Dean A Holt

Dean A. Holt
February 8, 1927 - April 2, 2016

Dean Anderson Holt passed away at age 89 on Saturday April 2 in Logan, Utah. Dean had recently been joyously reunited with beloved wife Ruth after various illnesses had kept them apart for several months. The morning before he passed away, he sat together with Ruth watching the Saturday morning session of the LDS General conference, something they had done together frequently during their 64 years of marriage.
Dean was born on February 8, 1927 to Harry Holt and Onedia May Anderson at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, UT. His mother wrote “... he was a very welcome baby, a longed for one. The ten days in the hospital were happy ones.” Dean was the second son of Harry and Onedia, his brother Roland being 3 years older. After struggling with her health for years after Dean’s birth, his mother died 3 days before his 8th birthday. Early childhood was spent in the Poplar Grove area. Following his father’s subsequent marriage to Coralee, they moved to a property near Holladay, UT where they had farm animals.
Dean later graduated from Granite High School in Salt Lake City. He spent time in the Army, worked while putting himself through college and met his sweetheart Ruth Brown while doing Christmas holiday work at the Salt Lake City Post Office. Ruth supported Dean as they worked together through the University of Utah Medical School. During these busy years they welcomed their first son, Alan and as his medical school graduation neared, their second son Michael was born. Following an internship in Ogden Utah, the family moved to Evanston Wyoming where Dean joined the Evanston Medical Group. The family grew adding 3 more boys - David, Mark and Robert and a beautiful daughter Cathie. Dean personally delivered some of his children.
Being one of a few physicians in a small town kept Dean busy. He was well known and frequently consulted by neighbors, at the checkout line in the store, during Church and was often summoned to make ‘house calls’. On one occasion, while he himself was actually a patient in the hospital, Dean made morning rounds and delivered a baby the day before he underwent an operation.
Dean was an active member of the LDS Church and served as a Sunday School Teacher, as Bishop of the Evanston 3rd Ward and on the Woodruff Stake High Council. He was proud to send his sons out as missionaries and pleased that all of his children were college graduates and married. Dean was dedicated to the Boy Scouts, served as a merit badge counselor, as a physician at a World Jamboree in Farragut State Park in Idaho and organized a troop from Western Wyoming to bus across the country to attend a Jamboree in Pennsylvania. He received recognition for his service to the Boy Scouts being awarded the Silver Beaver.
Dean was curious and creative in all things scientific. He loved Popular Science, Popular Mechanics and National Geographic Magazines. He produced several inventions and worked with a team at the University of Utah on artificial heart research. He loved his home workshop where he enjoyed woodworking, creating and ‘fixing’ things.
After 30+ years of Medical Practice, most of it in Evanston Wyoming, Dean retired. He and Ruth lived for a time in Downtown Salt Lake City where they served a mission of sorts being hosts for LDS events around Temple Square. Subsequent years have been spent in Cache Valley where they have been near most of their children, welcomed and enjoyed their grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Dean was preceded in death by his parents and brother Roland ‘Uncle Roly’ Holt, half brother, Harry Olive Holt and half sister, Edna Aldeen Holt. Surviving him are his lifes love and partner Ruth of Logan, Utah and his six children - Alan (Shelly) Holt of Preston, ID, Mike (Karen) Holt of Grand Junction, CO, David (Kathryn) of Bonney Lake, WA, Cathie (Randy) Thunell of Logan, UT, Mark (Michelle) Holt of Logan, Utah and Robert (Jodette) Holt of Pleasant View, UT, 18 grandchildren and 22 great grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m., Saturday, April 9, 2016 at the River Heights Stake Center, 800 South 600 East. There will be a viewing at the Allen Mortuary of North Logan, 420 East 1800 North on Friday evening from 6-7:30 p.m. and at the Church on Saturday from 9:30-10:30 a.m. Interment will be in the Providence Cemetery.
in lieu of flowers the family suggests contributions to the Boy Scouts of America, Trapper
Trails Council at the following website: https://www.trappertrails.org/memorial in behalf of Dean A. Holt.
Condolences and memories may be shared with the family at www.allenmortuaries.net