James Harold Reynolds

James Harold Reynolds was born on February 18, 1945, in Ogden, Utah, to William Henry Reynolds and Evelyn Sarah Nielsen Reynolds. He passed away on Wednesday, October 11, 2023, in St. George, Utah. He is survived by his wife, Chrystine Heward Reynolds; six children: Cheri Reynolds Briar (Kimberly); Tami Reynolds Janousek (Mike); Juli Reynolds Smith (Kurtis); Kimberli Reynolds Tobey (Billy); Bryan Reynolds (Erica); and Niki Reynolds Leighton (Andy); a Sister, Annette Reynolds Sessions (Gary), and a Brother, John G. Reynolds (Cathy); fourteen grandchildren: Alton Briar; Tyler, Sydney and Wyatt Janousek; Bethany Forde and Harley Smith, Bethany June Smith Vick, Bradley and Zachary Smith; Madison, Emile, Lily, and Ella Randolph; Kat Tobey; and one great grandchild: Allie Vick. He was preceded in death by his parents and by a Lamanite foster daughter, Geraldine Ann Smith, who had lived with their family for six years. Jim grew up in Ogden and Clearfield where he helped his family build and run the Lazy J Motel. When he was about 17, the Lazy J property was sold to the government so I-15 could be built. Jim told everyone that the northbound lanes of I-15 ran right under his bed in his former bedroom at the motel, which they did! At the age of 8, Jim was renting rooms at the motel by himself. He would also help his mother clean the rooms (his wife once complained about cleaning toilets and he responded, “You will never in your life clean as many toilets as I have,” and, of course, he was right)! Also, when Jim was eight years old, he made a pivotal decision in his spiritual life. He decided that rather than going out to breakfast with his parents and his grandma and grandpa Bowen every Sunday morning, he would instead attend church. He was a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from that moment on. He was an excellent student and athlete in basketball (until he stopped growing taller in junior high) and football (co-captain of the football team at Clearfield High School). He was also involved in student government and was a student body officer all three of his high school years. Jim was named “Most Likely to Succeed” by his peers when he graduated from high school. He was also a delegate to Boys State, at Utah State University, from his senior year in high school. Beyond that, he was a crack debater, which meant his wife could seldom win an argument throughout their nearly 56 years of marriage. Among professional honors he received later in his life, he was a National Jaycee Speak-Up Third Place winner in 1976 (the first and second places going to professional radio announcers); and he was also President of the Utah Water Pollution Control Association from 1985 to 1986. During his senior year of high school, he was president of his seminary class. He was asked to speak at his seminary graduation, with his assigned topic being, “Why I’m going on a Mission”. He accepted the assignment, even though he knew for sure he wouldn’t be going on a mission (his father was very antagonistic toward the LDS Church), and he was truly afraid that his father would kick him out of the house if he tried to serve a mission. Thus, he carefully crafted a speech which was designed to say that everyone ELSE should serve a mission, without saying that HE would. Just before his talk, four of his friends sang the LDS hymn “I’ll Go Where You Want Me to Go, Dear Lord”. He began to weep as they sang. He never remembered the rest of his speech, but the first words out of his mouth, when his time came to speak were, “Why I am going on a Mission!” The summer after his high school graduation, since you had to be 19 years of age to serve a mission then, he worked for the U.S. Forest Service as a surveyor to earn money for college and his mission. He also received a scholarship to attend Utah State University, which he did for a year. Finally, entering the (then) weeklong Salt Lake City Mission Training Center on October 11, 1964, he served for two years in the Scottish Mission. While on his mission, he became the Branch President of the Peterhead Branch, for nine months, before returning home in time to continue his education in the fall of 1966. That spring, an old friend from Clearfield High School, named Cheryl Patterson, introduced Jim to her roommate, a junior named Chrystine Heward. They began dating shortly after Easter of that year. They were engaged to be married on October 11, 1967. Their marriage and sealing occurred in the Logan Temple on December 19, 1967. This marriage was a “dream come true” for Jim. He had access to her family's summer ranch! The ranch was located at the base of the Uintah mountains northeast of Duchesne, Utah, coupled with a herd of 32 horses (yes, Chrys was a 32-horse wife)! Jim had always longed to be a cowboy. He would spend several weeks out of the year at his uncle and aunt’s cattle ranch in Colorado. Jim would happily do his cousin’s chores because they could be done from the back of a horse! His love of horses and cowboys had begun very early in his life. This was made very clear when his mother told him, when he was 8 years old, that she was going to have a baby; and he said, “Couldn’t I just have a horse instead!” After their marriage, Jim and Chrys continued their education at Utah State University. Chrys graduated in 1969. Jim received his Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering in 1971, followed by a Master of Science Degree in Environmental Engineering in 1972, and a Doctor of Science degree in Environmental Engineering in 1974. During his college years, he was enrolled in R.O.T.C. and spent three months on active duty. He served at Hill Airforce Base as a First Lieutenant in 1974 (by then the Vietnam War had wound down, so he was offered an early out rather than continuing a planned four-year commitment, as the Airforce had more returning military than they needed at that time). Jim and Chrys had a child with each degree, while Chrys worked to put him through graduate school. In 1974, he was hired as an assistant professor at Utah State University and was eventually the head of the Division of Environmental Engineering. He later decided to become “rich instead of famous” and left the University for the greener pastures of consulting engineering in June of 1980. By that time, they had