Richard Veech

Everett Richard Veech, 91, of Springville, passed away Sunday afternoon, November 1, 2020. He was born in Decatur, lllinois on December 7, 1928 to Everett Raymond and Edna Ferne Craycroft Veech, the only boy between 2 sisters. He married Martha Lee Elkin on March 17, 1951 (St. Patrick's Day) in Tulsa Oklahoma. They had been married 66 years when she passed away in 2017.

Richard spent the summers at his grandparent's farm in Illinois from the time that he was 3 until he got married. He often regaled his children with stories of the time spent with them. It was the foundation of his work ethic. He met Martha at a church camp where he saw her across the way at the swimming hole and told her to watch out for the snakes. They both attended the same University, where Richard served as a house boy to her sorority. He once got his feelings hurt and wrote out an impromptu affidavit where he swore if he ever dated Martha Elkin again in his life, he would pay his friend X dollars for each date. He was drafted and served as an intelligence officer in the Korean Conflict. He asked Martha to marry him before he served in the military. They were blessed that he never left the states and she was able to go with him. He finished his schooling at University of Oklahoma with two bachelor's degrees and worked throughout his career as an agricultural engineer.

Church was always an important part of his life. He and Martha were introduced to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and joined in 1968. He had a strong desire to share his love of the gospel with his family. In family prayers, he was known to regularly pray for all of his posterity by their full names adding in the new additions as they came along. In later years as the numbers grew he was convinced to pray for them just by their first names. Richard served in many callings over the years including Stake Patriarch in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was able to give some of the grandchildren their patriarchal blessings.  He loved to take service assignments and was still going to the Spanish Fork meat packing plant into his late 80s. Richard served as a temple worker in the Chicago, Dallas, Oklahoma City, Provo and Provo City Center temples. He also had the opportunity to officiate at the marriages of 9 of his grandchildren.  This was a great joy.

His free time was spent in gardening or gentleman farming. He tried his hand at corn, soy beans, hogs, chickens, milk cows and bulls for breeding and beef. Vacations and weekends were spent visiting family. He also loved to watch movies, old movies specifically.

Richard is survived by his children: Linda Hjorth, Philip (Joanne), Vicki (Paul) Wheeler, Deann (Karl) Roylance, Stephen (SaraLyn) and his sister Janet Hays: 21 grandchildren and 40 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife, parents and his sister, Beverly Pennington.

Graveside services will be held on Friday, November 6, 2020 at 1 p.m. in the Historic Springville City Cemetery, 200 West 400 South, Springville, UT.

Livestream of the services will be available at https://www.facebook.com/wheelermortuary/videos/2763309343942681/