Douglas Heal "Doug" Thayer
1929 - 2017
VETERAN
❦ Early Life: Doug was born April 19, 1929, in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Edward "Frank" and Lily Nora Thatcher Thayer. He grew up hiking the mountains overlooking his town of Provo, Utah, roaming the fields, fishing the streams, swimming in the river and the polluted lake that immunized generations of adventurous youth. Doug was the consummate Provo boy as he scrubbed and cleaned the old Sixth Ward Meetinghouse and the Clark Clinic with his mother, the indomitable Lil. He found jobs collecting nightcrawlers in the dark from neighbors' lawns to sell to waiting fishermen, sweeping floors and washing dishes in cafés, delivering papers. A noted short story writer and novelist referred to as - "the Mormon Hemingway" and "the grandfather of modern Mormon fiction" - Doug's memoir, Hooligan: A Mormon Boyhood, captured the life of a boy growing up in Provo during the Great Depression.
❦ Life's Work | Service | Interests: When he was 17, Doug dropped out of BY High School to join the United States Army, serving with the US Occupation Forces in war-shattered Germany; an experience that changed his life and greatly influenced his writing. He returned to Germany for 30 months as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Back in Provo he earned a bachelor's degree in English at Brigham Young University, then did graduate work at Stanford (MA American Lit), University of Maryland (PhD study), and the University of Iowa (MFA Fiction Writing). He taught at BYU for 54 years, serving as Coordinator of Composition, Director of Creative Writing, Associate Chair in the English Department, and Associate Dean of the College of Humanities with Dean Todd Britsch. All of his life, Doug worked hard without complaint. As a young man, he worked at the office of the Provo Herald, as a helper on a uranium drill rig, a construction laborer, a railroad section hand, and a seasonal ranger in Yellowstone National Park. Doug was an avid Scouter, from Senior Patrol Leader and Eagle Scout under the mentorship of Harold B. Jones, to decades guiding others (including four sons) toward their Eagles. He served on Scout committees into his eighties. As a young man, he hunted and fished with his sidekicks, Dean Conant and the Jones clan. By the time he was 60, he had sons of his own to take fishing, on the lakes, reservoirs - water and ice. In his mellowing years, he perfected fly fishing — the cast and the art of catch-and-release — with friend and colleague (and literary critic), Eugene England, who passed away in 2001. He kept fishing with Dean, Scouts, sons, grandsons, and his new ace buddy, Randy Rogers, almost to the end. Doug married Donlu DeWitt in the Salt Lake Temple in 1974. Long accustomed to walking to and from BYU every day, he kept up the practice, a 25-minute journey from their first home on First South, and the same distance from the home he and Donlu built in Edgemont in 1978, where their six children grew up. Doug's habits were regular and sound. His students, colleagues, friends, ward members and neighbors knew his relentless wit and dry humor, his trustworthiness and his selfless, unheralded service. Doug told stories, tall tales to entertain his grandchildren and mystified strangers, and carefully crafted works of fiction. He published four collections of short stories and four novels (a fifth still in process as he died). Recognition of Doug's work includes prizes from Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought for the short story and essay, the P. A. Christensen Award, the Association for Mormon Letters Prize in the Novel, the Karl G. Maeser Creative Arts Award, the Utah Institute of Fine Arts Award in the Short Story, and the 2008 Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters. A lifelong and faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Doug was counselor to his mission president, Edwin Cannon (upon the order of visiting Apostle David O. McKay), and held the office of seventy after his mission and until local units of seventy were discontinued in 1974, when he was ordained a high priest by Harold B. Jones, who was ordained by Matthew Cowley, ordained by George Albert Smith, ordained by Joseph F. Smith, ordained by Brigham Young. Doug served on lesson-writing committees for the Church, in three bishoprics, and on two high councils. Besides those countless Scouting committees, he served in many teaching callings. In his seventies, he volunteered to be the ward representative supervising the meetinghouse cleaning crews, a calling he could never completely relinquish, sneaking over to make sure the stake pavilion was in order (aided in the end by his daughter, Katie, and her husband, Jonathan) until two weeks before his death. In recognition of Doug's ties to the community, Mayor Lewis Billings proclaimed Doug's 75th birthday "Douglas Thayer Day" in Provo. Douglas Heal Thayer died at home in Provo, Utah, during his favorite season of the year, his third battle with cancer finally taking the ultimate toll, on October 17, 2017. He was 88.
