City of Orem: A Centennial Benchmark

CITY OF OREM 

A Centennial Benchmark 

by Charlene Winters 

A publication of the City of Orem

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THE CITY OF OREM 

A Centennial Benchmark 

by Charlene Winters 

A publication of the City of Orem 

HPNbooks 

A division of Lammert Incorporated 

San Antonio, Texas

First Edition 

Copyright © 2019 HPNbooks 

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without permission in writing 

from the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to HPNbooks, 11535 Galm Road, Suite 101, San Antonio, Texas, 78254. Phone (800) 749-9790, www.hpnbooks.com. 

ISBN: 978-1-944891-62-6 

The City of Orem: A Centennial Benchmark 

author: Charlene Winters 

cover artwork: Jeran Wilkey 

HPNbooks 

chairman and chief executive officer: Jean-Claude Tenday 

publisher and chief creative officer: Bernard O’Connor 

president: Ron Lammert 

project manager: Bart Barica 

Patricia Reid 

administration: Donna M. Mata 

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book sales: Joe Neely 

production: Christopher D. Sturdevant 

Colin Hart 

Craig Mitchell 

Evelyn Hart 

Tim Lippard 

2 ✦ THE CITY OF OREM: A CENTENNIAL BENCHMARK

CONTENTS 

LEGACY SPONSORS.........................................................................................4 

A LETTER FROM THE GOVERNOR ......................................................................6 

A LETTER FROM THE MAYOR ...........................................................................7 

OREM: A CENTENNIAL BENCHMARK..................................................................9 

SHARING THE HERITAGE .................................................................................94 

SPONSORS ....................................................................................................192 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR ......................................................................................193 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................194 

Contents ✦ 3

Legacy 

Sponsors 

These companies have made major contribution to the book as part of our Legacy Program. 

We could not have made this book possible without their leadership and participation. 

Alpine School Distict 

575 North 100 E 

American Fork, UT 84003 

(801) 610-8470 

www.alpinedistrict.org 

Bruce W. Bastian Foundation 

1384 North 450 E 

Orem, UT 84097 

(801) 222-3600 

www.bastianfoundation.org 

Geneva Pipe 

1465 West 400 N 


(801) 225-2467 

www.genevapipe.com 

Houghton Plaster, Inc. 

1411 West 1250 S, Suite 200 


(801) 374-6056 

The redX 

1411 West 1250 S, #300 


(801) 877-2887 

www,theredx.com 

Squire & Company, PC 

1329 South 800 E 


(801) 225-6900 

www.squire.com 


United Angels Foundation 

1411 West 1250 S. Suite 310 


(801) 900-4125 

www.unitedangels.org 

Vivint Smart Home 

4931 North 300 W 

Provo, UT 84604 

(801) 229-6956 

www.vivint.com 

Westland Construction 

1411 West 1250 S, Suite 200 


(801) 374-6085 

www.westlandconstruction.com 

Legacy Sponsors ✦ 5

A LETTER FROM THE GOVERNOR 

Dear Reader, 

Throughout the pages of this book you will find many important and unique stories, histories, 

and facts pertaining to the 100 year history of the City of Orem. This information will mean many 

things to many people. You may be a direct descendent of one of the founders, you may have never 

stepped foot in the city (if that is the case I am truly sorry), or perhaps you are considering moving 

to a wonderful new place. Whatever your reason is for reading this book, I hope you find the story 

of this wonderful Utah city to your liking. 

To me, Orem is home. It is the place I was raised, and the city where I raised my children. What 

a place to raise a family! The City of Orem has been called the top city in the nation for working 

parents, the second best city in the nation for taking your children trick or treating, and one of the 

top 30 safest cities to raise a child. 

With an impressive library (housing the largest children’s collection in the state), world class parks, 

and an exceptional arts scene, it is no wonder the City of Orem is so family friendly. 

In fact, 24/7 Wall Street named Orem one of the top 50 Most Livable Cities in America. I never 

needed a ranking to know that though. To me, Orem always was and continues to be the city I want 

to live in – my home. 

Orem is a city where families thrive and businesses prosper. It is home to manufacturing 

companies, retailers, tech companies, and an international workforce with an unrivaled 

entrepreneurial spirit. Orem is home to budding young minds, job creators, innovators, homemakers, 

philanthropists, athletes, artists, and more. 

This city is so much more than any collection of pages could truly capture. It is 100 years of people 

coming together to build a community and develop a culture. I hope this book inspires you to experience that for yourself. Happy 100th birthday, 

City of Orem. 

Sincerely, 

Gary R. Herbert 

Governor 


A LETTER FROM THE MAYOR 

Dear Friend: 

Orem is one of the best places in the United States to raise a family, start a business, get an 

education, grow old successfully, and even go trick-or-treating. 

Orem has beautiful neighborhoods with friendly neighbors who care about each other and work 

hard to build a strong community. 

Looking out over our beautiful city reminds me of what Brigham Young once said as he came 

across our area. He directed the building of a pioneer highway from the north to the south across the 

[benchland] and then predicted its future by stating: 

“Some day all of this sagebrush will disappear, water will be taken out of the Provo River in canals to 

water this bench land, and the bench will become a beautiful garden spot; here many kinds of delicious 

fruit and vegetables will be grown [and] beautiful homes erected…” 

I believe that due to the hard work and faith of all those who have strived to build our community 

and city, that this prediction has truly happened. In fact many millions of pounds of cherries, apples, 

and peaches were grown and shipped from Orem in the past. 

Orem began as a way to incorporate our town to qualify for water bonds to build a canal for the 

orchards. A railroad was then built to the area to move fruit and people to Salt Lake City. Then came 

the steel mill. Then a national highway. Not long afterwards one of the first shopping malls in the 

state was built in Orem. Orem 

continued to diversify with the addition of a new campus for computer software. Since then the 

entrepreneurial spirit has taken hold and many new retail, manufacturing, and high-tech businesses 

have been started in Orem. 

The quality of this beautiful garden spot has always been the strength of our citizens and families. We are a city of trees, parks, schools, churches, 

retail outlets, businesses, a university, world class arts, wonderful recreation for our youth, families, and seniors, and a home for great individuals 

and families with an unlimited and bright future. 

Sincerely, 

Richard F. Brunst Jr. 

Mayor 

The History of Orem ✦ 7

✦ 

Crandall Orchard 

PHOTO COURTESY OF JAREN WILKEY. 


