Delose Conner Obituary (1953 - 2022)

IN LIEU OF FLOWERS OR TREE DONATIONS. THE FAMILY REQUEST DONATIONS MADE TO: Camp Loll Alumni Fund through Crossroads of the West Council or to the Davis County School District for Layton High School. Delose Stephen Conner (1953-2022), who was born to Jennings Delose and Uarda June Jensen Conner of Brigham City, died peacefully at 10:15 pm on the night of Friday, November 25th at his home in Layton. Delose is married for time and eternity to his life-long companion and friend, Janice. Together, they have five children, each of whom gave Delose and Janice an additional daughter or son through marriage. Along with their ten children, they have seventeen grandchildren, counting a granddaughter who is due this coming March and a grandson who preceded Delose in passing. As a community of loved ones, we invite a gathering to celebrate Delose's life and his example of loving service. A memorial will begin at 10:00 am on Saturday December 3rd at the Fox Creek meeting house (202 W 1675 N, Layton, UT, 84041). Following the meeting, we invite all to stay for a reception to celebrate Delose's love and the life he used to bring us all together. As a son, brother, husband, father, grandfather, friend, neighbor, teacher, artist, mentor, public speaker, storyteller, and camp director--Delose inspired and touched the lives of thousands of people. He inspired us to desire to live with greater love and greater excellence. He inspired us to search for truth and beauty in nature, literature, humanity and art, through conversation and debate. He lived the values of the Scout oath and law, and also loved to remind people of the motto and slogan to be prepared and to do a good turn daily. Delose also developed the guiding statement: "In a world where absolute truth exists but cannot be known, one must live by reason and faith." He strove to create spaces where reason and faith could exist and be freely expressed and discussed: in his classroom, on the blog he wrote for fourteen years (attheagora.blogspot.com), in his home, in the Conner Lodge, and around the campfire. He was many things to many people, but we know him best as a proud, doting, and eternally patient grandfather. He has left a deep impact on so many lives, it could be easy to feel small in his world, but he always made each person feel like the most important to him. Compliments flowed out of him; he was a builder of people. His life of service began at a young age through the example of parents and leaders. His service as a missionary in the Japan Central Mission had a profound effect on him throughout his life. After his mission, he spent time teaching at the Language Training Mission in Hawaii. Delose worked at scout camp for 50 years. As a youth, he was on the nature staff at Camp Bartlett, then he worked as nature director, program director, and camp director. Janice joined him on the camp staff in 1979, the summer after they were married, and together they directed camp at Treasure Mountain, Bartlett, Aspen Ridge, Cherry Valley, and more than 30 years at Camp Loll. Jody and Julie Orme were their assistants at camp for the last twenty-eight years. In 2021, their last summer together at camp, the president and executives of Crossroads of the West Council renamed and rededicated the Conner Lodge in honor of Delose and Janice and their leadership and service. Delose's scouting heroes include Ernest Thompson Seton (the founder), Winston Peter Nelson (his scoutmaster), and Jed Stringham. Delose formed hundreds of life-long friendships through Scouting. As a naturalist, Delose loved botany and was a protector of trees and wildlife, except for mosquitos, mice, and horseflies. He delighted in teaching people the names of flowers, trees, and birds, and showing them how to find and eat huckleberries, which he would always describe as the only fruit in the celestial kingdom. His last meal with us was huckleberry cheesecake and maybe it will also be his first one on the other side. Although Delose didn't particularly like bears, he was awarded a grizzly bear conservation award by his friends and colleagues in the US Forest Service, with whom he worked to keep scouts safe from bears and in turn to keep bears safe from people. His life-long friend David Kirkham helped Delose to accomplish the bear conservation measures that serve as the model for all who live and work in the Greater Yellowstone area. Delose wrote a detailed history of his interactions with bears in the third edition of his book, Folk and Campfire Stories. Delose worked for decades to teach outdoor ethics to scouts and scout leaders, and to teach all of us to love the national forests and parks and to treasure them as the gifts that America gave to ourselves. As the leader of Scoutmaster Roundtable, Delose taught the mission, aims, and methods of Scouting. He developed exquisite roundtables that he filled with stories, songs, and lessons, and that he used to inspire hundreds of leaders, week after week, and year after year. One of Delose's inspirations was Yul Brynner, who 4,625 times performed his role in The King and I. Delose directed the staff to develop their individual role, and to perform it with perfection every time, no matter how tired or hungry or weary, because for the audience it would be their first performance. Delose was a great showman, and he directed the best camp performances ever known. In camp, he created the ideal life, one where leaders lead by giving service, and where even small acts of service lead to real love, and where love leads to lasting peace and friendship. Delose always inspired people with a higher vision of living, and for him, the highest realization of life was loving service rendered through a commitment to beauty and truth. Delose taught at Layton High School from 1985 to 2021 and developed a variety of special topics courses in history, including Art History, Great Books, and Greek and Roman History. He also taught AP European, World History, Debate, and Government. He was the advisor to Latinos in Action, and he grew to love and appreciate them a lot. Delose was the debate coach for eleven years, and during that time Layton High's Debate Team won several regional and district competitions. Delose directed 14 school plays and helped to lead the graduation proceedings. He was known around school as the bowtie guy. He always wore a bowtie to school, and almost every bowtie he owned was handcrafted by Janice. Delose's heroes in teaching include his mom, who taught English at the high school and taught Delose to love literature and art, and his many professors at Utah State University, especially George Ellsworth, Ross Peterson, Len Rosenband, and Art Holmgren. As a teacher, Mr. Conner inspired his pupils to enjoy learning and to relish the difficult work that it can require. He required students to write notes in cursive, as a skill that they could take pride in and benefit from throughout life. He also taught them to write and organize their ideas in formal essay style, and he helped many students, including his own children, write award-winning speeches and essays for the Voice of Democracy, the National Forensics League, and the Bound for Belize Environmental Essay Competition. As an artist, Delose worked deliberately for decades to improve and refine his skills. He sought out teachers that could help him learn by correcting the mistakes he made. He wanted to be able to make the art as he saw it, whether from the references he chose or as he saw it in his mind. In classical style, he wanted to recreate the beauty and perfection of the human body, he studied classical drawing with Kamille Corry, and he also studied figure drawing from the books and video courses of many accomplished artists. Inspired by Ernest Seton, Delose also made art of plants and wild animals. Interestingly, many of his wildlife paintings were of bears. He also painted moose, which he loved because of his experience hunting and eating moose as a child with his father in Alaska and because moose are the symbol he and Leonard Hawkes chose to represent Camp Loll and the fellowship of service, leadership, and friendship. Delose also loved loons and had plans to make a painting of Lake of the Woods, reflected in the shape of a loon. Delose, you really lived! We are proud of you and forever grateful for the way you have shown us how beautiful a life of joy and service, of noble goals and ideals, of dedication to arete, and of love and friendship can truly be. You are an amazing friend, and when you were with any one of us, you made us feel important and special. As you cross the sea to the undying lands, may you there find a happy reunion with those you love who have gone before and those you love who are yet to come: your mom and dad, Janice's parents, your brother Brion Jennings and your grandson Asher. While we remain, we will hold you in love and honoring memory, till we meet again.