Noel Kaye Sill

LIFE SKETCH OF NOEL KAYE SILL
Noel Kaye Sill made his entrance into this world February 5, 1936, in Boise, Idaho, to Carl Milton Sill and DeLora Nielsen Sill. His father, Milton, worked for the Forest Service and was assigned to 'cruise' timber in Centerville, Idaho, where Noel spent his first summer living in a cabin his parents bought for $50 and then sold for the same. The next summer they moved to Lowman, Idaho, where Milton was the Forest Ranger on the Lowman District. Winters were spent in Boise. In 1938, his sister Ellen Ann was added to the family. As the only siblings Noel and Ellen were always close to one another. It was Ellen who taught Noel the alphabet and how to read.
In 1939 the family moved to Atlanta, Idaho. In front of their home was a large rock that became Noel's haven and dream place where he would spend hours "flying around the world". Atlanta was a 'rough and rowdy' mining camp filled with miners who spent days in the mines and weekends in the saloons. It was here Noel began school in a one room schoolhouse. One day Noel was being pushed in a swing so high he flew out of it onto the schoolhouse roof and then fell onto the ground between the scrap metal pits where scrap was collected for the war effort. He was unconscious for 20 to 30 minutes until his mother arrived. He seemed to survive this incident with only a few cuts and bruises.
Noel's father gave him a piece of quartz with gold flecks in it which Noel traded for a rattlesnake. However, his father made him set the snake free and Noel felt terrible. His father had to explain the finer points of making trades when Noel also traded his watch for a small trinket.
In 1943 Noel attended school in Logan, Utah, for a few months where he stayed after his grandmother passed away. In June of that year the family moved to May, Idaho, where his father was a District Ranger on the Challis National Forest. The valley was devoid of trees, had one telephone line with six customers installed mainly for use by the Forest Service, no electricity, propane for heating if you had a furnace and plenty of rattlesnakes. DeLora hated to let the kids out of the house.
Noel attended school in the basement of the Baptist Church as the schoolhouse had burned. There were only a couple of high windows leaving the room very dark. The room was heated by a fire built in a big 50-gallon barrel in the center of the room. The boys would stand near the barrel to get warm and the rivets on their jeans would burn a red spot on their behinds. There were 22 students in eight grades. As Noel got older, he taught classes to the younger students. He started 8th grade in a new Quonset hut built to replace the old school and it had an indoor restroom and running water.
This valley was settled by people from Missouri who weren't particularly friendly toward the Mormons and Noel received a lot of taunting. It was a difficult transition for Noel who had to establish his place in the pecking order by besting the older boys in a fight. Noel learned to ride horses and played cowboys and Indians with his friends reenacting scenes they saw in movies. Noel was always designated the 'Indian' as the cowboys were always the winners in the movies.
He and his sister, Ellen, attended the Baptist church on Sundays often being the only ones present until the family joined an LDS branch in Patterson further up the valley. Gas was rationed while WW II was in progress, but the family obtained enough ration cards for gas to travel to Logan, Utah, for Noel's baptism performed in the Logan Temple.
During his years in May, Idaho, he had measles, which infected his glands, and he was hospitalized where they experimented with penicillin on him. He also had his tonsils removed in Idaho Falls and his appendix removed in an old home turned 'hospital' in Salmon, Idaho. Noel broke open the incision when the handlebar of his bike, he was not supposed to ride, went through the incision during a fall. He never did tell his parents what had happened.
The family bought a piano while in May, Idaho, and both Noel and Ellen learned to play. Noel was bribed with being able to drive the car at age nine to his lessons. He and Ellen played in several recitals.
In 1950, Milton was transferred to Mackay, Idaho, over the mountains from May, Idaho, and Noel began high school at Mackay High School. He signed up to play football but spent most of his football career on the bench next to the coach coaching the coach. Years later, Noel took his wife, Rosa Lee, to see his old stomping grounds and laughed when she was aghast that their football field was covered with gravel rather than grass. Noel also played on the basketball team.
