Wallace Christensen

Wallace Erickson Christensen died at age 97 on January 2, 2015 at his home in Bountiful, Utah of natural causes. He was born September 9, 1917, in Castle Gate, Utah to Neils Christian Christensen and Helga Christensen, the ninth of their 10 children.

Wallace is survived by his wife and high school sweetheart, Muriel Mae Mortensen Christensen and their six children: Colin (Kathleen) of Cedar Hills, UT, Merilee (Mark) of Sandy, UT, Noel (Michelle) of Lee’s Summit, MI, Brian of Bountiful, UT, Kevin (Shauna) of Bethel Park, PA, Blake (Rebecca) of Lawrence, KS, a sister, Evelyn Petty of West Valley, Utah, twenty-one grandchildren, and many great-grandchildren.

The funeral will be held on Wednesday, January 7, at 11:00 am at the LDS Chapel of the Orchard 2nd Ward at 3707 S 800 W, Bountiful, Utah. A viewing will be held at the same location on Tuesday evening from 6:30 to 8:00 pm and again on Wednesday morning from 9:30 to 10:30 am.

Wallace earned a Bachelors Degree in accounting from Brigham Young University. He was always an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He frequently served as Ward or Stake Clerk, and often as Gospel Doctrine teacher. He had a strong bass voice and participated in ward choirs. With his wife, he served a mission in the Washington D.C. area. They were assigned to an Asian Ward and worked in the Mission Headquarters. They also served as service missionaries for several years in the Geneology Department in the Church Office Building.

Wallace was a veteran of World War II, having volunteered for the U.S. Army in 1941. He went through Officer Candidate School in Fort Ord, and received a commission as a Lieutenant. Although trained as Infantry, he was assigned to the 813th Tank Destroyer Battalion. Before shipping out, he had a short leave to Odgen, Utah during which he and Muriel, his high school sweetheart, were married. He then went to war. In 1943 he served in North Africa in the Security Company and saw combat at Hill 609 in Tunisia. He served on Prisoner of War Detail in Sicily and later was stationed in England while the battalion prepared for the Invasion of Europe. He was transferred to Headquarters Company and served as Adjutant. He landed at Utah Beach on June 20th, 1944, and participated in the 3rd Army drive across France and into Belgium, and later, in the Seventh Army the Voges Mountains campaign. During the final Nazi offensive January 1945, Operation Nordwind, he was strafed by German jet fighters. After Nordwind, he was transferred to reconnaissance company, and traveled through Germany and ended the war in Austria. On several occasions, he remembers having felt vivid promptings that saved his life.

After returning safely home to Muriel, he began working for the Utah Oil Company, where he headed the accounting and data processing department. He made pioneering contributions in computer programming, teaching himself COBOL, assembler language, and machine language. He devised creative techniques in order to debug programs and wrote pioneering routines to increase speed and efficiency. He was transferred to Kansas City in 1972, where he worked until his retirement in 1979. While raising his family, Wallace also enjoyed fishing, camping, gardening and encouraging family traditions of faithful church participation, gospel study, and service. He instilled a love of reading into his children by reading full length novels to his children when they were young, including Tarzan, Destry Rides Again, Nevada, and Scaramouche. He played tennis when he was younger, golf in middle age, and walked in retirement. He encouraged each of his children in family responsibilities, personal faith, church service, and in their individual talents and personalities.

After his retirement, he and Muriel returned to their longtime home in Bountiful, Utah where he became an avid gardener and involved grandfather. During retirement years they traveled to Iceland, Denmark, Egypt and Israel, New Zealand, and Mexico, as well as through Utah and the United States. In his ward and neighborhood, he became the unofficial Information Technology resource person, helping many retired people learn how to use personal computers. They enjoyed frequent visits to theatrical productions, such as the Hale Theater. He kept in close touch with his family and was a constant influence for good. We will miss him dearly.