Max Mortensen

Max Christian Mortensen

May 29, 1927 ~ March 19, 2021

On March 19, 2021 our beloved father, grandfather, husband, and friend to all he met peacefully graduated from mortality and returned to his Heavenly Father.

Max Christian Mortensen was loving, optimistic, full of faith, energetic, hardworking, passionate and loved serving others. He was a man who walked his talk, and that talk was all about living the gospel of Jesus Christ and sharing it with others.

Born along with his twin sister, Maxine (Angel), on May 29, 1927, to Orval Peter and Janet Roylance Mortensen in Sugar Salem Idaho, he grew up with his brothers Stan and Grant, and sisters Leah (Shirley), Lila (Neibaur) and Lenore (Neilson). He always loved the satisfaction of hard work as he thinned sugar beets, milked cows, and had high school projects with his brothers, raising sheep, cattle and hogs.

Max graduated from high school in Salem, Idaho and immediately left to serve in the Navy. He returned home after eighteen months and enrolled at the University of Idaho where he received his bachelor’s degree in Agriculture Education.

He was blessed to win the heart of Bonnie Jean Schwendiman, his favorite high school cheerleader, who motivated him to become the top scorer in basketball his senior year.  He and his beautiful brown eyed sweetheart were sealed for time and all eternity on December 19, 1949 in the Idaho Falls LDS Temple. They were blessed with seven children, Kristen, Steve, Melanee, Lynette, Michael, Lori and Quinn.

Max’s talent of entrepreneurship was evident at a very young age. During high school, he cared for his own herd of fifty hogs. During that time, he and his brothers owned an army surplus store in Rexburg and Blackfoot. To earn a living while attending the University, he began selling aprons, sewn by his mother. This expanded to become Mortensen Apron Factory, supplying restaurants all over the country with custom aprons made by several women in St. Anthony, Idaho, where he and Bonnie settled following his graduation from the university.

In conjunction with operating the apron factory, he managed the Riverside Hotel. He later went into the potato industry, owning and operating potato farms and packing and shipping companies. Two of his brands were “Oven King” and “Pride of Idaho”. He was also involved in the creation of “Sunglo of Idaho”, a potato processing plant in Sugar City. The only thing Max promoted more than potatoes, was the Book of Mormon.

Dad was a devout follower of Jesus Christ. At eleven years of age, he received a very powerful witness of the prophet, Joseph Smith, and was always anxiously engaged in every way possible to spread the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He regretted never being able to serve a full-time mission as a young man, due to World War II, but has served in many other capacities. At the age of 26, he was called as the Bishop of the St. Anthony First Ward. His next assignment was as Stake President of the Yellowstone Stake. During his tenure in that calling, new chapels were built at Mack’s Inn as well as in St. Anthony. He also served as a Regional Representative to the Twelve and as President of the Indiana Indianapolis Mission. He and his wife Bonnie were blessed to officiate many years in the Idaho Falls Temple. As a temple sealer, he officiated in the sealing together of countless families, including the marriage sealings of many of his grandchildren.

No effort to improve the condition of our society was too great for Max Mortensen. He served in the local Rotary Club, where he oversaw the creation of the city baseball park.  He also spent countless hours working with the youth at the State Youth Training School, west of St. Anthony.

Our father served in the Idaho State House of Representatives for twelve years. This new position came about when his brother, Grant was elected in 1989. Shortly after that, Grant was diagnosed with cancer and was unable to serve. Dad was asked to take his place and, in his words, “having gotten the bug, I ran and won the next five elections”.   The first resolution he sponsored made history as the first to be included in the Idaho State Public School curriculum:  to teach values and morality, to fulfill Idaho’s constitutional requirement to ‘promote temperance and morality’.

He and Mom have not only left a wonderful posterity, but a legacy that is most precious to each of us. We all feel extremely blessed to have been born and raised by this loving, exemplary couple.

He is survived by his children, Kristen Watts (John), Steve Mortensen (Lesli Stone), Melanee Berger (Phil), Lynette Bowen (Shayne), Lori Egbert (David) and Quinn Mortensen (Melissa Homer); 34 grandchildren, 89 great-grandchildren and 2 great-great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Bonnie Jean Schwendiman and his son, Michael Orval; by grandsons, Tyson Bowen, David Egbert, and Joseph Orval Mortensen and by his great-granddaughter, Livingston Kay Bowen.

We love you, Dad, and pledge to follow your example and make you proud of us.  We are so grateful for our Heavenly Father’s Plan, which assures us that we will be reunited with you and Mom again.

Funeral services to honor Max’s life will be held on Friday, March 26, 2021 at 11 a.m. at the Harrisville 10th Ward Chapel, 1560 North 200 West. Friends may visit with family on Friday from 10 to 10:30 a.m. at the church. Interment will be Saturday, March 27th at 11 a.m. at St. Anthony Cemetery, on South Parker Rd.

Services will be available on Zoom at the following link: https://zoom.us/j/94276393270