Laurence “Larry” Arthur Lee, 86, of Murray, UT, born in Santa Monica, CA, died peacefully in his sleep on June 21st, 2022. He was preceded in death by his wife Liz, mother Mary Helen Lee (Gadd) and father Clarence Baird Lee. He is survived by his siblings Ron, Jennie, and Dinah, his children Sterling, Wendell, Cindy, and Susan.
As a boy in California, he enjoyed riding horses through the Santa Monica Mountains. In 1949 he moved to Nephi, where his mother and brother Ron lived with his grandmother while Larry lived with his Aunt Margaret and Uncle Merle. After graduation from Nephi High School, Merle helped him find a job with Thermoid Rubber Plant before he attended college.
After college, he found jobs that allowed him to combine his love of skiing and flying with work, initially as a Snow Ranger in the Wasatch mountains. As a pilot, he was a spotter for Wildfire Management and worked part time with search and recovery. He worked with the federal Wild Horse Program, Rangeland and Grazing, Forest and Woodlands, and taught defensive driving to log truck drivers while with the Bureau of Land Management. His work took him to live in Nevada, where his two sons were born and then to Oregon, where his two daughters were born.
He was a dedicated father who shared his love of snow skiing, water skiing, motorcycles, camping, hiking, and all things outdoors with his children. He had great balance: Even in his fifties and sixties he loved to jump, whistling, from rock to rock, in rivers and streams which were plentiful throughout Oregon. Camping and waterskiing every summer at Loon Lake, Lemolo Lake, and Cooper Creek Reservoir became beloved family traditions.
Larry retired from BLM in 1997, moved from Roseburg, OR to Chatsworth, CA, and cared for the horse ranch that his Uncle Jim built. He met and married Elizabeth in 1999. They travelled and took cruises together before she passed away in 2013. He continued to hike and snow ski with his children and grandchildren into his eighth decade.
He was laid to rest at the Vine Bluff Cemetery in Nephi, UT next to his wife Liz and surrounded by family on June 24th, 2022.