OREM: A CENTENNIAL BENCHMARK 

What does it take to be considered among America’s most livable 

cities? In the case of Orem, Utah, the can-do spirit of nearly 100,000 

residents likely has much to do with it. The Utah Valley town nestled 

in the north-central region of Utah will turn 100 years old on May 5, 

2019, and a glimpse into its past reveals how the former agricultural 

fruit and farming region on the Provo Bench has adapted and ultimately 

thrived. Orem’s history is a story of its people through community 

gathering, farming, faith, business, and education. 

SCERA CENTER FOR THE A RTS 

G ENEVA 

S TEEL 

Orem began to shift from 

agriculture to industry during World 

War II when the U.S. Government 

funded a steel plant as part of a World 

War II effort near Utah Lake on 

Orem’s west side. After the war, its 

employee survival philosophy of 

“zero errors” kept Geneva Steel open 

for several decades. 

U NIVERSITY 

P LACE 

The year was 1933, and Orem City shared the despair of the 

nationwide Great Depression. To dispel some of the gloom, the Sharon 

Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints created a 

community gathering place. Called the Sharon Cooperative Educational 

Recreational Association (SCERA), it began by showing movies at 

Lincoln High School. In 1936, after two small children drowned in a 

dirty and unprotected canal, the SCERA added a swimming pool, and 

by 1941, the community had sold bonds and pooled resources for an 

arts center at 745 S. State Street. The cherished organization turned 85 

years old in 2018. 

Orem City may have been the place 

for fruit and farming, but it was not a 

major shopping region until the 1970s 

when Utah’s Woodbury Corporation 

developed the University Mall. As 

Utah County’s central shopping 

district, it has thrived for most of its 

45 years by anticipating and keeping 

up with changing times. Now, as 

University Place, the project offers 

housing, office space, restaurants, 

entertainment, green space, and more. 

U TAH V ALLEY U NIVERSITY 

The unlikely progression of a small trade school operating out of a 

dilapidated old barracks to its status today as Utah’s largest university 

with a unique dual-mission model stands as evidence of vision, hard 

work, and dedication. Utah Valley University in Orem is our 

community’s college and university. 

✦ 

Top: Geneva Steel. 

PAINTING BY EMMA STRATTON HOUGHTON. 

Above: The South-west corner of 

University Place. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF WOODBURY CORPORATION. 


W ELCOME TO F AMILY C ITY, USA 

✦ 

Right: 

PHOTO COURTESY OF UVU. 

Right: Orem, Utah, is a story of its 

people. Here thousands of local 

theater goers enjoy a concert at the 

SCERA Shell amphitheater. 

The backbone of any solid community is its people, and the story of 

Orem is punctuated by dedicated residents who may be the city’s greatest 

resource. When Money Magazine released its latest rankings of best 

places to live in the United States (2018), Orem ranked in the top 13. 

The magazine called it “the quintessential family town,” which is a perfect 

description for a community that has been dubbed “Family City USA.” 

The family-centered city, 45 miles south of Salt Lake City, has many 

reasons to celebrate its centennial history. Nested between Utah Lake 

on the west and the Wasatch Mountains on the east, scenic vistas 

abound. Its picturesque 44-acre Timpanogos Park in Provo Canyon is 

ideal for hiking and picnicking, and the City of Orem maintains some 

of the most delightful parks in Utah. Additionally, as Utah’s fifth largest 

city, it boasts a vigorous business economy with low crime rates and a 

community that celebrates its love of God. 

Orem City manager, Jamie Davidson, attributes much of Orem’s value to 

its “outstanding quality of life, business-friendly environment, outstanding 

education platform, and its vibrant and attractive neighborhoods.” 

Major national publications regularly list the Orem/Provo area as one 

of the safest and best places to live in America, including USA Today, which 

listed Orem among the top 50 most livable cities in its 2017 rankings. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF SCERA. 


R OOTED IN S AGEBRUSH AND R OCKS 

Few could have envisioned 

that by 2018, nearly 100,000 

residents would call Orem 

home, and more than 37,000 

college students would attend 

a major university on the west 

side of town. Nor would they 

have visualized a business 

climate exploding with 

successful companies that 

help Utah Valley earn its enviable “Silicon Slopes” identity. 

As pioneers, some might have pictured fruit orchards, berries, and 

vegetable gardens. It is doubtful, though, that anyone would have 

foreseen a robust railway system, an impressive power plant, a major 

steel operation, the growth of high tech, or a centrally-located 1.77 

million square-foot, regional shopping/residential/business center 

designed for an increasingly urban area. 

If those early pioneers hoped Orem would maintain its cultural 

and traditional values over time, they would have been correct. At the 

heart of everything then and now are its people. Generations ago, smart 

and honest individuals worked hard to tame an unforgiving mountain 

desert and have been followed by equally smart, honest, and 

hardworking citizens committed to building a great place to live, work, 

and learn. 

E ARLIEST 

V ISITORS 

an influx of people who in time transformed the region into a dynamic 

metropolitan region with the sister cities of Provo and Orem 

at its center. 

The region’s most ancient native to date was discovered in southwest 

Orem in 1937. Orem resident Daniel Thomas was connecting to the city’s 

water system and, as he worked in his yard, he found a large tooth. It 

belonged to a pre-historic Hairy Mammoth, an Ice Age relative of the 

modern elephant. The skull was buried near the street, and eventually 

University of Utah archaeologists unearthed a complete mammoth 

skeleton. It is housed in the U of U’s Museum of Natural History, but for 

a few years in the late 1990s, its skull came home and could be viewed 

at the SCERA Center for the Arts. 

✦ 

Top: Orem’s most livable city 

distinction probably would have been 

laughable to the nineteenth century 

pioneers who encountered desolate, 

dry, densely-covered sagebrush and a 

rocky bench above Provo. The 

population could have been measured 

by its rattlesnakes, jack rabbits, 

and coyotes. 

PHOTO COURTESY JAY H. BUCKLEY 

Left: 

PHOTO COURTESY LON BOWEN 

Utah Valley was home to Native Americans for many centuries. 

The first white men to set foot there were most likely two Franciscan 

padres, Father Escalante and Father Dominguez (September 23, 1776). 

Étienne Provost, after whom nearby Provo is named, visited the 

valley from 1824 to 1825, and from 1824 until approximately 1847, 

various trappers and mountain men spent time in the valley. The 

first permanent settlers were Mormon pioneers sent by their leader, 

Brigham Young, in March of 1849. The colonists left Salt Lake Valley 

and headed south to establish homes in Utah Valley. This began 


✦ 

Above: Brigham Young. 

