Russell Mack Wilkins

In the early morning hours of January 10, 2016, at the age of 88, our family patriarch, Russell Mack Wilkins, shed his failing health and upgraded his living arrangements with the offer of a forwarding address:   "Heaven: C/O God, the father and his son Jesus Christ".   

With this sudden change of address, the heaviest of burdens befalls his family, leaving Melladene Court Wilkins, wife of 67 years, without her favorite escort to accompany her to Chuck-O-Rama and productions at the Centerpoint Legacy Theater in Centerville, Utah.   While his 4 children, Debbie (Robert) Bennion, Kim Green, Court (Vicki) Wilkins and Vallerie Wilkins are left to instinctively ferret their way through politics, 60 minutes, Pat Bagley, investments and finance, home improvements, and day-to-day living without their father's wisdom and guidance.  

To add to the family's loss, his 16 grandchildren and their respective spouses are left without the benefit of Grandpa-isms… like, "Always invest with Vanguard and in Government E Bonds" or " You can live a long time on cracked wheat and honey for less than a dollar".    And sadly, because of their youth, his 14 great-grandchildren are left without the full experience of his love and his words of wisdom to sustain them throughout their entire lives.   

But most burdensome to the family is that ALL are left without the benefit of his never-ending strength, endurance, intelligence, foresightedness, perseverance and most of all his oversight and fortification.   

However, it is with the greatest excitement, that Russell (aka Mack) is now welcomed to his up-graded, heavenly living accommodations by his mother and father, Bertha and Elwood Wilkins, mother and father-in law, Bertha and Byron Court, siblings Owen Wilkins, Doris Counts, and Ray Wilkins and his eldest grandson, Cory Blake Sovereen; all of whom precede   him to his newly acquired address and have lovingly prepared it for this joyful and eternal reunion. Together they will most assuredly be catching up on memories of Mack growing up on the family farm in Hunter, Utah, working on the dry-farm in Monticello, Utah, graduating from Utah State University, serving his country in the U.S. Navy, negotiating federal contracts for the Minute Man missiles, camping at the family cabin in the Uintah Mountains, deer hunting in Salina Utah, snowmobiling above the Bountiful "B", swimming in the family pool, home repairs, yard work and most of all Mack's famous one-on-one "chats" with each and every family member where he conveyed relevant, specifically designed and sage advise.  
 
Russell Mack Wilkins, you will be deeply missed and simultaneously welcomed by those who eternally love and care for you.  All who love Mack would also like to offer a special thanks to the devoted care of Symbii Hospice healthcare providers, Tiffany, Candice, Natalie, April and of course the compassionate guidance of Dr. Grant Christian.    

Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m., Saturday, January 16, 2016 at the Val Verda 6th Ward, 2651 South 500 West, Bountiful. A visitation will be held Friday evening from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. at Russon Brothers Mortuary, 295 North Main, Bountiful and Saturday morning 9:30-10:45 a.m. at the church prior to services. Interment-Bountiful City Cemetery, 2224 South 200 West, Bountiful.