David Sundwall

1941 - 2024

David Sundwall

1941 - 2024

- David Nielson Sundwall, 82, passed on April 8, 2024, surrounded by his grateful, loving family. David was born May 22, 1941, in Salt Lake City to Peter Valentine and Ila Nielson Sundwall, the third of their three children. His family home in Murray was near his father's medical office where David first learned, by example, the skills of a good family doctor, accompanying his dad on house-calls at times, some patients paying with vegetables, the source of his good mother's best recipes. After graduating from the University of Utah School of Medicine, David and his wife Cathy moved to beautiful Boston to further his training, where they welcomed their first two children, David H. and Eleanor. When David worked at the New England Deaconess hospital, skilled, caring, professional nurses, amazed by his calm manner and patience, would wake him in the middle of the night for no real reason, just to tease and test his limits, but they could never upset him. Invited to join a practice in Boston, David returned to Murray for more training from his father and eventually was invited to help organize the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Utah. In 1980, Senator Orrin Hatch, wanting assistance to improve national health care, asked David to help in the U.S. Senate, and David and his family, now including their son, Jed, moved to Silver Spring, Maryland intending to stay for 2 years, staying for 24. During David's time in our nation's capital, after an appointment to administer some health programs for the Reagan/Bush team, David, to stay grounded in primary patient care, requested and was given time to volunteer each Monday morning at a homeless clinic near the Capitol, his service there lasting 17 years. When Governor Jon Huntsman appointed him health director for the State of Utah in 2005, his family moved back to Murray. During his work in government and some in the private sector, David spoke up for common sense solutions at every opportunity. He made friends across the USA and abroad, becoming an ambassador of good will at times, for one, within the Kingdom of Morocco, assigned to Utah by the State Department as its sister country, for another, in the village of Sweden, Maine, where he helped organize the small but significant Camp Tapawingo clinic. David kept close to home, too, helping organize friends, such as reunions of his Murray High class of 1959, hiking adventures with health department colleagues, and singing groups, including Utah Chamber Artists. As for the best years of David's life, the two very best were in his youth, when he served an LDS mission to the British Isles and Scotland, his missionary companions still meeting, once a month, since 1963, as Clan Caledonia, to renew the spirit they shared in Scotland. David's last trip to Scotland, with hiking friends, was to visit a family he had converted and friends he made as a student at an Edinburgh hospital. Until recently, David volunteered at three Salt Lake clinics, not missing one day of doctoring during the pandemic. His greatest skill was helping individual patients and people, the least advantaged receiving his most attention. Thanks Dad, Grandpa, David, for showing us the Way.

David is survived by three children and three children-in-law, David H. (Kimberly Larsen) Sundwall, Eleanor (Stephen Clawson) Sundwall, and Jed (Shannon Rudderow) Sundwall; by ten grandchildren, Steven, Christopher, Natalie, Jack, Mary Kate, Matilda, Ada, Catherine, Leif, and Rowan; by his wife, Catherine Hammon Sundwall; and by his sister, Katherine S. Carpenter. His brother, Peter Val Sundwall, also a good doctor, passed in 2015.

David's memorial service will be held at 11:00 am on Friday, April 12, at the LDS Eastridge Ward, 5235 S Wesley Road (1107 E). A viewing will be Thursday evening, April 11, from 6 pm to 8 pm at Jenkins-Soffe Funeral Chapels, 4760 S. State Street, and Friday morning at the Eastridge Ward at 10:00 am. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the Maliheh Free Clinic and/or the Midvale Community Clinic. Online condolences may be shared at www.jenkins-soffe.com. David's family is especially grateful to the excellent staff of Rocky Mountain Care for helping them ease his way home.