Right: State Street looks considerably 

different in the 21st century and is 

one of the primary thoroughfares 

through the city of Orem. 

TOP PHOTO COURTESY OF JAY H. BUCKLEY. 

BOTTOM PHOTO COURTESY OF OREM CITY. 

U NCERTAIN 

B EGINNINGS 

The early years of what would become Orem, Utah, were not 

particularly promising. Despite its stunning mountain backdrop, the 

parched ancient shoreland of Lake Bonneville contained little naturallyoccurring 

water. Known as the Provo Bench, it lacked wells, streams, 

rivers, and a water system in which to grow and thrive. 

When families began moving to the Provo Bench, simply surviving 

signified success. Food was scarce, and meals often consisted of 

a skinny jack rabbit or Bonneville cutthroat trout from Utah Lake or 

Provo River. 

The rigors of pioneer life were real. With little money, settlers needed 

resourcefulness. Old clothing was repurposed into rugs. Dirty ditch 

water was purified using sandstone as a water filter. Bedding consisted 

of cloth bags filled with fresh straw that became increasingly 

uncomfortable as it matted. Water for laundry came from winter snow 

that settlers melted on a stove. Clothes were cleaned with a washboard 

and handmade soap. Utah Lake often froze during frigid winters, and 

residents would cross the ice with teams and wagons to haul cedar posts 

that became fencing for landowner properties. They cut ice blocks and 

stored them in their cellars. 

The lake could be treacherous in adverse weather, but it also had 

lifesaving benefits. Hunters would drive deer or bison onto the frozen 

surfaces, and then kill them for food. 

Yet Brigham Young, territorial governor and second president of The 

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, saw great promise. As 

recorded in the diary of Ben H. Bullock, President Young declared, 

“Someday all this sagebrush will disappear. Water will be taken out of 

the Provo River in canals for irrigation, and this land will become a 

beautiful garden spot where many kinds of delicious fruit and vegetables 

will be grown, beautiful homes will be erected, and Provo and Pleasant 

Grove will be as one solid city.” 

W ORKING THE L AND AND M OVING TO 

THE 

B ENCH 

President Young’s vision took some time to become reality. Resilient 

settlers, however, undertook the task of transforming the bench by 

uprooting sagebrush, digging irrigation ditches and wells, and planting 

fruits, vegetables, and orchards. Ranchers used the land for livestock 

grazing. Even so, nearly everyone spent their winters in Provo. That 

began to change after the Provo Bench Canal and Irrigation Company 

originated as the first of several water companies to divert Provo River 

water onto the bench. Water arrived at the bench in 1863 through the 

efforts of settlers and other invested persons. It was a modest canal, six 


feet wide and two-and-one-half feet deep, yet the slender stream of 

water from Provo River nourished more than 2,000 acres. After the 

federal land office opened in Salt Lake City, settlers could file claims for 

land they were improving. 

Thomas and Mary Ann Benson Cordner are credited as the first yearround 

residents. With the birth of their son Alexander on March 17, 1879, 

they became parents of the first child born among the bench settlers. That 

first winter Thomas secured 160 acres for $2,000. He moved his wife and 

five children to the bench permanently in 1877 and established their 

homestead at approximately 1200 East and 200 South. They moved into 

a run-down summer cabin. With limited effectiveness, Mary Ann pasted 

wall seams with flour paste and strips made from overalls. During 

the windy, bitter 1877 winter, the family often woke to find one or 

two inches of snow covering the floor. Their light came from a button tied 

to a string and set into a dish of grease. It provided enough illumination to 

see around the room but produced an intolerable stink. The Cordners then 

occupied a dugout, which made a better home than the drafty cabin. The 

family eventually built one of the area’s first homes near 300 South and 1000 

East. Thomas became an active community member. He and his sons laid 

the cornerstone for the Timpanogos Ward Chapel in 1865. The building, 

located at 400 East and 800 South, was completed in 1898. Thomas cut 

lumber in Pole Canyon for 

construction materials then slid 

the logs over snow into the 

river, riding downstream to 

keep the logs from jamming. 

Thomas also participated in 

building the first small canal to 

bring water to the Bench and 

became a director of the Provo 

Bench and Irrigation Company. 

Believed to be the first 

settler to spend an entire 

winter on the Provo Bench 

was Henry Lewis Davis (1844- 

1908). When he was six years 

old, his family crossed the 

plains from Nauvoo to Utah 

with the Mormon pioneers. 

After a few days in the Salt 

Lake Valley, they moved to 

Provo in September of 1850. 

As a boy, Davis helped his 

father on the farm. When 

Johnston’s Army was stationed 

at Camp Floyd, Henry, with 

his father and brothers, hauled 

produce across the ice-bound 

Utah Lake to sell to the 

soldiers. His mother sent pies, 

which were in great demand among the troops. The pies sold for 50 cents 

each. Later, he and his brothers hauled dried fruit, flour, and other 

products to Southern California and returned loaded with merchandise 

for stores in Provo. 

After marriage, Davis homesteaded 50 acres on the Provo Bench and 

helped bring canals into Utah Valley. 

His first wife, Rachel Baum, died giving birth to a second child. A 

few years later, he married Phylinda Loveridge, and they had eight 

additional children. 

✦ 

Above:Henry Davis and his wife. 

Left: Tom Cordner and his wife 

PHOTOS COURTESY OF OREM HERITAGE 

MUSEUM/SCERA. 


✦ 

Right: Washing, like so many tasks 

of Provo Bench's pioneers, 

was challenging. 

PHOTO BY NATASHA HEHUM, 

COURTESY OREM HERITAGE MUSEUM/SCERA 

Below: Bringing life-giving water to 

Orem meant either diverting it from 

springs or streams up Provo Canyon 

or digging wells. Victor Andersen, 

Marion Holdaway, and an unnamed 

worker dug this well on the Holdaway 

homestead around 1900. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF TOWN OF VINEYARD. 

CAPTION BY JAY H. BUCKLEY. 

Friendly with the local Indians, Davis became an interpreter. He was 

captured once by a band of unfriendly Indians who threatened to kill 

him, but Anglawatts, an Indian chief who knew Davis, convinced them 

to let him go. Later, the chief’s eyesight became impaired and according 

to Indian belief, he was going to be taken to the canyon to die. Davis 

begged the Indians to let him take Anglawatts home and care for him. 

The Indians agreed. 

