Richard Heber Berrett

Richard H. Berrett passed away on October 15, 2024. Below is a bio that he wrote for a reunion several years ago. The family felt that you may want to see how he described his life. We have updated some of the information that has changed since the initial bio was written.

I was born and raised in Utah, first in Salt Lake City and then in Provo, with a two-year period in Fairbanks, Alaska. 

My father was a lawyer and teacher, and when I was eleven years old, he brought our family to Provo where he was on the religion faculty at Brigham Young University. He later was made a vice-president of BYU and Administrator of Seminaries and Institutes for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

I attended school in Provo at Brigham Young High from 1952-56. I attended BYU for two years, then served a two-year mission for the Church in the North Central States, which included Minnesota, the eastern half of the Dakotas and Manitoba, Canada. 

Returning to BYU, I met JoAn at a church meeting—she was a cousin of one of my best friends and had come from Mexico to live with their family while attending BYU. We dated for a year and a half, got engaged at Christmas, and married in June, 1962. 

I graduated from BYU that August and signed a contract to teach in the Church Education System (I didn't intend to be a teacher, but was pressed into service and told them I would do it for "one year"--and I am still doing it more than forty years later.) 

My first assignment was at the Orem High School Seminary. In my third year, I was assigned to teach the first Church Education class at Utah State Penitentiary at the Point of the Mountain. So, every day after teaching at Orem High, I would drive to the Point of the Mountain twenty-two miles north, go through the clanking doors and teach about thirty inmates in a room adjacent to the prison chapel. 

I continued to work with church programs at the Prison for the next five years, in the meantime moving to Salt Lake City to teach at the Institute adjacent to the University of Utah and working on a doctorate, then returning to Provo to teach at BYU and complete the doctorate. 

I received an Ed.D. in Education Administration in 1971. We accepted a position in Phoenix, Arizona at that time and I served as the Director of the Glendale Institute for the next several years. 

In 1983, we moved to Cache Valley, Utah, to teach at the Institute at Utah State University. We lived in Hyrum, Utah for twelve years and then moved to Providence (immediately south of Logan), where our home is presently. 

We were blessed with five children: Jolynne, Janine, Becki, Scott, and Kristen. Today, all but one are married and we have been blessed with eleven grandchildren and thirteen great-grandchildren. 

In 1975, along with teachers and spouses of the Seminaries and Institutes, we made our first trip to Israel, Italy, Egypt, and Jordan. The head of BYU Travel Study was with us and asked if I would conduct tours to Israel for BYU Travel Study. We did that for three years and then I broke off and began to conduct tours on my own. We have also taken groups to Europe, China, Mexico, and many other places. 

In 1995, I was loaned from the Institute to BYU to serve in the administration of the BYU Jerusalem Center. JoAn served as the Coordinator for BYU Travel Studies and also assisted with many of the responsibilities of the Center and student activities. We had a wonderful experience for three years, returning to the Logan Institute in the fall of 1998. 

Retirement came a few years later, and today I fill my time with finishing basements and other projects for our children and their families, a few projects around the home, organizing, promoting and conducting tours, and as an ordinance worker in the Logan Temple. I also have continued to teach a class at the Institute in the evenings and also a BYU Extension class in one of the stakes. 

So we continue to keep busy–in fact, it seems like we are busier than ever. It's been a good life. 

Since this was written, Richard served another mission for the Church, this time with JoAn, to Southern Virginia University Institute in Buena Vista, Virginia. He continued to take tours to the Holy Land, as well as Book of Mormon tours to Mexico and South America. He was able to take his children with their spouses and many of his grandchildren, making lasting memories and changing the way we read our scriptures and how we see people throughout the world as one big family.

There will be a viewing on October 24, 2024 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, 2024 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. 

The funeral will be livestreamed and can be accessed by clicking on the following link:

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE LIVESTREAMING OF RICHARD'S FUNERAL