Noel had learned to work hard growing up in May and had many jobs helping neighbors in the valley. Once they moved to Mackay Noel spent summers either farming, ranching, or working in the forests. He spent one summer leading pack trains of mules to supply the men in the lookout towers watching for fires. He also spent time watching for fires himself which were frequent during thunderstorms.
Noel graduated from Mackay High School in 1954 in a class of 18 and enrolled at Utah State Agricultural College, later Utah State University, in civil engineering. His first choice might have been medicine, but engineering promised a faster cheaper way through school. Noel became a member of Sigma Tau, an honorary engineering fraternity.
He also enrolled in the Air Force ROTC program. In 1957 he attended a summer camp for future Air Force Officers and learned what military protocol was all about. His performance in the ROTC program earned him an appointment as a Distinguished Air Force ROTC cadet. He graduated in 1961 with a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Air Force.
During his college career Noel took time to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the North Central States Mission from December 1957 to December 1959. His mission was difficult as the mission president assigned companions to Noel with problems because the president knew Noel had the patience and wisdom to help them. He was appointed a District President with additional responsibilities where members were struggling to keep their testimonies. He finally baptized one sister two weeks before he was released from his mission.
He returned home just before Christmas and was back in school in January. A couple of months later he met Rosa Lee Scoffield at her home in Ogden thus a whirlwind romance followed, and they were married in the Logan Temple September 26, 1960, just before the beginning of Fall Quarter at USU. They graduated together the next spring of 1961.
Noel began work with the Forest Service but soon took a leave-of-absence to fulfill his obligation to serve in the Air Force. His first assignment took Noel to Base Engineering School at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. Rosa Lee joined him there and following his graduation they toured across the United States ending in Los Angeles where Noel was assigned to the Ballistic Systems Division. This operation was tasked with the responsibility of building silos to store ballistic missiles in the ground. Noel was an assistant to Major General Welling of the Corps of Engineers who headed the engineering operation. The entire division was soon transferred to Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino, California. Noel and Rosa Lee followed and had to find a new apartment there close to the base so he could walk to work if necessary. Noel became a father for the first time while in San Bernardino. Rosa Lee went into labor early and fast so they had to make a quick drive back to Inglewood in Los Angeles County where his daughter, Kaylee Ann, was born March 10, 1964.
Noel received the Air Force Commendation Medal and an outstanding Officer Effectiveness Report while working in this division. He advanced to the rank of 1st Lieutenant with General Welling pinning on his new insignia before the general left for a new assignment. Noel was then assigned to the Foreign Technology Office as a foreign anti-missile analyst and foreign ground radar analyst. He was given the assignment to write reports about the work done in his division that were sent to President Kennedy. He was discharged from the air Force in 1964 and returned to Logan, Utah, where he picked up his work with the forest Service.
Noel spent most of his career designing and building roads and trails through the National Forests and dealing with right-of-ways with states and counties. It was here in Logan where his second daughter, Laura Jean was born on September 10, 1965.
Noel was settling in to work on the Cache National Forest, fatherhood and home ownership when he was transferred to the Challis National Forest as Assistant Forest Engineer. He loved being back near his home territory, but tensions built up and he requested a transfer and was assigned to the Regional Office in Ogden, Utah, in 1968 as a Pre-Construction Engineer.
The family rented a home in Roy, Utah, for a while then Noel tried homeownership again, and thus began a major project of building a basement under the home, terracing the property for gardening and beginning a long enjoyable association with the Boy Scout Organization. When called as a Scoutmaster he enrolled in Wood Badge training, loved it and after receiving his Wood Badge beads served on several sessions in leadership positions. He eventually received the District Award of Merit and later the Silver Beaver Award.
While in Roy three boys joined the family--Christopher John, September 3, 1968, Gregory Scott May 8, 1970 and Benjamin Levi January 8, 1977. In addition to his work in the Ogden Region, Noel received an assignment in 1971 to prepare a trail design on the Chugach National Forest near Anchorage, Alaska. He took his family with him, and they drove the entire Al-Can Highway through Canada to Alaska. They lived in a Forest Service cabin near Hope, Alaska, (very primitive), and made a point of traveling through as much of the state as possible on weekends.