❦ Family Message: "The family thank friends Dean, Randy, Bruce Jorgensen, Bill Lund, and Gene Mead, who kept him talking, reading, revising, taking drives, and making trips to the library and to lunch, up to the last, and Tammy Poulson, his hospice nurse, charged with watching for signs of decline as she delightfully endured that outrageous and charming wit."
❦ Survived By: His wife; their six children and spouses and their 21 "offspring", whom he adored: Emmelyn (Steven) Freitas and Vivienne; Paul (Sharolyn Shields) and Marcus, Aaron, Heather, Justin, Spencer & Alice; James (Elizabeth Benson) and Benson, William, Anna, Simon, Madeline and Sara; Katherine (Jonathan) Willson and Jacob and Lilian; Stephen (Amy Finnell) and Maxwell, Miles and Alexander; and Michael (Jill Myers) and Abigail, Owen and Sienna. He is also survived by his brother, Robert (Brigitte) Thayer and his family, as well as other extended family.
❦ Preceded In Death By: His parents, his brother, Rowland; his sister, Marlene; his nephew, Keith Hill; and his stepfather, Glen Overly.
❦ Services: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
❦ Location; Edgemont South Stake Center | Provo, Utah
❦ Arrangements: Berg Mortuary of Provo
❦ Obituary: © 2017 | Berg Mortuary
❦ Burial: Provo City Cemetery
Bio compiled by: Annie Duckett Hundley
1929 - 2017
VETERAN
❦ Early Life: Doug was born April 19, 1929, in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Edward "Frank" and Lily Nora Thatcher Thayer. He grew up hiking the mountains overlooking his town of Provo, Utah, roaming the fields, fishing the streams, swimming in the river and the polluted lake that immunized generations of adventurous youth. Doug was the consummate Provo boy as he scrubbed and cleaned the old Sixth Ward Meetinghouse and the Clark Clinic with his mother, the indomitable Lil. He found jobs collecting nightcrawlers in the dark from neighbors' lawns to sell to waiting fishermen, sweeping floors and washing dishes in cafés, delivering papers. A noted short story writer and novelist referred to as - "the Mormon Hemingway" and "the grandfather of modern Mormon fiction" - Doug's memoir, Hooligan: A Mormon Boyhood, captured the life of a boy growing up in Provo during the Great Depression.
