Robert Lowell Vandegrift

“Thank God every morning when you get up, that you have something to do that day, which must be done, whether you like it or not.” - James Russel Lowell

Robert Lowell Vandegrift was born November 27, 1928, in Grand Island, Hall, Nebraska., and died November 14, 2025, at home in Bountiful, Utah. He married Nancy Lee Willard on January 20, 1952, in Elmendorf AFB, Alaska. She was born May 21, 1934, in Fond du Lac, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and died March 24, 2014, in Bountiful, Utah.

I changed addresses a few days before my 97th birthday which was on Thanksgiving Day this year. James Russell Lowell once said, “to be grateful every morning you wake up with something to do”. I tried to live like that. Poetry has always been in my blood. Lowell and I share great-grandparents from the 1600s, so we’re cousins. My middle name, “Lowell,” means something to me.

People have called me Bob, Bobby, Dad, Daddy, Van, or Robert. I was born November 27, 1928, in Nebraska. I lived through the Great Depression, which meant flapjacks made of flour and water with no syrup. Maybe that’s why I tried to make things better for my own family. I’ve lived in Bountiful, Utah since 1963—the same home—for stability, for my kids, and because I don’t like to move.

Toward the end, strange things happened beyond my control, just like when I was young. A few weeks before I passed, I started hearing music that no one else heard. After many days of hearing this music, I finally figured it out. It turned out to be “Amazing Grace.” A few days later, at 96 years and 352 days, my address changed for good. Just like that, I was out of my house. Beyond my control! And when I arrived, there was a celebration waiting.

I had good people in my life. My great-grandparents William Reynolds (the Boy Poet) and Sarah Jane Pearson. My grandparents Risinger Bristo Reynolds and Ella Margaret Meader, two of the nicest people I ever knew. My grandparents Elza Edward Vandegrift, tall, handsome, the life of the party and Julia Emma Colby. My parents Evans Clarence Vandegrift and Lois Margaret Reynolds, raised one boy and five girls: Shirley, Phyllis, Lois, Marilyn, and Julia. Hug them for me.

I was 6 years old living in Nebraska with my family in the middle of the great depression and the ongoing Dust Bowl in 1934. Our family was extremely poor and barely able to survive experiencing the worst of the dust bowl that same year. I remember my mom putting rags under the windowsills and around the doors to try to keep the dust out the best as possible. But the dust still came in. Very difficult days.

We moved from the dust bowl to Salt Lake City. And the rest is history. I graduated from West High School and took on a few jobs before I enlisted in the Air Force. I worked at Western Union delivering messages, set bowling ball pins, washed railroad cars during the war, washed dishes at the Alta Club, worked at a stock exchange updating stock information on the board, caddied at a golf course, worked at a leather craft company, worked on a farm thinning beets.

Then there was Nancy, who was seventeen when we married and I was 23. I asked her for a date, then two weeks after our first date I asked her to marry me, and two weeks later we were married and on our way to Florida for my military assignment at Eglin AFB. From there we went back to Utah and then up to Alaska, where our first baby was born. I loved that woman, and I’ll be buried next to her at Camp Williams, just like I always wanted.

In the beginning it was the 2 of us. Then our family grew by 7 and then came their spouses. Jana Lin Marsh (Clarence), Michael Arthur (Bonnie), Douglas Clarke (Laurie), Robert Kevin (Lisa), Lori Lee Salas (Joe), Richard Travis (Jill), and Dorian Paul (Heather). Every one of them talented and successful.

Our family continued to grow —25 grandchildren, 53 great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild, beautiful little Lindy, who often smiled at me from the digital picture frame next to my chair. There are 95 members of our immediate family and still growing.

I’ve worn a lot of hats. I wrote and produced radio shows and newsletters, sold mobile homes. In the beginning I served almost 4 years in the Air Force in Alaska, Wyoming, and Florida. Once we moved back to Utah, I joined the Utah Air National Guard.

I established and ran the Utah Air National Guard base theater for years and then retired from the 109th TCF after 31 years. After retirement my focus was genealogy and family history work and did probate heir searching.

My hobbies were poetry, lyric-writing, bookbinding, tennis, ping-pong, bowling, writing, and coaching Bountiful Bonnett Ball which I helped establish in 1975. I loved family road trips.

Cancer changed my life. I was told in December of 1996 I had stage 4 colon cancer that metastasized to my liver. I was given 3-6 months to live and to just get my affairs in order. I was stubborn and survived it. My mission was to reach out to help others. I spoke at Martha’s Vineyard, to doctors at the Huntsman Cancer Institute, and once in a packed stadium in Vernal, Utah. I even wrote a book about how I survived cancer.

I spent 50 plus years doing genealogy, helping people find their ancestors. I published many personal family histories with the help of my son Dorian. My ancestors were very important to me. I was addicted.

I received many recognitions in the military, church, and other areas—not because I was great, but because I tried to make a difference. I gave to charities even when the requests were overwhelming. Giving always felt necessary.

My faith guided me. I prayed every night for people who needed it. I made it to church just last week, and they gave me a piece of cake for having a November birthday. I love November and cake and banana cream pie.

I had more friends than I deserved. They were important to me. I want to thank my friend Jordan Batsel for coming over every day several times a day taking care of my house inside and out. It really helped. And my lawn mowing family the Mickelsons.

I want to thank Utah Home Health and Hospice for taking good care of me. My granddaughter Stacie Hunt was my nurse. Thank you, Stacie, for spending my last night with me. I knew you were there, and I had no pain.

Services will be held at Russon Mortuary, 295 North Main Street, Bountiful, Utah on Monday, November 24, 2025, at 11:00 a.m., with a viewing from 9:45-10:45 a.m., prior to the service. Burial will be at Camp Williams at 1:00 p.m., beside Nancy. I can’t be there in person, but I will be there in spirit.

Until we meet again, have a Happy Thanksgiving. I know I will.

—Bob