Sharrin Eileen Mass Miller

Sharrin Eileen Mass Miller, a truly elect lady, passed from this life into the next on February 4, 2025, surrounded by her loving children. Sharrin was born on December 4, 1942, in San Diego, CA to Howard A. and Mildred I. Mass. Her younger brother Jimmy was her first best friend. 

Mom was happy and cheerful every day. She had friends absolutely everywhere, from the door checkers at Costco to the baggers at the grocery store. She saw the humanity in everyone and would go out of her way to help complete strangers with anything. In high school she was involved in everything, including head cheerleader and homecoming queen. She still corresponds with many high school classmates. She had friends from every job she ever worked, starting with her first job at J.C. Penney in San Diego, first as a gift wrapper and then as the ‘elevator girl’.  

Mom decided to attend college at BYU in Utah, despite being a Lutheran from San Diego. She was introduced to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by some guys from high school. Its teachings took root in her soul and while at BYU she converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She was a freshman SongLeader at BYU and loved cheering for her school. She also attended San Diego State University for her sophomore year where she was a member of Chi Omega Sorority, before going back to BYU. 

While at BYU Mom met our Dad, Ronald J Miller, and they married in the Salt Lake LDS Temple in 1965. Mom said she should have known about Dad’s passion for all things hunting and hunting dogs when they stopped on the way home from their honeymoon to pick up a German Shorthaired Pointer puppy, which was a surprise to her.  

After graduating they lived for a few years in Burbank, CA and Fresno, CA, before coming back to Utah for good to raise their three children Wendi, Kelli and Rob. They built the family home in Murray, Utah and lived in it for over 50 years. So many incredible memories were made in that area. We always said that the home had a soul and it was mom who made it so. Mom and Dad were married for 56 years before he passed away in January, 2021. They had season tickets on the 50-yard line at BYU football games all our lives, long before it was the current LaVell Edwards Stadium. Dad would spend the whole game cheering loudly for his Cougs while Mom spent the game with binoculars watching the crowd and the cheerleaders. 

Mom served in many, many positions in the church, including Stake Young Women’s President and Ward Relief Society President. She was never happier than when she was doing things for others. In the late 1980s she was called as a chapter advisor, then an Advisory Board member for the Lambda Delta Sigma (LDS) sorority system at the University of Utah, and finally as a Lambda Delta Sigma Area Advisor for the state Utah. Some of her dearest friends today are the ‘Lambda Delt ladies’ that she served with, who came from all of the western states. The Lambda Delt ladies met every January for decades to go on a getaway to someplace warm for a week, and she looked forward to it all year. 

Mom learned photography on a Canon SLR camera when we were young, and diligently documented our lives growing up. She loved putting out an elaborate Christmas card every year for decades, and her mailing list had over 400 people on it from all parts of her life. The rise of Facebook was a perfect way for her to stay connected to so many. She talked constantly about things she saw on people’s ‘website’ (their FB page).  

Mom was a hard worker and had many jobs in her life. She loved to reminisce about the time she was the building receptionist at the huge American Express building when they opened an office in Salt Lake in the 1970s. Being the friendly face to anyone who would come and go at the building was a perfect fit. She spent many years running Homes Illustrated in Salt Lake City, then went to the Home Builders Association of Utah. For the last several years of her working life she ran Real Estate marketing offices for Mansell and Associates and Coldwell Banker. The 2002 Winter Olympics were one of her proudest moments, as Coldwell Banker helped to arrange housing for families and visitors. You would have thought that she was THE Olympic Ambassador. It pleased her so much to be able to show the world how Utah could shine.  

Mom had an incredible flair for design, display and interiors. She could walk into a space and visualize it as something grand. Her home was always immaculately decorated, and many people would say how special her home felt because of her talent. She mastered the art of flower arranging and blessed our family and so many others with her gift.  

