Boyde Williams

Boyde Glenn Williams, age 90, passed away at home surrounded by his loving family on March 8, 2024.

Boyde was born August 2, 1933, in Vineyard, Utah, the first son and third child of Harold Glenn and Illa Laursen Williams. In 1955, he married Willa Mae Johnson, and they became the parents of seven children, six sons and a single daughter. While they later divorced, their twenty-four years together produced not only children, but children with an ethic of hard work and talents that would and continue to serve many around them.

After a few challenging years, he found a companion in Joan Hooley Green, and they married on June 10, 1988. Their combined families of twelve children would be the basis of some of the best Easter, summer, Thanksgiving, and Christmas parties anywhere. It made no difference from which side of the family you came; you were absolutely one of his and you knew it.

Boyde worked two concurrent jobs for most of his life. After working 35 years as a Lineman and with line crews for Rocky Mountain Power, he was able to retire and devote the balance of his life to his real job and passion as a farmer. His tractors were to him simply big toys, like those children play with in their sand pile. Even though he would often tell his sons that when this day came, "just get the backhoe out and bury me", the backhoe has sat idle all week.

He loved the outdoors, and if farming didn't give him enough of that, he also loved hunting pheasants and deer when his sons became old enough to hunt with him. He would also take his kids to the lake for a little fishing each spring. Anyone who has ever hunted pheasants with Boyde knows how challenging it was just to get a shot off before he had downed the bird. He really was that fast. But in the late 60s, an accident at UP&L left him with a broken right elbow. The arm healed but would never again fully extend making it hard to get the gun to his shoulder, so from that hunting season on, this was the handicap that allowed the rest of us to bag a pheasant or two of our own.

He was an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served in many callings. But probably the calling he liked most and did best was making everyone feel welcome and wanted. Boyde was known in his family for keeping in touch with everyone and for his love of joking and teasing (even to a fault). But he loved his family, and no one can dispute it.

Survivors include his wife, Joan; children, Boyde Dwane (Virginia) Williams, Glenn Williams, Larry (Sue) Williams, (Terry, (Kenneth's wife)), Linda Lee (Terry) Whitener, Robert (Lori) Williams, David Williams; and stepchildren, Randy (Deborah) Green, Gary (Diane) Green, Kathleen Brady, Julie (Bret) Frampton, and 49 grandchildren, and another 100+ great-grandchildren.

He is preceded in death by his parents, and siblings, Jack Williams, Shirley Jensen, and Illa June Phillips. But perhaps more troubling was the loss of his son, Kenneth Williams, a stepson, Dan Green, and a grandson, Kenneth.

Funeral services will be held Monday, March 18, 2024, at 11:00 AM in the Harbor 5th Ward Chapel, at 239 East 1100 South, American Fork. A viewing will be held Sunday, March 17, from 6 to 8 PM at the Anderson & Sons Mortuary Chapel, 49 East 100 North, American Fork, and Monday from 9:45 to 10:45 AM prior to the services at the church. The internment will be in the Pleasant Grove City cemetery.