, a national service fraternity, and was named to the Sigma Delta Chi Professional Journalistic Society. As an IK, we provided the ushering and back stage assistance to many world-famous performers and groups as well as lighting the block Y on special occasions. I worked for the BYU Food Services at the Cougareat and Cannon Center. During the summers I worked in Lodi, California for General Mills putting prizes in cereal boxes and Stokely-Van Camp cannery affixing labels to cans of fruits and vegetables, and the Bank of America in Los Angeles for two years converting branch customer accounts to computer files.

Early church activity began in the Springville First Ward. I was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in that building but it was after when the Sixth Ward was organized. It began a whirlwind of my church activity. My father was the first scoutmaster of Troop 68 where he held the first meetings in the "big room" in our basement.

Although the ward boundaries from Brookside, to the east bench and up Hobble Creek canyon did not change, the Sixth Ward met in various buildings including the Springville Fourth Ward, the Mapleton Ward, the Junior High and Brookside schools, and two Kolob Stake Center buildings ward members helped to build. My sister Carol was born at the Payson Hospital in November, 1942. Our family traveled with a busload of ward members to the Salt Lake City LOS Temple where our family was sealed in January, 1946. I was ordained an elder in Lodi, California, and a high priest in Mesa, Arizona. When I turned 20 I served a two year mission to the Central Atlantic States Mission which included all of North Carolina and most of Virginia.

Graduation from BYU and going to school an additional year preceded my taking my first job as a general assignment reporter for the Arizona Republic newspaper in Phoenix in September, 1963. Beginning July 1, 1964, I began working at Arizona State University for an extended period lasting almost 19 years. There I worked with elected student body officers and student boards and as advisor to the Sahuaro Yearbook for 8 years and the ASU cheerleaders for 16 of those years. The last seven years at ASU I worked as assistant to the Dean of Students.

After leaving ASU in 1983, I became a licensed stock broker with Dominick & Dominick in Mesa working for an old college roommate, Paul Williams. I became a sales associate in 1990 at Dillard's Department Store at the Mesa, Arizona Fiesta Mall. I left both after living in Arizona 40 years when I retired the first time in the summer of 2002 and moved back to Utah.

Almost immediately a close friend, Rich Bishop, who was Director of Financial Aid at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain invited me back to work where I was a financial aid counselor until June, 2012, when I retired for the second time and moved back to Utah. Luckily, that job solidified my being able to live a comfortable retirement.

My Dad died June, 1990, and my Mom, December, 1993. A sixth child and brother, Ernest Charles Frazier was born and died October, 1952. I always wished he would have lived. In 2016 my brother Bob died in February, and my brother Blaine died in December. His wife Renae Bunnell died in June. I am survived by my sisters Patricia and her husband Stewart Ivie, Carol Mitchell, and Bob's wife Lucile Bryan, in addition to 18 nieces and nephews, numerous great and great, great nieces and nephews, and many beloved friends.

I was fortunate to be born of farsighted, hardworking, and honorable ancestry. My eighth great grandfather Nathanial Foote was one of the founding settlers of Wethersfield, CT, in 1637. My great, great grandfather Timothy Bradley Foote helped settle Nephi, UT in 1851. And my Quaker Frazier ancestry when living in Salem, Iowa, were front line participants during the Civil War in the Underground Railroad facilitating escaping slaves a safe journey to Canada and other northern points. My roots trace back to Scotland, Wales, Ireland, England, Sweden and Denmark.

In retirement and beginning to feel the creeping frailties of age, I learned a few good lessons in how to manage my time. I always needed to be kept busy with some kind of project. My interests have always leaned towards family genealogy and histories. My dad recorded stories from his life on several cassette tapes when he was in is late 70's1 early 80's. I transcribed them and included them in a book "Old Man Sunshine." I always felt there needed to be a book about my mom so I put together "Annie of Seville." For the year 2020, I created the Frazier Family Heritage Calendar which included the names and birthdates of some 160 family members.

And at the urging of my cousin Kent's wife Bonnie I completed a folk art picture titled "Raining Sugar Cookies on 497 W 500 North" of my Grandpa and Grandma Foote's house in Nephi, Utah. Currently I am beginning a project about the Wankier family utilizing about 10 years of photographs taken at Wankier Family Reunions as a basis. My mom's mom was a Wankier who was born in Levan, Utah. And I published a limited edition (4 copies) book of about 110 of my favorite photos taken at places I had lived and visited.

I put together a Surprise Happy Birthday Card parties for my sister Patricia on her 80th birthday and for my brother-in-law Stewart R. Ivie on his 90th birthday. My niece Stacy Frazier Salazar planned a super 80th birthday party for me which I missed because I was in the hospital. However, about 40 of the party goers came to the hospital to wish me well and happy birthday.

Some of the most gratifying experiences came in discovering and meeting new family members I didn't know I had. A nephew reported he had a second son and that turned out to be Jake Homer and his family. What a blessing they are. I learned my cousin Terrence Vest had two half-brothers he and the rest of our family never knew about. I was able to connect with one of them, Kent Joseph Vest, who lives in Burbank, CA. And the excitement when adopted niece Jennifer Mitchell Mecham and her adopted brother Rob Mitchell had their DNA tested to begin a journey to find their birth parents.

My living and loving family and friends have accepted the responsibility to make the arrangements for any post-mortem services. I have always wanted to have at least a bagpiper and drummer play "Scotland the Brave" at the services at the Historic Springville Cemetery on west 400 South where I am to be buried.

Thank you for my happy life and I love you all.

Graveside services will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, February 6, 2026 at The Historic Springville City Cemetery, 200 West 400 South, Springville, Utah. A Celebration of life will follow at 2:30 p.m. at The Ashford Assisted Living, 333 South 950 West, Springville, Utah.

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