Diana Pitcher

On January 1, 2025, our mother passed with the same grace, kindness, humor and patience with which she lived. She was lovingly tended to by her children and supported by tender visits from family and dear friends. 

Diana Geneva Nutter Pitcher was born in Riverside, California on December 3, 1937 to Gilbert and Zina Nutter, both of whom were handsome, capable and talented, and she was raised in nearby Corona. When Diana was eight years old, she was joined by her only sibling, her sister Julie, whom Diana adored throughout her life. While her parents worked, Diana was cared for by her grandparents Jack and Mattie, often at the theater they managed. She spent hours there listening to the piano that played for silent films, and exploring costume trunks and projector rooms. She loved beach trips to Corona del Mar, the local orange groves, her childhood friends, and the delicate tulle dresses her mother made for her school dances. She loved attending her congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She loved her “daddy” Gilbert. 

Diana studied education and art at Brigham Young University where she met her husband, Max. She was drawn in by his blue eyes and the slide rule in his back pocket. He was drawn in by her beauty, gentle nature, and her delicate performance of the piano piece Claire de lune.  

After they were married, Diana and Max promptly left for graduate school at Columbia University where they welcomed their first baby, Steve, and just eleven months later, Shauna. Diana embraced her new East Coast life, “living on a shoestring” in their Harlem apartment, often wishing for a bite of the banana she was feeding to baby Steve, unable to afford an extra for herself. She loved hosting dinners with friends and exploring the art museums of NYC. She found beauty in the Vermont stone quarries where she helped Max do field work for his PhD in Geology. She literally left her mark on the quarries he studied as she painted reference numbers on the rocks in her characteristically beautiful handwriting.

The years after graduation took Diana and Max to many states and throughout the world. They welcomed a third child, Tom, in Oklahoma and their fourth and fifth children, Andi and Marcia, in Colorado. They spent 20 years in Houston, Texas before retiring to the mountains of Colorado and finally to Utah. Diana supported Max in his career with the kind of attention, dedication and selflessness that allows another to excel. They traveled the world together from Angola to Russia as Max met with world leaders and dignitaries to fulfill his position. Diana always led out with the unique combination of grace and approachability which drew people to her and endeared her to them. These travels were often, at the heart of it, a sacrifice as she missed her children at home and endured the challenges of international travel. 

In her free time, Diana loved pottery classes, and playing the organ and piano. She always enjoyed a good joke or a hearty laugh, but never at another’s expense. She cherished her membership in the PEO sisterhood. She was a devoted worker at the LDS Mount Timpanogos temple, worked in the Rocky Mountain National Park and won a gold medal at the Senior Olympic Games with her bowling team. She had a passion for drawing and painting, always toting a small sketchbook and pencil or a little watercolor palette and paintbrush. She was able to capture a gesture or a moment with understated ease, often generously giving her sketches and paintings away. She could find beauty in anything she saw and taught others how to find that beauty and bring it into their own art. 

One place where her art and the beauty of the natural world combined was her beloved Bar DM property in the mountains of Grand Lake, Colorado. Since 1973, three generations of Diana and Max’s family have gathered at the Bar DM cabin - nearly 50 years' worth of breakfast burritos and “camping out tacos”. She shined as a grandmother at the cabin - teaching watercolor around the table to grandchildren and their friends, showing them how to capture the beauty around them. Her seemingly endless supply of patience would only reach its limits if her feet got cold or if winter weather prevented friends from dropping by. 

Diana’s life passion was making lasting relationships with others. She loved people for who they were and accepted them as whole and beautiful, and they knew it. She loved all of her extended family and had deep connections with her sister Julie’s family, the Pitchers, and her Robinson and Nutter cousins. She collected friends her whole life who have remained close over miles and decades. 

She deeply loved Max and was always his refuge. She lived to make sure her children’s lives were better and she was proud of them. She rarely lectured and she never judged. She showed love to her children’s friends and made her home a haven for them. She modeled a lasting legacy of art, music, faith and education for her grandchildren and great grandchildren. They are the jewels in her crown and she adores them beyond words. 

Those who knew Diana were made better by her gentle, beautiful soul. She spread so much love and goodness in this world. We are truly grateful to have known her and been loved by her. 

Our family is thankful for the care and support that Diana received during her time at the Bellaview, and from Enhabit Hospice with special thanks to her nurse, Jared Moore. 

Diana is preceded in death by her parents, her husband Max and her beloved grandson Morgan. She is survived by her sister Julie (Richard) Andrews; her children Steve, Shauna, Tom, Andi and Marcia; daughter-in-law Mindy, and sons-in-law Roger Andersen and Kenton Wride; her grandchildren Lauren (Antony) Cox, Aubry (Spencer) Glasgow, Victoria (Toni) Huber, Jeff, Steve (Lauren), Hayden, Mattie, Jessi, McCall (Ryan) Hopkin, Isaac, Moss, Zina, Isabella, Jane, Max and Tate; great grandchildren Ava, Damon, Gabe, Devin, Leo, Soleil, Vera, Jess and Robin.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in her name to The Road Home.

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