Anglawatts’ wigwam sat on a hillside across from Davis’s home at 

714 S. Main Street. Davis’s young son Elwood took food to the old 

chief and listened to tribal stories about hunting and fishing. Anglawatts’ 

tribe retrieved him when he became completely blind. David again 

pleaded to allow his Indian friend to remain, but they packed his 

possessions on his pony and took him into Provo Canyon to a rock 

slide. There he died, and his Indian friends buried him.” (It Happened 

in Orem, p. 61) 

W ATER C OMES TO THE B ENCH 

The presence of water encouraged others to settle on the bench and 

take advantage of the federal homestead law. Homesteaders could 

purchase land or fulfill the requirements of the homestead application 

to live on the land six months of the year and make certain 

improvements within five years. Those who selected the homestead 

option could purchase land for $1.25 an acre after six months of 

homesteading. People began building homes and populating the bench. 

They used horses and oxen to haul logs from the Provo River. To keep 

out treacherous and icy winds in their new homes, settlers chinked the 

cracks with a homemade cement-like solution. Roofs were often covered 

with dirt or thatched with rushes from Utah Lake. A lucky few had 

muslin stretched across their cabin ceilings. 

Most cabins had only one or two small windows and a single door. 

Cast iron stoves and fireplaces were valuable sources for heating and 

cooking, and the smell of boiling lye and tallow for making soap 

frequently permeated the cabin. They made frequent treks to Utah Lake 

and Provo River to secure culinary water. 

Each settler likely had a worthwhile story, yet many names are 

forgotten. A few have been retained because roads and buildings were 

named after them. 


John H. Carter, Sr., acquired 

85 acres in the lower east end of 

the Provo Bench and established 

a blacksmith shop in 1876. 

Carterville Road—originally a 

trail—skirted the Provo Bench 

along the river bottoms and 

extended to Provo Canyon. It 

was named after Carter and his 

namesake son, John H. Carter, 

Jr. The son and his polygamous 

wives, Elizabeth and Sophia, 

owned several homes and a 

blacksmith shop. 

Utah silver magnate Jesse 

Knight is primarily remembered 

as a great benefactor of Brigham 

Young Academy (Brigham Young University), and his generosity included 

purchasing 500 acres near today’s Orem City offices. The idea was to 

increase the land’s worth and either lease or sell it in parcels to finance 

campus projects. 

To clear the land, the academy organized a volunteer workday to 

remove the sagebrush that blanketed the acreage. Workers piled the 

brush into stacks, which people purchased for fuel. These “sagerooters,” 

as they were called, cleared the entire acreage with a little 

encouragement from a lively BYU band that played as they labored. BYU 

honored Jesse and members of his family by naming buildings to honor 

the Knight family. 

Several families prospered and distinguished themselves in different 

ways. Thomas Barret, Sr., and his wife Sarah Stott Blaydon, moved to 

the Provo Bench in 1873 after emigrating from England. As converts to 

the LDS Church, they raised their children in the faith and homesteaded 

160 acres after filing a claim on April 8, 1878. Their property at 32 

North and 400 West held a house, gardens, sheds, and the only 

sorghum mill in Utah County at the time. 

Thomas J. Patten operated one of the first horse-powered molasses 

mills, which processed the cane. Children loved the skimmings, which 

their mothers used to make candy. 

✦ 

Top: Jesse Knight—a local mining 

magnate, industrialist, and 

philanthropist—purchased 500 acres 

next to Orem's present city center and 

donated it to Brigham Young Academy 

(Brigham Young University). To 

increase the land's worth, the 

university organized a volunteer 

workday to clear away the sagebrush 

plants that covered the area and stack 

them into piles, which people could 

purchase for fuel. Spurred on by 

music from the BYU band, in one day 

these "sagerooters" cleared the entire 

acreage, which was later leased or 

sold in parcels to finance various 

campus projects. Knight and his 

family donated tens of thousands of 

dollars to the university before his 

March 13, 1921 death. His 

contributions of land, irrigation 

bonds, and money ensured the early 

financial survival of BYU, and several 

buildings on campus were named to 

honor the knight family. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF JAY BUCKLEY AND L. TOM 

PERRY SPECIAL COLLECTION, BYU. 

Bottom: Jesse Knight. 

COURTESY OF BYU ALUMNI. 


✦ 

Above: Calder’s Meats & Groceries. 

PHOTO COURTESY CITY OF OREM 

Right: Mulberry trees were cultivated 

in the hope that silkworms could eat 

the mulberry leaves. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF CHARLENE WINTERS. 

O PEN FOR B USINESS AND B ECOMING A T OWN 

Early Provo Bench residents shopped in Provo, and Emma Stratton said 

that during the 1880s, “[Going to Provo] was one of the pleasures...(but) 

it took one day to make the trip.” 

Shopping, however, gradually came to Orem. Melissa L. McBride 

opened a small mercantile store in 1890 in a stone building on 530 

North State Street. The Old Sharon Post Office shared the same building 

until 1902. Sam Kitchen bought the property in 1925, and the building 

stood until a fire destroyed it in 1960. 

Other businesses began to dot the town. Mark E. Kartchner built and 

operated a dance hall with a grocery store on the right end at 353 S. State 

Street. John L. Snow purchased the building in 1910 and opened a grocery 

store. Various owners used the building for a mercantile, the Econo Market, 

the Grange store, the Howard Strang store, and the Timpanogos Market. 

Becoming a town was contemplated several decades before Orem 

incorporated in 1919. When Johnston’s Army arrived in Utah in 1858, the 

unit was invited to move troops to the bench and call it Centre City. A year 

later the camp tried to establish a town below the bench at the mouth of 

Provo Canyon and call it Brown City after one of Johnston’s officers. Neither 

idea succeeded. Later–after the formation of the Provo Bench Canal and 

Irrigation Company—the south end of the bench overlooking the Provo 

River and Wasatch Mountains was identified as a possible town site. 

At one time the area was called Sharon, a biblical name for a (mostly) 

level strip between mountains and the sea. The name also 

acknowledged Sharon, Vermont, birthplace Joseph Smith, Jr., first 

prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

Apostle George A. Smith plotted a city southwest on the bench in the 

early 1870s. A group of women from Salt Lake City planted mulberry trees. 

They hoped the trees would help grow a thriving silk industry. Silkworms 

never did feast on the mulberry leaves, but the fruit from the trees later 

provided food for hungry settlers. This town site never materialized, 

because without enough irrigation water that far south, the idea withered. 

The Provo Bench became known for fertile orchards and farmlands, 

a distinction it shared with Provo. With sufficient water provided by 

wells and canals, the bench was ideal for growing fruits and vegetables. 

