Robert Lloyd Ashcroft

It is with inexpressible grief that I announce the sudden passing of Robert Lloyd Ashcroft, Capt. USAF, ret., on Wednesday, Nov. 27 from a pulmonary embolism. Capt. Ashcroft was born on 28 Feb. 1954 to Lloyd H Ashcroft and Alice May Thomson in Pendleton, Ore. He attended Ricks College, now BYU-I, where he met his future bride. After serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Argentina Rosario mission, he married Shelley Alane Ross in the Manti, UT Temple. They are the parents of two daughters and four boys. Three of their children were born with cystic fibrosis and each passed away from complications of the disease.

Captain Ashcroft earned a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Arizona State University, a master's degree in computer information sciences from the University of Phoenix, and a master's degree in business management from Western Governor's University. He served seventeen years in the Air Force with an honorable discharge and full benefits serving two unaccompanied tours to Osan, South Korea and working at NSA as an Arab linguist. He was a mechanical engineer who worked mostly in civil engineering and youth relations. After military retirement, Captain Ashcroft settled in San Antonio, TX for thirteen years, then he moved his family to Sandy, UT for the last twenty years of his life where he worked primarily as an industrial project manager.

Captain Ashcroft loved to study and learn widely. His interests spanned from metal detecting to online marketing to herbal medicine to scouting to patriotism. Since he was twelve years old, however, his strongest interest has been in family history, collecting the stories behind the names, even of collateral relatives. His church service included stake high council four times, stake and ward clerk innumerable times, bishopric counselor, and teacher. He served as an ordinance worker in the Seoul, Korea Temple, the Jordan River, UT Temple, and most recently had been called as an ordinance worker in the Draper, UT Temple.

Captain Ashcroft is survived by Shelley Ashcroft, his wife of forty-four years; daughter Cara Horton (Justin) of San Antonio, TX, son R. J. Ashcroft (Alle) of Cheyenne, WY, and son Simon Ashcroft (Tierra) of Seattle, WA. Captain Ashcroft is preceded in death by son Adam Ross, daughter Roshelle Leigh Evans (Jeremy), and Gavin Lloyd. He leaves behind three sisters, myriad in-laws, nieces, and nephews, and eight grandchildren. Only God is more important to Captain Ashcroft than his family.

Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, December 3, 2019 at the Union 6th Ward, 1433 E. Old Mission Road, Sandy, Utah. Viewings will be held from 6-8 p.m. on Monday evening at Goff Mortuary, 8090 S. State Street, Midvale, Utah and from 9:30-10:45 a.m. prior to the funeral services, at the church. Interment, Utah Veterans Memorial Park.