Leon Salmon Simister

Our husband, father, and grandfather, Leon Simister passed away at home in Coalville, Utah, August 28 , 2016, after a long illness. He was attended by his sweetheart of 67 years, Louise Nichols Simister, and his family. Leon was the youngest son of Wilford and Elizabeth Simister. He is survived by his loving wife, his 6 children: Kevin (Marilyn) Simister, James (Dena) Simister, Kurt (Anna) Simister, Melanie (Arnie) Bosworth, Marcie Palmer, Tammy (Ray) Robinson, 22 grandchildren, and 39 great grandchildren. He was predeceased by a grandson, Peter, and a great granddaughter, Emma Rose.

"Simmie" as he was known throughout his life, dearly loved and was deeply committed to serving his community. He learned this devotion from his father who was Coalville City Marshall for 22 years. Leon later served 3 years as Coalville City Marshall himself. His father also instilled in him the courage to fearlessly voice his opinion and always defend others.

Dad's long list of service to his church, community, and others included: Bishop of Coalville 1st Ward, Ogden Temple ordinance worker, Coalville City Councilman, developer of a 45 home subdivision, emcee of countless programs and beauty pageants, and co-founder and charter president of the Coalville Chamber of Commerce, where he proposed a 5 year plan to beautify and improve downtown Coalville which included the plan to build the current Coalville City Center.

Dad was an entrepreneur and self-employed for most of his life. He was a carpenter, general contractor, certified building inspector, and developer. He successfully owned a grocery store (Sim's Market), arts and crafts store, and insurance agency. He believed in building the community to provide opportunities for others.

Leon's talents as a musician and artist were a great source of comfort and joy for his friends and family and often used to benefit the community. As a musician, he played trombone, clarinet, saxophone, harmonica, and guitar. Louise put her foot down at buying drums or he would have done that, too. He was an accomplished artist who sold many paintings, mostly on western themes. His annual Christmas window paintings were enjoyed by all as were his coveted puffed-rice balls. He painted countless signs and banners for community events and activities.

He loved the outdoors and spent thousands of hours camping, hunting, and fishing and taught these skills to his sons. Even though Leon was an expert archer, hunter, and fisherman, he cheerfully endured much teasing for an undeserved reputation of "shooting deer in the behind."

Leon was a humorist and prolific writer. He wrote 555 columns for the Summit County Bee on topics informative, humorous, controversial, thought-provoking, and tender, which he described as "... a long trail of tart and hackneyed phrases, miss-spellings, and incomplete thoughts leaving a lot of guess-work to the reader."

That he was a wonderful story-teller and popular speaker is evidenced by one neighbor's comment, "I can hardly wait to see what Leon says at my funeral!"

He was uncompromising in his honesty and integrity. In the mid 1980's his construction company purchased the last manufactured home built by Boise-Cascade. In the chaos of Boise's near bankruptcy, the company never billed him and actually told him to forget about it since they had no record of the transaction. After 2 years of trying to make things right, Leon simply sent the company a check for over $30,000 and demanded they keep it.

Leon lived his life in joy and cheerfulness. He was a tireless, exuberant prankster who could take a joke with the best of them. His greatest gifts to us were a love of the gospel of Jesus Christ, a legacy of service, and the ability to laugh at ourselves. We will deeply miss him.

The family expresses its heartfelt gratitude to our sister, Melanie Bosworth RN and Symbii Home Health and Hospice, especially Kathy, Elsie, Ashley, Sally, Candace, Lori and Brandon for their devoted care to our Mother and Father.

Funeral services will be held at Hoytsville Ward Chapel Friday, September 2, 2016 at 11:00 am with a viewing from 9:30 to 10:30 am prior to the funeral. There will also be a viewing at the same location Thursday, September 1, 2016 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. Interment, Henefer Cemetery.