This provided a marked contrast from the parched prairie that had 

barely sustained plant and animal life in the 1860s. 

Alfalfa and flax were the first crops planted on the bench. Early crops 

grown without the boost of irrigation water rose no taller than about 

three inches during the year and were used for seed. When the area 

introduced irrigation water to the bench in 1863, land cultivation 

became a viable profession. 


The Thomas Cordner family is credited as the bench’s first 

commercial growers. Provo friends had given Thomas strawberries and 

everbearing raspberries, which he planted on the bench. The plants 

took root and thrived. 

Thomas often took fruit to Provo. Cordner transported his berries in 

a wagon lined with grass to cushion the plants from the rocky journey 

to Provo. Even so, the berries often swam in their own juices by the 

time they reached their destination. The Cordners sold berries for 25 

cents a quart to local stores and peddled them from house to house. 

One day when he and his wife were transporting berries from the 

bench, Mary Ann Cordner unknowingly dropped her purse through a 

floorboard in the wagon. Although it contained no identification, Del 

Carter found it and returned it to its owner. The purse held $3, and 

Carter said no one except the Cordners carried that much cash. Newell 

Knight, Sr., planted the first peach trees in 1885. His son Newell Knight, 

Jr., John H. Stratton and his father, and others followed suit. 

Orem’s version of Johnny Appleseed was Stephen L. Bunnell, who 

introduced apples to the bench. Pears, cherries, apricots and prunes 

also succeeded as cash crops. Orem developed a statewide reputation 

for its luscious fruit. 

Martin B. Walker placed crates of his fruit by the side of the road to sell 

to passersby in 1913. Word of mouth spread, and customers returned 

repeatedly to buy his fruit. He established the first fruit stand and posted a 

sign that read, “This is the place.” It was the place—for produce. Soon fruit 

stands lined State Street and other main roads. Farming became a family 

affair that enhanced Orem’s economic circumstances. Motorists throughout 

Utah traveled to Orem to purchase fruit from stands along State Street. 

While a few orchards still sell produce, economic realities led farmers 

to sell their orchards for residential or commercial development. For 

much of Orem’s history, though, farming drove the economy—and a 

train transported the produce. 

✦ 

Lower left: Strawberries represented a 

crop that could be planted one season 

and harvested the next. This 1936 

photograph shows workers, including 

children, harvesting berries with Mt. 

Timpanogos as the backdrop. 

COURTESY OF NORENE JENSEN 

Top right: Orem farmers frequently 

boxed their produce and traveled to 

Park City to peddle their produce. 

COURTESY OF JAY BUCKLEY. 

Bottom center: Women package apples 

to be sold to Jack Phillips, who is 

standing beside the crates. Pictured 

are, from left to right, William H. 

Homer, Jack Phillips, Mae Dyer, Vera 

Burr, Willa Pace, unidentified Dyer 

son, Mr. Dyer and Mrs. Dyer. Orem's 

farms helped keep families together a 

they worked each day, side by side. 

COURTESY OF OREM HERITAGE MUSEUM/SCERA. 

Below: Moses Rowley’s fruit stand. 

COURTESY OF OREN CITY. 


✦ 

Top, left: By 1910, accessibility to 

outside agricultural markets inevitably 

required a railroad.. Electrically 

driven railroads were fairly new, so it 

is understandable why in 1913 

newspapers of Utah were virtually 

unanimous in proclaiming the building 

of the Orem Railroad the biggest event 

of that year.The Salt Lake and Utah 

Railroad, or the Orem Line as it was 

called by many people, was a 67-mile 

electric rail line financed and 

constructed by A.J. Orem and 

Company under the direction of 

Walter C. Orem. 

CAPTION FROM IT HAPPENED IN OREM, P. 53, 

IMAGE COURTESY OREM HERITAGE MUSEUM/SCERA 

Top, right: Orem train station, which 

coordinated the schedules for trains 

traveling the line. 

PHOTO FROM BYU ARCHIVE 

Bottom, left: 

IMAGE COURTESY JAY H. BUCKLEY 

Bottom, right: Canning factories were 

constructed at or near Orem to can 

and ship the produce by railway. The 

Pleasant Grove Canning Company 

built in Orem in 1919, represented 

one of the 44 canning plants in Utah 

in the 1920s. 

IMAGE COURTESY JAY H. BUCKLEY 

C ONNECTIONS BY R AILROAD 

In the first decades of the 20th 

century, a railroad system was essential 

to transport the region’s crops. The 

Provo Bench’s reputation for quality 

fruits and vegetables had found a 

national market, and its products were 

shipped elsewhere by train. 

A group of promoters in 1912 

advocated a low-cost, electric railway 

system to transport passengers as well as 

produce from Provo to Salt Lake City. The A.J. Orem Company, with Walter 

C. Orem as president, took on the railway project. Already familiar with 

railroad building, the company had contacts with financiers in Boston, 

Massachusetts, and Portland, Maine, to help with the large-scale venture. 

A.J. Orem contributed $2 million, and local businessmen raised $1 million. 

The company obtained land for a right-of-way, which, except for city 

limits, meant it would not need to deal with any unpredictability from 

the highway department. Whenever possible, the company placed the 

line through the center of the towns it serviced as a convenience to 

passengers. Workers graded the land, laid iron rails and installed overhead 

lines. By 1913, 500 men using teams of horses and a steam engine-built 

roadbeds, laid tracks and erected bridges. 

A 10-mile run through the Provo 

Bench was ideal for transporting 

trainloads of fruit on Walter Orem’s 

Salt Lake and Utah Electric Inter-Urban 

Railroad. Located on Orem Boulevard, 

it was Utah’s first light rail passenger 

service. The Snow Station building still 

stands at the corner of Orem Boulevard 

and 400 South and is identified with 

an historical marker. By May 1916, the 

rail system extended to Payson in 

South Utah County. Plans to take the 

line 25 additional miles to Nephi were 

abandoned permanently with the beginning of World War I, but the rail 

system operated until March 1946. 

After the coming of the railway, canning factories helped by preserving 

food and preparing it for shipping. Pleasant Grove Canning was Orem’s 

first major industry. The company, built in 1919, represented one of 44 

canning plants in Utah in the 1920s. Farmers began growing tomatoes for 

canning, and as the area prospered, canneries were added in Lakeview and 

Lindon to accommodate new crops of sugar beets. Utah Valley farmers 

were encouraged to grow different crops to increase their prosperity. 