❦ Life's Work | Service | Interests: When he was 17, Doug dropped out of BY High School to join the United States Army, serving with the US Occupation Forces in war-shattered Germany; an experience that changed his life and greatly influenced his writing. He returned to Germany for 30 months as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Back in Provo he earned a bachelor's degree in English at Brigham Young University, then did graduate work at Stanford (MA American Lit), University of Maryland (PhD study), and the University of Iowa (MFA Fiction Writing). He taught at BYU for 54 years, serving as Coordinator of Composition, Director of Creative Writing, Associate Chair in the English Department, and Associate Dean of the College of Humanities with Dean Todd Britsch. All of his life, Doug worked hard without complaint. As a young man, he worked at the office of the Provo Herald, as a helper on a uranium drill rig, a construction laborer, a railroad section hand, and a seasonal ranger in Yellowstone National Park. Doug was an avid Scouter, from Senior Patrol Leader and Eagle Scout under the mentorship of Harold B. Jones, to decades guiding others (including four sons) toward their Eagles. He served on Scout committees into his eighties. As a young man, he hunted and fished with his sidekicks, Dean Conant and the Jones clan. By the time he was 60, he had sons of his own to take fishing, on the lakes, reservoirs - water and ice. In his mellowing years, he perfected fly fishing — the cast and the art of catch-and-release — with friend and colleague (and literary critic), Eugene England, who passed away in 2001. He kept fishing with Dean, Scouts, sons, grandsons, and his new ace buddy, Randy Rogers, almost to the end. Doug married Donlu DeWitt in the Salt Lake Temple in 1974. Long accustomed to walking to and from BYU every day, he kept up the practice, a 25-minute journey from their first home on First South, and the same distance from the home he and Donlu built in Edgemont in 1978, where their six children grew up. Doug's habits were regular and sound. His students, colleagues, friends, ward members and neighbors knew his relentless wit and dry humor, his trustworthiness and his selfless, unheralded service. Doug told stories, tall tales to entertain his grandchildren and mystified strangers, and carefully crafted works of fiction. He published four collections of short stories and four novels (a fifth still in process as he died). Recognition of Doug's work includes prizes from Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought for the short story and essay, the P. A. Christensen Award, the Association for Mormon Letters Prize in the Novel, the Karl G. Maeser Creative Arts Award, the Utah Institute of Fine Arts Award in the Short Story, and the 2008 Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters. A lifelong and faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Doug was counselor to his mission president, Edwin Cannon (upon the order of visiting Apostle David O. McKay), and held the office of seventy after his mission and until local units of seventy were discontinued in 1974, when he was ordained a high priest by Harold B. Jones, who was ordained by Matthew Cowley, ordained by George Albert Smith, ordained by Joseph F. Smith, ordained by Brigham Young. Doug served on lesson-writing committees for the Church, in three bishoprics, and on two high councils. Besides those countless Scouting committees, he served in many teaching callings. In his seventies, he volunteered to be the ward representative supervising the meetinghouse cleaning crews, a calling he could never completely relinquish, sneaking over to make sure the stake pavilion was in order (aided in the end by his daughter, Katie, and her husband, Jonathan) until two weeks before his death. In recognition of Doug's ties to the community, Mayor Lewis Billings proclaimed Doug's 75th birthday "Douglas Thayer Day" in Provo. Douglas Heal Thayer died at home in Provo, Utah, during his favorite season of the year, his third battle with cancer finally taking the ultimate toll, on October 17, 2017. He was 88.
❦ Family Message: "The family thank friends Dean, Randy, Bruce Jorgensen, Bill Lund, and Gene Mead, who kept him talking, reading, revising, taking drives, and making trips to the library and to lunch, up to the last, and Tammy Poulson, his hospice nurse, charged with watching for signs of decline as she delightfully endured that outrageous and charming wit."
❦ Survived By: His wife; their six children and spouses and their 21 "offspring", whom he adored: Emmelyn (Steven) Freitas and Vivienne; Paul (Sharolyn Shields) and Marcus, Aaron, Heather, Justin, Spencer & Alice; James (Elizabeth Benson) and Benson, William, Anna, Simon, Madeline and Sara; Katherine (Jonathan) Willson and Jacob and Lilian; Stephen (Amy Finnell) and Maxwell, Miles and Alexander; and Michael (Jill Myers) and Abigail, Owen and Sienna. He is also survived by his brother, Robert (Brigitte) Thayer and his family, as well as other extended family.
❦ Preceded In Death By: His parents, his brother, Rowland; his sister, Marlene; his nephew, Keith Hill; and his stepfather, Glen Overly.
