Don Leslie Lind

Don Leslie Lind, 92, of Smithfield Utah, passed away on August 30, 2022 in Logan Utah surrounded
by many of his children and grandchildren.

Don was born to Leslie Ammaron Lind and Elizabeth C. Whitmore Lind in Murray Utah on May 18, 1930, and grew up in Midvale Utah. He is survived by his sister Charlene Lind, by all seven of his children and their spouses, Carol Ann Lind, Kearns, David Melvin Lind and (Celeste), Tallahassee Florida, Dawna and (Douglas) Kuhn, Smithfield, Douglas Maughan and (Tammy) Lind, West Valley, Kimberly and (David) Wadsworth, West Jordan, Lisa Christine Lind, West Jordan, and Daniel Leslie and (Laura) Lind, Smithfield, by twenty-two grandchildren, and by twenty-eight great-grandchildren. He is preceded in death by one grandson, Joseph Wadsworth, by his sisters Leticia Lind and Kathleen Lind, and by both of his parents. He goes to join his sweetheart and eternal companion Kathleen Maughan Lind, to whom he was married on April 1, 1955 in the Salt Lake Temple, and who passed away on June 12, 2022.

Don is as close to the true Renaissance Man – Leonardo da Vinci’s ideal of a man who could do everything and do it well -- as exists in our day and age. He was a naval officer and jet fighter pilot, rising to the rank of Commander in the United States Navy. He is an Eagle Scout, one in a chain of four generations of eagle scouts in his family. In college, he was an active and successful debater. He is an accomplished physicist with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Utah and a PhD in high-energy nuclear physics from the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory at the University of California-Berkeley, who during his career studied planetary magnetospheric physics, the auroras, and the solar wind. He is a scientist-astronaut who helped to design the Apollo 11 science packages and EVA activities, and served as CAPCOM for the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 missions, the first two manned missions to the moon. Don was then assigned as backup Pilot for Skylab 3 and Skylab 4 missions and would have flown on Skylab Rescue, had such a rescue been needed. Later Don flew as an astronaut aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger on the Spacelab III mission in 1985, a seven-day 110-orbit mission to do a broad range of science in microgravity space environments. He is an accomplished pianist and painter, and his children remember many times gathering around the piano and singing together while dad played. One of his favorite paintings, “The New Ocean” hung for several years in the Church History Museum in Salt Lake City.

Most importantly, Don Lind is a loving father and husband, who taught his children how to cherish and honor womanhood by the way he showed his love for his sweet wife Kathleen every day of their lives together. He raised his children to be successful people, to know that “…the sky is not the limit; that anything we put our minds to, we could do.” He taught us to love education and to love service to the Lord and to our fellowman. After retiring from NASA, Don joined the physics faculty at Utah State University, where he was known as an excellent teacher, and one who cared deeply about his students. That love of teaching and of science rubbed off on many in his family – eleven of his children, sons-in-law, and grandchildren followed him in becoming teachers, with almost half of those becoming science or physics teachers.

Don’s life has always been one of service to the Lord. As a young man, Don served as a missionary in the New England States Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and during his time as an astronaut, Don took every opportunity to speak for the Church at firesides, youth conferences, and elsewhere about his experiences an astronaut, scientist, and pilot, bearing powerful testimony of the Savior and the love and protection that the Lord shows us. He and his wife Kathleen served as public affairs missionaries in the Europe West Area for the Church, as temple missionaries in the Nauvoo Illinois Temple, and, respectively, as a counselor and an assistant matron in the presidency of the Portland Oregon Temple, and he served as a sealer for many years in the Logan Temple. In the process of his life, Don was able to touch many lives, and turn many hearts to their Father in Heaven.

Funeral Services will be held Saturday September 10, 2022 at 11 a.m. at the Smithfield 17th Ward Chapel 340 E. 300 S. Smithfield. A viewing will be held from 9 to 10:30 a.m. the day of and also from 6 to 8 pm the evening prior also at the Smithfield 17th Ward Chapel.

Burial will be at the Logan city cemetery where Military Honors will be provided.

Services can be live streamed (password: Don) by  CLICKING HERE