To distinguish its produce from Provo crops, the Provo Bench 

Commercial Club selected the name “Orem” to brand its fruit instead 

of using the Provo label. The railroad passed through the Provo Bench, 

and the Orem label was an attempt to curry Mr. Orem’s favor for the 

rail’s location and to attract his investments for business. 


A POWERFUL 

L EGACY 

In addition to water and transportation, the bench needed electric 

power. The historic Olmsted Power Plant at the mouth of Provo Canyon 

began transmitting electricity during the horse-and-buggy era in 1904 

and operated for more than a century. 

Built using cutting-edge technology from the turn of the twentieth 

century, the Olmsted Power Plant generated its final kilowatts 

September 21, 2015, after 111 years of serving customers throughout 

Utah and extending northward into southeastern Idaho, and Wyoming. 

The costs to upgrade and renovate the aging structure were not as viable 

as building a new facility. 

Much of the credit for Olmsted 

goes to Lucien L. Nunn, a wiry fivefoot-tall, 

100-pound entrepreneur 

who traveled west from Ohio in 1880. 

He was drawn to Colorado mining 

areas and started with a restaurant in 

Leadville and then in Telluride. Nunn 

built small shacks and leased them to 

miners. He also practiced law by 

settling mining disputes. By the late 

1880s, he had established a 

partnership with the local bank. One 

client, the Gold King Mine and Mill, 

ran consistently in the red because of 

high fuel costs. Nunn told mine 

owner James Campbell the mill could 

run a profit if it used electricity. 

Campbell said when he first met 

Lucien Nunn he believed Nunn was 

either a genius or insane. In reality, 

Nunn was a visionary with an 

uncanny ability to amass the necessary 

people, equipment, and financing to 

make things happen. Lucien asked his 

brother Paul, a Massachusetts high 

school science teacher, to come to Colorado and supervise the 

construction but not reveal his lack of experience. Over time, Paul Nunn 

became a leading authority constructing hydroelectric power plants. 

Nunn soon realized that low grade ore mines needed a nearby power 

source to separate metals and process the ore. Steam engines provided 

power using wood, but this led to over-harvesting trees, which 

diminished its effectiveness. Coal offered another power source, but it 

was challenging to transport over primitive roads. 

Nunn became intrigued with the possibilities of rapidly moving water 

as an effective power source. Water could be used to generate power, but 

direct current, the prevailing technology, could not transmit the power 

the mills required. Direct current was limited to a mile and building a 

power plant within that distance of a mine was not possible. 

By 1888, Nunn was managing the Gold King Mine near Telluride and 

became convinced that high voltage alternating current could transmit 

power over long distances. The Nunns approached George Westinghouse 

to persuade him to research and test alternating current systems. 

✦ 

Left: L.L. Nunn (top), and his brother, 

Paul Nunn (bottom). 


MUSEUM/SCERA. 

Below: Two sources of power. 

Although L.L. and Paul Nunn 

successfully transmitted 44,000 volts 

of electricity from their Provo Canyon 

hydroelectric generators to Mercer in 

Utah’s Oquirrh Mountains 32 miles 

away, this Olmsted worker still read a 

book by way of a kerosene lamp. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF LON BOWEN 


✦ 

Above, right: The Nunns diverted 

water to turn their turbines by 

constructing a wooden flume that 

hugged the Provo Canyon wall and 

diverted water from the Provo River. 

They used gravity to generate 

electricity from the falling water. By 

February 18, 1914, the wooden flume 

was in place. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF LON BOWEN. 

Bottom, left: Nunn’s Station was 

the first water plant and was 

constructed in 1895 three or four 

miles into Provo Canyon. 

PHOTO COURTESY OREM HERITAGE 

MUSEUM/SCERA 

A reluctant Westinghouse would not agree to the bold undertaking 

without proper experimentation. It was not until the Nunns offered 

$50,000 in gold and guaranteed that Westinghouse would not be 

responsible if the project failed that he and Nikola Tesla agreed to join 

them. After several years of trial and adjustment, the first transmission 

of alternating current traveled successfully from the powerhouse at 

Ames, Colorado, to the Gold King Mine, a distance of 2.6 miles. 

The success of the project and the equipment Westinghouse 

and Tesla created electrified the nation. Even Thomas Edison needed 

to shift his thinking to embrace what he once thought was too 

dangerous to consider. 

Nunn expanded into Utah because of its large number of mining 

operations and the abundant supply of water flowing down local 

canyons. After negotiating rights for non-consumptive Provo River 

water, the Nunns and their team constructed a 16-foot-high dam to 

divert water into a wooden flume that conveyed water along the canyon 

walls two miles to the power plant at Nunn’s Station, now Nunn’s Park. 

The descent of the flume was less than the natural descent of the 

canyon, allowing for a 120-foot-fall of water through penstocks to turn 

the generators at the power station. 

As demand for power increased, the equipment at Nunn’s Station 

in Provo Canyon could not meet the demand. In 1902, Lucien 

Nunn purchased land at the 

mouth of Provo Canyon for 

a new facility with more 

generating capacity. Other 

plans involved extending the 

wooden flume three miles 

down the canyon from 

Nunn’s Station. This carved a 

950-foot tunnel through the 

mountain above the power 

plant. The drop from this 

location to the plant below 

was 340 feet, increasing the 

pressure needed to run the 

upgraded equipment. 

The flume carried river 

water into a large cement box 

above the generating station. 

Steel pipes or penstocks 

carried the water at a steep 

angle down the mountain to 

the generating station. 

Colorado native Fay DeVeaux (Frank) Olmsted had graduated as an 

engineer from the University of Michigan in 1897. Upon returning to 

Colorado in 1899, Telluride Power hired him as assistant chief 

engineer. The chief engineer was Paul Nunn, who, beginning in 1902, 

devoted much of his time to developing the Ontario Power Plant at 

Niagara Falls. 

This left the engineering of Telluride’s four western power plants in 

the hands of Olmsted. Olmsted directed much of the design and 

engineering of Telluride’s new power station near Provo Canyon, but 

he became ill and died in the fall of 1903. The Nunn brothers keenly 

felt the loss and honored Olmsted by naming the Provo facility after 

him. Olmsted’s memory was recognized recently with the completion 

of an Olmsted replacement power plant. 

“We have Olmsted’s name etched on a raised brick on the new 

structure,” said Daryl Devey, who has been with the Central Utah Water 

Conservancy District for more than three decades. 


