Gene Koford

Merwin Gene Koford

September 27, 1940 ~ March 8, 2018

Merwin Gene Koford, 77, passed away peacefully on Thursday, March 8, 2018. He was born on September 27, 1940, in Tremonton, Utah. He grew up in Garland and graduated from Bear River High School.

He married Jean Clark on December 27, 1969, in Las Vegas, Nevada. They were later sealed in the Ogden LDS Temple.

Gene was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served faithfully in many callings.

For work, Pops painted missiles at Thiokol, was a manager at Thrifty, and spent 30 years as a salesman at Sears. He received many awards from Sears for being one of the top producers locally, regionally, and nationally. There is a pretty good chance if you walked into Sears in downtown Salt Lake when Pops was there, you’d leave with a new vacuum and sewing machine. The most important part of working at Sears is that he had a flexible schedule which allowed him to ‘work to play’.

Pops loved to be in the outdoors doing a variety of activities, he was always on the move and could rarely sit still. Riding motorcycles in the west desert, single track trails in the Wasatch mountains, and racing dirt-track when he had the chance were among his favorites: especially when it involved doing it with his boys. He was known in the motorcycle racing community for being able to get significant performance out of two-stroke engines.

Pops enjoyed hunting and dragging his boys through the mountains just to see what was there and potentially get a shot: although the hunting part seemed to be just an excuse to get outside. When he was on the move it was difficult to keep up, he could walk for miles and miles and not even think twice about it.

In the winter months Pops enjoyed skiing, especially night skiing. It gave him a chance to be doing an activity at night outside.

Another favorite hobby was cars: he liked going to the various car shows in Northern Utah each year and would go up and down the rows admiring every car, and he loved the old hot-rods the best. He even enjoyed working on them.

After an accident that left Pops in a wheelchair for the remainder of his life, he still found ways to enjoy the outdoors. He would roll around the neighborhood for hours and did the same route every day. When the weather cooperated he would roll close to 10 miles every day. The exercise made him feel good and it kept him on the move.

Pops could never sit still and his willpower to carry on was an example for us all.

Gene is survived by his wife, Jean; sons Marty, Rod (Jill), Chris (Jodi), Jeff (Angie), and Brandon (Kristen); 13 grandchildren, 6 great-grandchildren, brother, Dale (Deb) Koford, brother-in-law, Bruce Christensen, and many nieces and nephews.  He was preceded in death by his parents and sister, Patsy Christensen.

Funeral services will be held on Tuesday, March 13, 2018, at 11 a.m. at Lindquist’s Ogden Mortuary, 3408 Washington Blvd. Friends may visit with family on Monday from 6 to 8 p.m. and Tuesday from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the mortuary. Interment, Lindquist’s Washington Heights Memorial Park, 4500 Washington Blvd.

Condolences may be shared at: www.lindquistmortuary.com.