Richard Heber Berrett

1938 - 2024

Richard H. Berrett, 86, of Providence, Utah, passed away on Tuesday, October 15, 2024. He was the loving husband of JoAn J. Berrett and father of Jolynne, Janine, Beck, Scott, and Kristen. He and JoAn had eleven grandchildren and thirteen great-grandchildren. Many dear friends from all reaches of life also became considered family.

Surviving family include his bride of 62 years, JoAn, daughters Jolynne Berrett, Janine Smith (Corray), Beck Berrett-Taylor (Perry), and Kristen Berrett-Swenson (Matt), many nieces and nephews whom they adore, special cousins, sister-in-law Grace Berrett (Verne), brother-in-law Gene Stark (Sharon), and JoAn's siblings, Larry Judd (Jana) and Donna Oliver (Charlie).

Richard was preceded in death by his parents, William E. (Ed) Berrett and Eleanor Callister Berrett; his brothers, Don, Verne and Bill Berrett; his sister, Sharon Berrett Stark; his son, R. Scott Berrett; and his great-grandson, Haydon M. Stapp.

Richard was born in Salt Lake City, where he spent his first seven years. He and his family spent 1946-7 in Fairbanks, AK, where his father worked as an assistant district attorney in the Alaskan Territory.

When they returned to Utah, his family moved to Provo. Richard loved to play basketball and lettered in football and baseball at Brigham Young High School. He then spent two years at BYU before serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the North Central States, which included Minnesota, the eastern half of the Dakotas, and Manitoba, Canada.

Returning to BYU, he met JoAn at a church meeting. She was a cousin of one of his best friends and had come from Mexico to live with their family while attending BYU. They married in June, 1962.

He graduated from BYU that August and signed a contract to teach in the Church Education System. He didn't intend to be a teacher but made a commitment for one year. He found that he loved working with students and ended up teaching seminary and Institute classes for more than forty years.

Richard has enjoyed his neighbors and community wherever he lived. In Cache Valley, he served with the Lions Club, the Sons of the Utah Pioneers, and in the Logan Temple.

He loved to travel, telling his family that he couldn't think of a single place in the world he wouldn't want to visit. He and JoAn went to Israel for the first time in 1975. The head of BYU Travel Study was on the tour with them and asked if Richard would conduct tours to Israel for BYU Travel Study. He did that for three years and then he broke off and began to conduct tours on his own. In those tours, he included stops in Europe, Egypt, Greece, Turkey and Jordan. In succeeding years, he added journeys to other continents.

But Israel was the place he loved most to visit, as it was where so much biblical history happened. In 1995, he and JoAn served three years at the BYU Jerusalem Center, living in Jerusalem which had become his second home years before.

He loved to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In 2007, he and JoAn were able to serve a two-year teaching mission at the Institute at Southern Virginia University in Buena Vista, Virginia.

Above all, he loved spending time with family. He was a loving husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, uncle, and cousin. He tried to lovingly watch over his family literally until the end. As he said, "It's been a good life."

There will be a viewing on October 24 from 6:00-8:00 PM at the White Pine Mortuary, 753 South 100 East, Logan, Utah.

Funeral services will be held on October 25 at noon, with a viewing prior from 10:30-11:30 AM. The address is 180 South 485 West in Providence, at the Providence Stake Center.

Graveside service will follow at the Hyrum Cemetery, 525 East Main Street, Hyrum.

For more information, please visit the White Pine Mortuary website, https://www.whitepinefunerals.com/obituaries.