Ralph Dayton

Ralph Alma Dayton

Ralph Alma Dayton, age 78, passed away June 3, 2018 from complications from pneumonia. While the pneumonia and ensuing systemic infection was an unexpected turn of events in a mostly healthy life, there was just enough time to gather the majority of his family before he passed. He took his final breaths shrouded by love, surrounded by “his people.”

Ralph was born and raised in Heber City, Utah. He was a big man on campus at Wasatch High School where he played football. He remembered scoring four touchdowns in a single game against North Summit – running the exact same play.

Following high school, Ralph was honored to serve as a Staff Sergeant in the United States Army Reserve.

Ralph might be best known around town as a principal barber at the Cellar Barbers, an Ogden institution, for fifty-six years. As a barber, he didn’t just cut hair – he was a friend and confidant to anyone who was lucky enough to sit in his chair. And it was his joy – he often said he had the best clientele in the world. He also joked, however, that he was always happy to provide free mullet removal for anyone who needed it.

He and his love of over five decades, Nila Jean Bunderson, locked eyes at a Fred M. Nye Company Christmas party and married seven months later after a whirlwind courtship.  Following her death in 2017 from Alzheimer’s, Ralph, who had cared tirelessly for her in the many years of her illness, visited and cared for her gravesite with the same devotion he had shown her in life.

Ralph was an uncomplicated man: he loved his family; he loved the Gospel of Jesus Christ; and he loved the BYU Cougars. One of his only regrets at the end was that he’d finally scored prime football tickets for the fall and now he wouldn’t be able to use them.

But he didn’t regret the time he invested in his family or in the gospel. He loved hosting family gatherings in his backyard (which almost always involved baked beans and a raspberry-filled cake). Of special note were the mini golf contests, dart games, slip and slide parties, and the annual Easter egg hunt, where the youngest grandchild usually ended up crying.

He also didn’t regret the three years he worked at the Ogden Temple. He said his time there helped him understand the mysteries of this life better.

In his last moments, Ralph remarked that he “will miss the little things of this life, but the big things are yet to come.”

Ralph was preceded in death by his wife, Nila; his daughter, Karrin Dayton; and his grandson, Jonathan Norton.  He is survived by his four adult children: Lynette (Steve) Norton, Alan (Kat) Dayton, Robert (Jodi) Dayton, and Matt (Kim) Dayton.  He is also survived by eight grandsons, one granddaughter, and two great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held on Thursday, June 7, 2018 at 11 a.m. at the Old Post L.D.S. Ward Chapel, 5191 Old Post Road in Ogden.  Friends may visit with family on Wednesday from 6 to 8 p.m. at Lindquist’s Ogden Mortuary, 3408 Washington Blvd. and Thursday from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the church. Interment, Heber City Cemetery.