The Olmsted Plant distinguished itself from other power facilities by 

providing training for workers in engineering and maintenance of electric 

systems. It was L.L. Nunn’s idea, and Paul directed the Telluride Institute. 

Some of the most knowledgeable engineers in the country taught on-thejob 

training programs there. At the time, Olmsted and Ohio State 

University were the only competent training programs in electrical 

engineering. The facility included a laboratory, classrooms, multi-subject 

curriculum, and residential buildings. Students received a general college 

education and a practical education in generating and transmitting 

electricity. The free training equaled two years of college, and several 

young men from the Provo Bench became excellent engineers. 

The large Olmsted campus contained a three-story education/dormitory 

building, a laboratory, a boarding house, and housing for Paul Nunn, who 

had become plant superintendent and dean of the Telluride Institute. 

The laboratory was critical to both education and the development 

of electrical transmission. Experiments determined the effectiveness of 

different new methods and materials. Telluride developed the Provo 

Insulator, which was used nationwide. “The Nunns were as interested 

in learning and training as they were in power,” Devey explained. 

Nunn did not plan to sell Telluride Power, but his investors became 

frustrated when profits went to the Telluride Institute. In a coordinated effort, 

investors transferred all stock to a single investor, giving him controlling 

stock, while others formed a new corporation, Utah Power and Light. 

Telluride Power liquidated all assets, paid market price to shareholders, and 

the company was sold to the only bidder, Utah Power and Light. 

While the investors’ maneuvers appear unjust, it is possible that had 

they not done so, the power company may have failed. Utah Power and 

Light invested substantial money updating and improving the facilities 

at Olmsted, making it a profitable business that expanded throughout 

the west. 

The Central Utah Water Conservancy District, acting on behalf of 

the U.S. Department of the Interior, recently constructed a replacement 

plant along with support services. The operation can generate 

approximately 12 MW per hour, or enough power to supply electricity 

to nearly 8,000 homes. 

The old Olmsted plant will be revived as a museum after upgrades 

to meet earthquake standards and following repairs and painting. It will 

be curated with artifacts dealing with early electrical power. Among 

other items, the museum will highlight pipe from the old pressure box, 

a tainter gate, motors, watch gears, parts from the original turbines, 

bearings, arm shafts, blacksmith objects, an old telephone, and some 

3-D models of the Olmsted campus. Most equipment from the early 

1900s remains intact, including four generators. 

Olmsted was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 

1972, and its use as a museum will be free by appointment. 

“I think anyone from about the fourth grade and up will find it 

interesting,” Devey said. “In addition to its electricity-generating 

capabilities, the water rights from Olmsted plant have been stored in 

Jordanelle to provide water to approximately a million people.” 

✦ 

Left: This red sandstone building 

housed the hydroelectric power 

equipment at Olmsted. Until 

September 2015 the system operated 

much the same as it did more than a 

century earlier. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF OREM HERITAGE 

MUSEUM/SCERA 

Below: The 280-acre Olmstead facility 

was a miniature city nested at the 

base of Provo Canyon. Besides the 

electrical facilities, the campus 

included Nunn’s cottage, an engineer’s 

cottage, a boarding house, an eating 

establishment and a training institute. 

Lucien L. Nunn built the Nunn’s 

Provo Station Power Plant in 1897 at 

an estimated cost of $50,000 and 

harnessed the power of the Provo 

River to generate electricity and 

transmit power. The Olmsted plant 

opened and replaced the Nunn’s 

facility in 1903. Nunn’s park sits at 

the site of the original power station 

and offers overnight camping, 

picnicking, fishing, biking, logging 

and more. 


MUSEUM/SCERA 


✦ 

Below: left: With the construction of a 

20x30-foot log cabin on the southeast 

corner of 800 South and State Street, 

Provo Bench had a school in 1883. 

The school got a two-room brick 

addition in 1890. Twelve years later, 

the log cabin was gone, and the brick 

school had been expanded into a twostory, 

eight-room building. 


Below, right: A second elementary 

school, Sharon, was built in Orem in 

1894 on two-acre site at the northeast 

corner of 300 North State Street. 


CENTER/SCERA 

E DUCATION C OMES TO THE B ENCH 

Despite a struggle for survival, Provo Bench pioneers valued 

education. Because of its rather late settlement date, however, it 

was 1883 before a public elementary school opened for grades one 

through eight. Until 1913, high schoolers had the option of attending 

secondary schools in either Pleasant Grove or Provo. The first Orem 

neighborhood school opened its front door to seven children in 1880 

at a northeast Orem residence. Parents hired a teacher, whom they paid 

with non-cash goods. 

In 1883, three acres on the corner of 800 South and State Street 

became the site of a one-room elementary school built from logs. A $48 

payment covered the land cost for Sharon Elementary. Additionally, it 

served as a place for church meetings and community events. The 

addition of a two-room brick building in 1900 gave students and 

teachers more classroom space. Some of the land, which was still 

covered in sagebrush, was cleared for a playground. 

The log school came down in 1900, making way for additional 

remodeling of the brick classrooms. Two more classrooms were added, 

and over time, the roof was removed to make way for a second story. 

Some married students attending the school often said they were 

“going to Spencer,” a reference to the textbook from which they were 

studying. The author’s name was Spencer. Teacher Irving Pratt suggested 

that because it was already referred to as Spencer, Spencer School 

should be its formal name. The school stayed open until 1965. Its 

neighbors were an LDS seminary building (now the Orem Heritage 

Museum) and SCERA. 

Several other early schools included Union (Vineyard) School, 

Lincoln Junior High School and Lincoln High School. Orem High 

School, built in 1956, was demolished to make way for a new Orem 

High School building in 2010. A second-high school, Mountain View, 

opened its doors to the graduating class of 1980-81, and Timpanogos 

High School was added in 1996. In 2018 students attended classes from 

24 elementary, middle, junior and high schools in the Alpine School 

District. Seven private schools served 319 students. 

A TOWN AT L AST 

As the population grew, rumblings about incorporation increased. 

The idea of becoming a town became a reality in 1919 after a vote 

deciding whether the bench would have its own town or whether it 


would join ranks with Provo came down on the side of its own 

community by a two-thirds majority. 