He spent the summer of 1973 at Goleta, California, preparing a Trail System Planning Report for the Los Padres National Forest in Region Five. The family spent some time with him there before he was called as a supervisor on a fire in the forest near that area and the family flew home.
Another assignment took Noel back to California to survey a section of the Pacific Coast Trail. He loved being on the high mountains there.
Noel was downsized from the Forest Service during President Reagan's administration and was jobless for a year. After the girls graduated from high school he accepted a position as a Civil Engineer with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Gallup, New Mexico. The Roy home was rented (with the intention to return soon) thus the family took bag and baggage, three boys and began life in New Mexico among the Navajos. Noel was responsible for the maintenance of the roads on the Navajo Reservation. It was a challenge to deal with the US Government, the states and counties but also with the Navajo Nation. He took a class in Navajo in order to communicate better with the people he worked with. He didn't make it back to the home in Roy which was sold but spent 12 and a half years with the Bureau in New Mexico. As a maintenance engineer Noel received the task to provide reconstruction information for accidents on the Reservation for the US Attorney in Arizona. He made on-site measurements of positions, distances and possible speeds of the vehicles involved in the accidents then provided reports to the attorney. He enjoyed figuring out what happened with each accident to be used in the court trials.
In 1995 he was given the opportunity to take an early retirement, so he jumped at the chance. He was ready to begin farming and ranching again but ended up with only a small garden in West Point, Utah, and more house remodeling. Then due to the concern of his children his final years were spent in West Haven, Utah, in a home where all necessary requirements for senior living were on one level. His son, Chris and granddaughter Mackenzie made it possible to build the house in West Haven after much negotiation over plans and requirements.
Coming from the backwoods of Idaho Noel loved being in the outdoors and insisted on taking the family to see the country and camping along the way, much to Rosa Lee's dismay. One particular trip (without children) was to pick up a new station wagon at the factory in Detroit and travel through eastern Canada and New England camping along the way. Rosa Lee insisted on some nights in a motel to take a shower! Noel did agree to take a tour of Europe with a tour group that always stayed in hotels. He and Rosa Lee visited 11 countries on this tour which was fantastic, but were never able to return to Eastern Europe or Israel as planned.
Noel from an early age was a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints serving as a home teacher, in bishoprics, on High Councils, as Ward Clerk, Stake Finance Clerk, Scoutmaster, Young Men's President, Priest Advisor, Teacher Trainer, in the High Priest Group Presidency and even played the piano in Primary. He served as an Ordinance Worker in the Ogden Temple, as a missionary at the Ogden Cannery and in the Family and Church History Mission in Salt Lake City. Perhaps one of the greatest occasions of his life was when Ben and Natalie were sealed in the Bountiful Temple and all five children and spouses were present.
Noel passed away on his 64th wedding anniversary, September 26, 2024, at his home in West Haven, Utah. He is survived by his wife and 5 children and spouses: Kaylee and John Alberts, Portland Oregon; Laura and Alan Astle, Sandy Utah; Chris and Monica Sill-Durango, Colorado; Greg and Amy Sill-West Jordan, Utah; and Ben and Natalie Sill-Mountain Green, Utah; 16 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren; sister, Ellen and Richard Morrell-West Jordan, Utah; brother-in-law, William and Cherie Scoffield, Cannonville Utah; sister-in-law, Karen Scoffield, North Ogden Utah.
The family is grateful to the Hospice nurse, Melissa from Canyon Home Health and Hospice who tended to his needs after his diagnosis of inoperable cancer and was present to the end. We are also grateful to the Visiting Angels organization who provided caretakers during the months following his diagnosis.
Interment at Bountiful City Cemetery 2224 South 200 West. Bountiful Utah, Friday, October 4, 2024, at 1:30 p.m. Memorial service at the Kanesville Ward Chapel, 3300 South 4700 West, West Haven, Utah, Friday, October 4, 2024, at 3:30 p.m.
Services will be live streamed and may be viewed at the bottom of the obituary page.