❦ Services: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
❦ Location; Edgemont South Stake Center | Provo, Utah
❦ Arrangements: Berg Mortuary of Provo
❦ Obituary: © 2017 | Berg Mortuary
❦ Burial: Provo City Cemetery
Bio compiled by: Annie Duckett Hundley
Douglas Heal "Doug" Thayer
1929 - 2017
VETERAN
❦ Early Life: Doug was born April 19, 1929, in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Edward "Frank" and Lily Nora Thatcher Thayer. He grew up hiking the mountains overlooking his town of Provo, Utah, roaming the fields, fishing the streams, swimming in the river and the polluted lake that immunized generations of adventurous youth. Doug was the consummate Provo boy as he scrubbed and cleaned the old Sixth Ward Meetinghouse and the Clark Clinic with his mother, the indomitable Lil. He found jobs collecting nightcrawlers in the dark from neighbors' lawns to sell to waiting fishermen, sweeping floors and washing dishes in cafés, delivering papers. A noted short story writer and novelist referred to as - "the Mormon Hemingway" and "the grandfather of modern Mormon fiction" - Doug's memoir, Hooligan: A Mormon Boyhood, captured the life of a boy growing up in Provo during the Great Depression.
❦ Life's Work | Service | Interests: When he was 17, Doug dropped out of BY High School to join the United States Army, serving with the US Occupation Forces in war-shattered Germany; an experience that changed his life and greatly influenced his writing. He returned to Germany for 30 months as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Back in Provo he earned a bachelor's degree in English at Brigham Young University, then did graduate work at Stanford (MA American Lit), University of Maryland (PhD study), and the University of Iowa (MFA Fiction Writing). He taught at BYU for 54 years, serving as Coordinator of Composition, Director of Creative Writing, Associate Chair in the English Department, and Associate Dean of the College of Humanities with Dean Todd Britsch. All of his life, Doug worked hard without complaint. As a young man, he worked at the office of the Provo Herald, as a helper on a uranium drill rig, a construction laborer, a railroad section hand, and a seasonal ranger in Yellowstone National Park. Doug was an avid Scouter, from Senior Patrol Leader and Eagle Scout under the mentorship of Harold B. Jones, to decades guiding others (including four sons) toward their Eagles. He served on Scout committees into his eighties. As a young man, he hunted and fished with his sidekicks, Dean Conant and the Jones clan. By the time he was 60, he had sons of his own to take fishing, on the lakes, reservoirs - water and ice. In his mellowing years, he perfected fly fishing — the cast and the art of catch-and-release — with friend and colleague (and literary critic), Eugene England, who passed away in 2001. He kept fishing with Dean, Scouts, sons, grandsons, and his new ace buddy, Randy Rogers, almost to the end. Doug married Donlu DeWitt in the Salt Lake Temple in 1974. Long accustomed to walking to and from BYU every day, he kept up the practice, a 25-minute journey from their first home on First South, and the same distance from the home he and Donlu built in Edgemont in 1978, where their six children grew up. Doug's habits were regular and sound. His students, colleagues, friends, ward members and neighbors knew his relentless wit and dry humor, his trustworthiness and his selfless, unheralded service. Doug told stories, tall tales to entertain his grandchildren and mystified strangers, and carefully crafted works of fiction. He published four collections of short stories and four novels (a fifth still in process as he died). Recognition of Doug's work includes prizes from Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought for the short story and essay, the P. A. Christensen Award, the Association for Mormon Letters Prize in the Novel, the Karl G. Maeser Creative Arts Award, the Utah Institute of Fine Arts Award in the Short Story, and the 2008 Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters. A lifelong and faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Doug was counselor to his mission president, Edwin Cannon (upon the order of visiting Apostle David O. McKay), and held the office of seventy after his mission and until local units of seventy were discontinued in 1974, when he was ordained a high priest by Harold B. Jones, who was ordained by Matthew Cowley, ordained by George Albert Smith, ordained by Joseph F. Smith, ordained by Brigham Young. Doug served on lesson-writing committees for the Church, in three bishoprics, and on two high councils. Besides those countless Scouting committees, he served in many teaching callings. In his seventies, he volunteered to be the ward representative supervising the meetinghouse cleaning crews, a calling he could never completely relinquish, sneaking over to make sure the stake pavilion was in order (aided in the end by his daughter, Katie, and her husband, Jonathan) until two weeks before his death. In recognition of Doug's ties to the community, Mayor Lewis Billings proclaimed Doug's 75th birthday "Douglas Thayer Day" in Provo. Douglas Heal Thayer died at home in Provo, Utah, during his favorite season of the year, his third battle with cancer finally taking the ultimate toll, on October 17, 2017. He was 88.
