James Leslie Siebach

1957 - 2019

1957 ~ 2019
James Leslie Siebach passed away on June 14, 2019, after a short, yet characteristically fierce, battle with cancer. He was born to Ralph Ernest Siebach and Muriel Audrey Percy Young on March 22, 1957. He spent much of his childhood in Ford City and Crooked Creek, PA, surrounded by forests and farms. His family later moved to Huntsville, AL, and Wichita Falls, TX. He served an LDS mission in Pusan, South Korea.
Jim attended Brigham Young University, and received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Texas at Austin. He was a professor of philosophy at BYU. His true vocation was as a teacher and a mentor. After his retirement from BYU, he began a second career as a consultant at InsideSales, Jim loved and ceaselessly sought wisdom, driven by an intense desire for the beautiful and the good, whether it was found in the thousands of volumes on his bookshelves, in the counterpoint of a cantata, the chiaroscuro of a Caravaggio, or the sublimity of a perfectly ripe peach on an August afternoon.
He married Julie Rae Smith in the Manti, UT Temple on April 4, 1980. They had five children: Sarah, Anna (Erik Larsen), Soren, Kirsten (Kelsey Oakes), and Sophie (Andrew Glover). They later divorced. He loved his family deeply and complexly. He was a friend and mentor to many of his nephews and nieces.
Through all aspects of his life - familial, professional, and spiritual - Jim sought to understand and exemplify love and service. The objects of this love were myriad, but above all, he sought to know the love of his Savior.
He is preceded in death by his beloved father, and by his brothers Christopher and Michael. He is survived by his five children, his mother, his siblings Jeffrey (Kathy), Linda Hartung (Richard), Jennifer Haight (Gordon), and Benjamin (Natasha), and numerous nieces, nephews, students, and friends. The family would particularly like to thank Sam Siebach, Linda Hartung, and Sandra Mangum for their friendship and care of Jim, especially during the last year of his life.
A visitation will be held Monday, June 17, 6 - 8, at the Walker Sanderson Funeral Home (646 E. 800 N., Orem). The funeral service will be held on Tuesday, June 18, 6.30, at the Sharon Stake Center (545 S. 800 E., Orem), with visitation at 5.30. Full obituary at www.walkersanderson.com