Katherine Harvey Stirling

Katherine Harvey Stirling was born April 24, 1939, in the Dee Hospital in Ogden, Utah. She was the first child born to Brigham Bosworth Harvey and Ruth Leone Hill Harvey. In order for Fruit Heights to become an incorporated city, they needed 100 residents. Katherine was the 100th resident so the small community qualified for city status and received government utilities such as water, etc.

She was raised in Fruit Heights on her parent’s farm that was contiguous to her father’s sibling’s farms. During her youth, she joined 4-H as did many other farm girls in the community. Her younger sisters are Elaine (Palmer), Helen (Hough), and Marilyn (Lloyd). Her younger brother, Howard, died in a farming accident in 1967 when he was 12 years old.

In her youth she attended Kaysville Elementary, North Davis Junior High School in Clearfield, and Davis High School in Kaysville. Between her junior and senior years in high school, she went to Mexico City, Pueblo, and Durango in Mexico for two weeks with 25 other high school youth from Salt Lake City. During the fall of her senior year at Davis High, Katherine received a scholarship from the 4-H Foundation of Davis County to attend Utah Agricultural College (now Utah State University) in Logan, Utah for the fall of 1957. The 4-H scholarship was funded by the Union-Pacific Railroad.

Her mother told each of her daughters that they needed to study education to be school teachers, so Katherine registered as an elementary education major. She studied at Utah State University and the University of Utah. Between her college sophomore and junior years, she returned to Mexico City to study at the University of Mexico and lived with a host family. The Nachón family later sent children to Utah to be exchange students and they are now considered relatives.

Returning to Utah State in the fall of 1959, she met William Merrill Stirling from Leeds, Utah. After courting and becoming serious about marriage, she had an opportunity to study on a one-year 4-H scholarship as an exchange student in Germany. Merrill had previously served in the Army in Korea for two years and as a missionary in the Spanish-American mission for three years, and he was not very happy about her going to Germany since he was in his late 20s and ready for marriage. They worked this out and Merrill traveled to Germany at the end of her exchange program, and they were married in Bellersheim, Germany on October 28th, 1961. A week later they were sealed in the Swiss Temple on November 4th, 1961. In the following years, Merrill and Katherine had four sons: William, Britton, David, and Robert. In 1962 they moved to Katherine’s hometown of Fruit Heights, Utah and in 1966 Merrill built a home and they named the road Stirling Drive. Ten years later in 1976 Merrill built their current home on the hillside overlooking the Harvey farm.

She graduated with bachelor’s (1960) and master’s (1968) degrees from Utah State University and a PhD in education from the University of Utah in 1975. She was later involved with and owned many businesses educating and caring for children. These included Chattalane Preschool, The Child Care Center of Ogden, International Center Day Care, Grandma’s Graduates, Where the Kids Go, and Pathway Academy residential treatment center for girls.

Katherine and Merrill served an 18-month mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Salt Lake City during 1996-1998 at the member location office. In 2011, Merrill and Katherine celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. They enjoyed their travels to many areas of the world throughout their lifetime. Katherine and Merrill are proud of their four sons, all of whom earned their Eagle Scout awards and graduated from Utah State University. They have ten grandchildren.

On June 27th, 2016, after 54 years of marriage, Merrill passed away at 83 years of age while holding hands with Katherine. Katherine passed away on October 10, 2025, at Legacy House Assisted Living in Farmington, Utah.

Katherine is preceded in death by her husband Merrill and son William.

Funeral services will be held Wednesday, October 15th, 2025, at 11:00 am at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Fruit Heights, Utah (901 South Mountain Road). There will be a visitation the evening before on October 14th at Russon Mortuary in Farmington from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. Another visitation will be held on Wednesday morning at the LDS meetinghouse prior to the service from 9:45 to 10:45 am. 

The funeral will be streamed on YouTube at

https://www.youtube.com/@fruitheights9thwardsacrame224/streams