Keith Stephens

Keith Stephens, of Bountiful, passed away on the morning of Friday, 10 January 2025.

He was born in Salt Lake City in December 1926, to Calvin and Edna Stephens, in the same house where his mother had been born. He was greeted by a sister, Donna, and then four years later Dale came along, with Gordon following five years after that, and Brent, a final surprise who was sixteen years younger than Keith. All preceded him in death.

Keith grew up in Salt Lake City. When he was in junior high school, he got a job at a machine shop, which significantly influenced his subsequent life. From about the age of twelve he also often worked (and played) with his cousins on the family ranch in Henefer, staying there for several weeks at a time. His father, whose cancerous right leg had been amputated in 1938, eventually bought the ranch, with Keith agreeing to help run it.

He joined the Navy in the summer of 1945, during the Second World War, hoping to become a radio technician. Soon, though, he changed his focus and trained instead to be a machinist’s mate. However, because of Germany’s capitulation in May and the surrender of the Empire of Japan in August, he never saw service overseas. When the Navy transferred him to Rhode Island, he was surprised to discover that his father had put in, on his behalf, for a “hardship discharge” so that he could help on the ranch in Henefer.

Once discharged, Keith began dating Ruth Milius, a newly-discovered across-the-street neighbor. They married in the Salt Lake Temple in June 1948, following her graduation from the University of Utah.

As he had promised Ruth, Keith himself enrolled at the University of Utah in the fall of 1949, on the GI Bill. He graduated in 1953 at the top of his class with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. He received many job offers, settling that summer on one from Shell Chemical Company and renting a small home in Concord, California. Realizing, though, that Shell would likely require him and his family to move every two years, they prayerfully decided to seek employment elsewhere. 

During his years of university study, Keith held summer jobs with Stearns-Roger Company. As an excellent performer, they were eager to have him back and even paid his moving expenses from California. Eventually they transferred him to the Denver area where in 1969, he was appointed president of Stearns-Roger’s General Iron Works, in Englewood, Colorado, overseeing approximately six hundred workers.

It was in Colorado that, with his wife, he raised his family, which ultimately grew to six children. He served faithfully in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, presiding as bishop over the Golden Colorado Ward, in a chapel that he had helped to build, and later as first counselor in the presidency of the Golden Colorado Stake. One of his favorite assignments was his participation on the committee that prepared for the Denver Colorado Temple and its dedication in 1986.

He made rich memories for his family, many of them involving boating and waterskiing—including a noteworthy expedition to Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico, but most especially focused on a houseboat and jet skis that he maintained on Lake Powell, at Bullfrog. The family also owned snowmobiles and, with them, enjoyed the mountains near Denver. He took the family traveling—and traveled extensively with his wife, Ruth, after retirement—and enjoyed taking his boys camping and fishing. He was an expert woodworker, and his bowls, and his cabinets and bookshelves and entertainment centers and other household furnishings, decorate more than a few houses, even beyond his family.

In late 1986, Keith chose to retire as the president of General Iron Works, followed by occasional consulting projects. In 1992, Ruth and Keith moved back to Bountiful, Utah, where they had spent the first years of their marriage. It had the added benefit that they were closer to their children. They loved living across the street from the Bountiful Utah Temple and serving in it. 

Ruth passed away in 2013, after a long and difficult illness during which this successful former engineering executive proved himself a dedicated and patient nurse. Keith continued to live independently till he was close to 98 years which was a great blessing for him and his family.

Keith will be remembered for many things, including his resourcefulness and competence. He had a remarkable ability, probably nurtured not only by his engineering background but by his youthful labors on an isolated ranch, to make things work. He will also be fondly remembered, though, for his kindness and his many-faceted support of family and friends.

Keith Stephens is survived by his six children, Keith Craig (Anita), Deborah (Daniel Peterson), Dean (Mary), Vance (Shauna), Kent (Bonnie), and Deanna, and by numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren. The family is deeply grateful for the many years of loving service that he received from neighbors and members of the Moss Hill Ward as he cared for his wife and, later, when he himself was housebound, as well as for the care that was given to him during his final months by the staff at Creekside Senior and Assisted Living in Bountiful.

Friends may call Thursday, 16 January, 6-8 p.m. and Friday, 17 January, 9:30-10:30 a.m., at Lindquist's Bountiful Mortuary, 727 North 400 East. The funeral will also be held at the mortuary, at 11 AM, on Friday, 17 January. Interment in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.  In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the humanitarian fund at the link below or to a humanitarian charity of your choice.

 https://donations.churchofjesuschrist.org/

Services will be live-streamed and may be viewed by scrolling to the bottom of Keith's obituary page.

ORDER VIDEOS