❦ Family Message: "The family thank friends Dean, Randy, Bruce Jorgensen, Bill Lund, and Gene Mead, who kept him talking, reading, revising, taking drives, and making trips to the library and to lunch, up to the last, and Tammy Poulson, his hospice nurse, charged with watching for signs of decline as she delightfully endured that outrageous and charming wit."
❦ Survived By: His wife; their six children and spouses and their 21 "offspring", whom he adored: Emmelyn (Steven) Freitas and Vivienne; Paul (Sharolyn Shields) and Marcus, Aaron, Heather, Justin, Spencer & Alice; James (Elizabeth Benson) and Benson, William, Anna, Simon, Madeline and Sara; Katherine (Jonathan) Willson and Jacob and Lilian; Stephen (Amy Finnell) and Maxwell, Miles and Alexander; and Michael (Jill Myers) and Abigail, Owen and Sienna. He is also survived by his brother, Robert (Brigitte) Thayer and his family, as well as other extended family.
❦ Preceded In Death By: His parents, his brother, Rowland; his sister, Marlene; his nephew, Keith Hill; and his stepfather, Glen Overly.
❦ Services: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
❦ Location; Edgemont South Stake Center | Provo, Utah
❦ Arrangements: Berg Mortuary of Provo
❦ Obituary: © 2017 | Berg Mortuary
❦ Burial: Provo City Cemetery
Bio compiled by: Annie Duckett Hundley
1929 - 2017
VETERAN
❦ Early Life: Doug was born April 19, 1929, in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Edward "Frank" and Lily Nora Thatcher Thayer. He grew up hiking the mountains overlooking his town of Provo, Utah, roaming the fields, fishing the streams, swimming in the river and the polluted lake that immunized generations of adventurous youth. Doug was the consummate Provo boy as he scrubbed and cleaned the old Sixth Ward Meetinghouse and the Clark Clinic with his mother, the indomitable Lil. He found jobs collecting nightcrawlers in the dark from neighbors' lawns to sell to waiting fishermen, sweeping floors and washing dishes in cafés, delivering papers. A noted short story writer and novelist referred to as - "the Mormon Hemingway" and "the grandfather of modern Mormon fiction" - Doug's memoir, Hooligan: A Mormon Boyhood, captured the life of a boy growing up in Provo during the Great Depression.