Mom was immensely proud of all of her children and grandchildren. She loved to make cookies with all of her grandsons, and that’s the fondest memory each of them has of her. We had many, many hours of talking, laughing, and hanging out. We all we were kindred spirits with Mom, and each of us knew that we were her favorite.  

Wendi got Mom the ‘gig’ with the sorority at the U that became one of the loves of her life. This was in part a blatant attempt to convert Mom into a Utah fan, which only partially worked. Every Sunday for the past 2 years Mom came to Wendi and Jane’s home in Farmington for Sunday dinner. Wendi and Mom worked together for years at the Home Builders Association and other endeavors. Wendi was thereafter her ‘IT person’ whenever she needed help. Wendi and Kelli got her to Paris for a week in 1998 and Italy for a week in 2000. We still laugh about her attempts to make eye contact and smile at everyone and everything she saw, especially the situations when we said ‘don’t look!’ 

Kelli and Mom had many interests in common - interior design, dancing, shopping, makeup, and clothes. They never wanted to miss a good deal, as was evident by successfully convincing to Dad drive home all night from a summer vacation in CA to be there for the first day of the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale. When Mom moved to Centerville she loved being only 5 minutes from Kelli.  

We would always tease Rob that he was the golden child, as the youngest and the only boy. Mom told everyone she met (literally everyone) that her son is a fireman in Wyoming. She couldn’t have been more proud of him. When Rob was 10 and in Scouts, Mom packed his backpack full of cans of soup (no can opener or pot for heating, of course), which were promptly removed by the Scout leader in the driveway. She sent Rob her famous chocolate chip cookie recipe on his mission in the Philippines so that he could try to recreate them with what he had on hand. 

She was always a San Diego girl at heart, and we loved hearing of her stories of sun, sand and beach. We took great delight in hearing that she and her best pal Carol went to Tijuana for the day so they could get their hair done before their prom. She said they set their hair with beer cans as the rollers. Mom was an 8-leaf clover, rare and extraordinary in every way. As her children, we know it was an exquisite gift to have been recipients of her unconditional love. We cherish her memory and honor her legacy of deep and abiding faith in our Savior Jesus Christ and his plan for all of us to be happy and whole.  

We would like to thank the staff in the Neuro ICU at Intermountain Medical Center for the professional and empathetic care they gave Mom in the last week of her life, and the wonderful staff from Applegate Hospice, especially her hospice nurse Debbie, for the home care at the end. We can’t thank Dr Josh Romney enough for the amazing care he gave Mom for almost 20 years. Dr Romney was one of her very favorite people and although she hated to go to the doctor, she always looked forward to seeing Dr Romney. 

Mom was preceded in death by her parents, Howard (who died in 2023 at the age of 101!) and Mildred, her husband Ron, and great-granddaughter Addie Rose Tingey. She is survived by her children Wendi and Jane, Kelli and Mel Tingey, and Rob and Brynn Miller. She leaves behind her ever adoring grandchildren Cameron and Jordan Olson, Brenner, Andrew and Dalin Miller, Matthew and Bailie Tingey, Erika and Brian Beckrest, Mark, Sam and Isaac Tingey, and great-granddaughter Emma Tingey, who will arrive in the spring. 

A funeral service and celebration of Mom’s life will be held on Saturday, February 8, 2025 at 11 am in the Bountiful 19th Ward, 1540 North 400 East, Bountiful, Utah. There will be a private burial for immediate family on a separate date. Please stay after the funeral for an open house with the family to celebrate Mom’s life; some of her favorite refreshments will be served. We ask that you wear bright, happy colors because that is what she would want. Mom also loved any and every puffy vest, so feel free to rock that as well! Please buy some new bulbs or flowers to plant in your own gardens this year that will remind you of Mom. When you see the flowers come up every spring you’ll know that’s our Sharrin girl, sending us a little sign!

The funeral will be broadcast on Zoom at the following link: https://zoom.us/j/99614116850?pwd=uxUclA8p1UdbzajBgSQgHkah13TRte.1