increased their posterity to five children. That move took them from their first home in Hyde Park, Utah (a place they had loved), to Layton, Utah, where they lived for the next ten years. Their last and sixth child was born in Layton in March of 1987. In 1989, Jim’s company, Montgomery Watson Consulting Engineers, moved him to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul to manage a new office and company they had just purchased in Wayzata. Jim and the family loved living in the bedroom community of Plymouth until 2004. Beginning in 1996, Jim changed consulting firms, working with Consoer Townsend Envirodyne Engineers in Chicago. He eventually left that firm in 2004 and began working for Snyder and Associates, headquartered in Ankeny, Iowa. His final change of employment was working first for Chester Engineers, Inc. in Pittsburgh; and finally, for his own firm, James H. Reynolds Technical Synergy, while acting as a consultant for Allegheny Ludlum LLC -- also in Pittsburgh until his retirement in 2013. During their years in Minnesota, the family exchanged the horses they had ridden for years into the high country, where Chrys’ family had their family ranch, for canoes in the Boundary Waters. Also, because their new home had a barn and a pasture, Jim and Chrys brought their two riding horses to Minnesota and eventually added driving horses (including a team of Belgian draft horses to their herd). After a trip to a Sleigh and Cutter parade, in January of 1990, they began a new hobby of horse driving instead of just horse riding. Before the move to Minnesota, the family had enjoyed mountain men re-enacting, which they then traded for wagon train re-enacting, once they had moved to Minnesota and had acquired their three driving horses. Highlights of their wagon train re-enacting experiences were a high adventure “shake down” wagon train with their son, Bryan, and the members of Bryan’s teacher’s and priest’s ward quorums (they went from Quincy, Illinois to Nauvoo, Illinois in the summer of 1995 in preparation for an LDS wagon train across Iowa in 1996). This was followed by a wagon train from Florence, Nebraska, to Salt Lake City, Utah, called the Big Train, in 1997; by the Gold Rush Train in 1999; and finally, by the reverse Kert-02 Wagon Train from Garden Grove, Iowa, to Nauvoo, Illinois, in 2002, in honor of the building and open house of the Nauvoo Temple. Total wagon train mileage accrued during these various wagon trains was about 1100 miles (the distance from Florence, Nebraska, to Salt Lake City). They also participated in Seatrek 2001, a re-enactment of the pioneer, tall ship voyages of the Latter-day Saints throughout Europe. All of these re-enactment activities drew them close to their pioneer ancestors! Jim, Chrys, and their daughter, Niki, lived in Ames, Iowa, off and on during the next sixteen years; living and working in Pittsburgh while keeping the home and farm in Ames, from 2009 to 2013. When Jim finally retired, he and Chrys put in their papers to serve a two-year senior mission for their church, a dream they had had for years. To their delight, they were chosen to serve in Jim’s old mission, the Scotland/Ireland Mission, serving in Aberdeen, Peterhead, and Orkney from June of 2014 to June of 2016. During their previous years in Ames, they had served as temple workers in the Winter Quarters Temple (which was one of the highlights of their life together). Memorable experiences they had during their previous six years in Pittsburgh (2008 to 2013), included a three-week trip to New Zealand and Australia in 2009; a tour to Israel and to Oman in 2008, a trip back to Oman in 2011, and a trip to Israel in 2013, which included a side trip to Khirbet Beit Lei. All these trips to the Middle East connected them to the Book of Mormon in marvelous ways. Their time in Oman introduced them to the most probable location for Lehi and Nephi’s Bountiful, Khor Kharfot/Wadi Sayq, where they camped for five days during their 2011 trip as part of an expedition to that area. Their time in Khirbet Beit Lei, introduced them to the possible desert home of Lehi and his family. During their Pittsburgh years, they served in the Columbus Temple as temple workers. Returning home to Ames (thinking their mission service was over) they were surprised to discover that the Lord wanted them to serve another senior mission. This one was in Federal Way, Washington, just south of Seattle, where they served for another 18 months. Other memorable church services, for Jim, included serving as a Counselor in a Student Ward Bishopric in Logan, Utah; as a High Counselor in a Student Ward Stake at Weber State; as an Executive Secretary for five different Bishoprics (he had to keep doing it until he got it right); as a High Priest Group Leader for an equal number of times (again, had to keep doing it until he did it right); and as a High Counselor in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Stake. His favorite Church calling was Gospel Doctrine Teacher. (He was an amazing Gospel Doctrine Teacher)! In 2018, Jim and Chrys returned home to Ames, but determined to leave ice and snow behind them, they relocated to Ivins, Utah, in 2020, in the middle of the Covid pandemic! They loved their time together in Ivins. They basked in the shadow of Red Mountain for the three years immediately preceding Jim’s death. Once the pandemic was over, they enjoyed two years together serving as proxies for over four hundred ancestors in the Cedar City and Las Vegas Temples. They had looked forward to continuing this pattern of temple service once the St. George Temple opened in December of this year, but Jim will now finish his part of the work of gathering Israel on the other side of the veil. Funeral services for Jim will be held Monday, October 16, 2023, at 11:00 AM at the Ivins Fourth Ward LDS Chapel located at 260 East 1060 South, Ivins, Utah. A viewing will be held prior to starting at 10:00 AM. Interment will follow at Ivins City Cemetery. Family and friends are invited to share tributes online at www.SerenityStG.com. Arrangements and memorial tree planting by Serenity Funeral Home of Southern Utah, 435-986-9100 To send flowers or a memorial gift to the family of James Harold Reynolds please visit our Sympathy Store.

James Harold Reynolds

February 18, 1945 - October 11, 2023