❦ Life's Work | Service | Interests: When he was 17, Doug dropped out of BY High School to join the United States Army, serving with the US Occupation Forces in war-shattered Germany; an experience that changed his life and greatly influenced his writing. He returned to Germany for 30 months as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Back in Provo he earned a bachelor's degree in English at Brigham Young University, then did graduate work at Stanford (MA American Lit), University of Maryland (PhD study), and the University of Iowa (MFA Fiction Writing). He taught at BYU for 54 years, serving as Coordinator of Composition, Director of Creative Writing, Associate Chair in the English Department, and Associate Dean of the College of Humanities with Dean Todd Britsch. All of his life, Doug worked hard without complaint. As a young man, he worked at the office of the Provo Herald, as a helper on a uranium drill rig, a construction laborer, a railroad section hand, and a seasonal ranger in Yellowstone National Park. Doug was an avid Scouter, from Senior Patrol Leader and Eagle Scout under the mentorship of Harold B. Jones, to decades guiding others (including four sons) toward their Eagles. He served on Scout committees into his eighties. As a young man, he hunted and fished with his sidekicks, Dean Conant and the Jones clan. By the time he was 60, he had sons of his own to take fishing, on the lakes, reservoirs - water and ice. In his mellowing years, he perfected fly fishing — the cast and the art of catch-and-release — with friend and colleague (and literary critic), Eugene England, who passed away in 2001. He kept fishing with Dean, Scouts, sons, grandsons, and his new ace buddy, Randy Rogers, almost to the end. Doug married Donlu DeWitt in the Salt Lake Temple in 1974. Long accustomed to walking to and from BYU every day, he kept up the practice, a 25-minute journey from their first home on First South, and the same distance from the home he and Donlu built in Edgemont in 1978, where their six children grew up. Doug's habits were regular and sound. His students, colleagues, friends, ward members and neighbors knew his relentless wit and dry humor, his trustworthiness and his selfless, unheralded service. Doug told stories, tall tales to entertain his grandchildren and mystified strangers, and carefully crafted works of fiction. He published four collections of short stories and four novels (a fifth still in process as he died). Recognition of Doug's work includes prizes from Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought for the short story and essay, the P. A. Christensen Award, the Association for Mormon Letters Prize in the Novel, the Karl G. Maeser Creative Arts Award, the Utah Institute of Fine Arts Award in the Short Story, and the 2008 Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters. A lifelong and faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Doug was counselor to his mission president, Edwin Cannon (upon the order of visiting Apostle David O. McKay), and held the office of seventy after his mission and until local units of seventy were discontinued in 1974, when he was ordained a high priest by Harold B. Jones, who was ordained by Matthew Cowley, ordained by George Albert Smith, ordained by Joseph F. Smith, ordained by Brigham Young. Doug served on lesson-writing committees for the Church, in three bishoprics, and on two high councils. Besides those countless Scouting committees, he served in many teaching callings. In his seventies, he volunteered to be the ward representative supervising the meetinghouse cleaning crews, a calling he could never completely relinquish, sneaking over to make sure the stake pavilion was in order (aided in the end by his daughter, Katie, and her husband, Jonathan) until two weeks before his death. In recognition of Doug's ties to the community, Mayor Lewis Billings proclaimed Doug's 75th birthday "Douglas Thayer Day" in Provo. Douglas Heal Thayer died at home in Provo, Utah, during his favorite season of the year, his third battle with cancer finally taking the ultimate toll, on October 17, 2017. He was 88.
❦ Family Message: "The family thank friends Dean, Randy, Bruce Jorgensen, Bill Lund, and Gene Mead, who kept him talking, reading, revising, taking drives, and making trips to the library and to lunch, up to the last, and Tammy Poulson, his hospice nurse, charged with watching for signs of decline as she delightfully endured that outrageous and charming wit."
❦ Survived By: His wife; their six children and spouses and their 21 "offspring", whom he adored: Emmelyn (Steven) Freitas and Vivienne; Paul (Sharolyn Shields) and Marcus, Aaron, Heather, Justin, Spencer & Alice; James (Elizabeth Benson) and Benson, William, Anna, Simon, Madeline and Sara; Katherine (Jonathan) Willson and Jacob and Lilian; Stephen (Amy Finnell) and Maxwell, Miles and Alexander; and Michael (Jill Myers) and Abigail, Owen and Sienna. He is also survived by his brother, Robert (Brigitte) Thayer and his family, as well as other extended family.
❦ Preceded In Death By: His parents, his brother, Rowland; his sister, Marlene; his nephew, Keith Hill; and his stepfather, Glen Overly.
❦ Services: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
❦ Location; Edgemont South Stake Center | Provo, Utah
❦ Arrangements: Berg Mortuary of Provo
❦ Obituary: © 2017 | Berg Mortuary
❦ Burial: Provo City Cemetery
Bio compiled by: Annie Duckett Hundley
Gravesite Details
Interment 28 Oct 2017
Family Members
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