James Collard

“On the Road Again”
James Edward Collard took off on one last road trip and headed for home on May 30, 2013. Although the last three years of his mortal journey were marked by detours, dead ends, and hazardous roads through mental illness, traumatic brain injury, and dementia, he and his family were blessed to spend the last three days of his life together in peace, love, and laughter.
Born on March 23, 1934, to Harry Junius and Annie Veora Collard, Ed spent an idyllic childhood in Fountain Green, Utah. In particular, he treasured the summers he spent with his family in the mountains of Gooseberry riding his horse and helping his father take care of their sheep.
His family’s move to Daniel, Utah, in 1950 brought Ed to Wasatch High School where he met and fell in love with his lifelong sweetheart and eternal companion, Patricia Mahoney. Their’s was a storybook romance; he was a star on the basketball team and she was a cute cheerleader. Once they started going together, they never went out with anyone else. (Pat’s diary records 483 dates from October 20, 1950 to January 1, 1953!) They were married and sealed in the Salt Lake City Temple on April 20, 1953, and celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary just six weeks prior to Ed’s death.
A man of great intellect and many talents, Ed was a natural engineering genius. He loved figuring out how things worked and derived even greater pleasure in figuring out how to make things work better.
He had three separate, and very different, careers. From 1955 to 1977 he was a long-haul truck driver for WS Hatch and Garrett Freight Lines. In 1977 he started his own cabinet-making business, Collard Cabinet. His beautiful carpentry work can still be seen in many of the Kentucky Fried Chicken Restaurants throughout Utah and surrounding states as well as in other businesses along the Wasatch Front.
His wife and children were also the beneficiaries of his woodworking skills as he lovingly built cabinets, tables, dressers, and many other items for their enjoyment. One particular treasure is the oak cradle he built for his first grandchild in 1977. That cradle and a special quilt hand-stitched by Pat have been shipped from coast to coast, with several stops in between, so each grandchild and great-grandchild could spend his or her first days on earth cradled in the warmth of loving grandparents.
Ed started his third career as a recreational property developer in 1989 when he sold his cabinet business to take over the development of family-owned land around Strawberry Reservoir. In this role he completed the unfinished Strawberry Lake Estates development, designed and completed Strawberry Lakeview Estates, and was in the planning stages of a third development, Strawberry Cove, when he suffered a traumatic brain injury after a fall down a flight of steps on July 1, 2010.
Ed served faithfully in many callings in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His lifelong struggle with depression developed within him a great compassion for others and helped prepare him for his responsibilities as Bishop of the Val Verda 6th Ward.
Over the years Ed, his family, friends, and youth groups spent many wonderful days, and some not so wonderful rainy and windy nights, on Lake Powell in the houseboat he helped design and build.
Ed is survived by his loving wife, Pat; his children and their spouses, Eileen and Craig Sorenson, Barbara and Ryan Farnes, Bryant and Pam Collard, and Emily and James Christensen; 17 grandchildren and 8 (soon to be 10) great-grandchildren; his brother and wife, Harry and Barbara Collard; sisters Ruth Syme and Joyce Anderson; and many nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents and his sisters, Betty Collard and Fay Pay.
As a family, we send our warmest thanks to the marvelous staff at Silverado Senior Living for your incredible service in Ed’s behalf during the past year. We never worried because we knew you loved and cared about him almost as much as we did.
Funeral services will be held at the Val Verda 6th Ward chapel, 2651 S 500 W, Bountiful, UT, on Thursday, June 6, 2013, at 1:00 p.m. Viewings will be held at Russon Brothers Mortuary, 295 N. Main St. Bountiful, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, June 5, and at the Val Verda 6th Ward chapel from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. prior to the funeral services on Thursday. Interment at Bountiful Cemetery.
And by the way, Dad, that IS the shaggiest dog we’ve ever seen