As the Provo Bench Commercial Club considered a name, suggestions 

included Timpanogos, Sharon, and Canyon City. In the end, however, club 

president Britt Woodward recommended Orem. The area’s produce was 

already designated as an Orem product. Clyde Weeks, Jr., the former Orem 

postmaster and author of From Sagebrush to Steel, wrote, “He (Woodward) 

suggested that since the Salt Lake and Utah Railroad would be building an 

electric interurban line through the bench, it might be advantageous to 

name the community after railroad owner Walter C. Orem.” Weeks added, 

“The strategy in using the name Orem was that it would be a high honor 

to Mr. Orem, and that the community might receive some worthwhile 

favors from the railway promoter who lived in Salt Lake City. Mr. Orem 

was properly impressed and bought a 40-acre townsite in the 800 North 

State Street area, hoping that the town would centralize there." 

The idea was appealing, and Orem became Utah’s newest city May 5, 

1919. Among the town’s first acts was issuing $110,000 in bonds to construct 

a water system. This helped alleviate the area’s long-standing water shortage. 

With irrigation, the farming industry increased. In 1928, for 

example, the farms yielded 264 train cars of peaches, 203 cars of apples, 

36 cars of pears, 32 cars of cherries and four cars of prunes. 

✦ 

Above, left: Schools crafted dance 

cards and invitations for its various 

proms and other dances, such as these 

from the 1930s and ‘40s. 


MUSEUM/SCERA. 

Above, right: With the completion of 

Lincoln High School at 800 South 

State Street in 1921, the ninth and 

tenth graders moved to the school, 

and for the first time, eleventh and 

twelfth graders could attend school 

in Orem. 


Left: Walter C. Orem 

PHOTO COURTESY OF .JAY H. BUCKLEY. 


Although Walter C. Orem never lived in his namesake town, he 

followed the progress and development of Orem, and the city honored 

him and his wife as guests of the city in 1949 during the State Street 

Velvet Strip gala. Orem died August 25, 1951 in Salt Lake City at the 

age of 78. 

A RURAL 

L AYOUT 

Unlike other early Utah Valley communities, Orem City’s layout 

reflects its agricultural beginnings. Typically, The Church of Jesus Christ 

of Latter-day Saints sent a group to colonize the community and counsel 

residents to live in the city and cultivate their farmland outside of city 

limits. Orem, however, was not organized in regular city blocks with 

clusters of houses. Orem’s development is called a scattered farm, or 

“Gentile manner.” Orem farmers built homesteads along the territorial 

highway as well as other main arteries. This way farmers could live by 

their fields and orchards. As growers filled the land near the highway 

with crops, new farms began operating in other locations. Rural roads 

crisscrossed Orem to connect the farms. 

“People living on the bench considered downtown Provo the city 

center, and it wasn’t until Orem became an established town of its own 

that town leaders started to consider where its center should be,” said 

city manager Davidson. 

In some ways Orem is as much without a central core now as it was 

when it was known as the Provo Bench. Deciding upon and planning a 

city layout has been a much debated topic of city council meetings 

nearly from the beginning. 

Joyce Johnson, former mayor, city councilman, member of the Orem 

Planning Commission, and recipient of the 2017 Orem Founders Day 

Award, finds it interesting that many issues she dealt with decades ago 

remain a focus. “That particularly applies to State Street,” she explained. 

“We spent considerable time addressing what we thought would help 

businesses survive and thrive. Our forward-thinking city leaders are still 

working on that.” 

✦ 

As State Street developed, businesses 

began to dot the highway and share 

space with farms and animals along 

the long stretch through Orem City. 


MUSEUM/SCERA. 


A CITY WITH F ORESIGHT 

Orem may be grappling with city planning, but evidence from the 

past as well as its master plans for the next several decades suggest that, 

in many ways, the city has shown considerable foresight. 

Water—According to Jamie Davidson, Orem acquired sufficient 

water rights early in its history. During drought conditions when 

surrounding communities struggle with water needs, Orem’s water 

needs are usually met. In seasons past Orem has leased water to 

Vineyard and Pleasant Grove, its neighbors. Mountain man Jim Bridger 

had called the Provo Bench “inhospitable” for cultivating crops. Early 

pioneers diverted water from irrigation ditches and canals to survive 

Utah’s arid climate. The city issued bonds for a water system, and a year 

later, Orem purchased Pony Steel Spring in Provo Canyon (Canyon 

Springs) for $100,000 from the Provo Reservoir Company. When the 

United States Bureau of Reclamation announced the construction of the 

Deer Creek reservoir and dam, Orem voted to create the Metropolitan 

Water District of Orem. Its objective was acquiring, appropriating, and 

developing a water supply for the city. 

The Metropolitan Water District with the Orem City Council are 

responsible for developing culinary water needs. Orem’s water supply 

comes from Canyon Springs, Alta Springs, and nine wells in Orem City. 

Surface water from the Deer Creek Reservoir, the Provo River, and the 

Jordanelle Reservoir is treated in the Central Utah Conservancy Treatment 

Plant. Orem has sufficient water to withstand drought conditions and to 

provide for equipment failure with a surplus to lease or sell. 

Shopping—Orem leaders jumped at the opportunity for a central 

shopping area and welcomed the development of the University Mall 

in 1973. Now called University Place, it stands as a valuable mixed-use 

center for Orem and surrounding communities. Its newest business, the 

highly anticipated Trader Joe’s, opened July 27, 2018. 

✦ 

Bottom, left: The City of Orem has 

been shrewd about gathering water, 

and one of the first places they 

secured it was in Provo Canyon. 

PHOTO BY CHARLENE WINTERS. 

Bottom, right: Trader Joe’s is the latest 

business to become part of Orem’s 

University Place, which opened as 

University Mall in 1973. 

PHOTO COURTESY CITY OF OREM. 


✦ 

Above: Mt. Timpanogos Park, located 

about one mile from the Provo 

Canyon entrance, is a 44-acre park 

with pavilion tent sits, picnic sites, six 

restrooms and an all-weather hosting 

site. It took 15 years to plan and two 

years to build. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF OREM CITY 

Right: City Center Park is at the 

center of Orem’s official activities, 

including Summerfest, Arts in the 

Park, and bandstand performances. 

Since September 2016, it has been 

home to the All-Together playground. 

On 24.35 acres, it is located at 300 

East Center Street. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF OREM CITY 

Opposite, top, left: Foothill Park is 

one of more than two dozen city parks 

designed to enhance the city. 

PHOTOS COURTESY OF OREN CITY 

Opposite, top, right: Skate Park took 

over land in West Orem that 

had been the site of an aging 

recreation center called Trafalga 

Family Fun Center. 

PHOTO BY CHARLENE WINTERS. 

Parks—Orem has a rich tradition of placing public parks throughout 

the city. “Our beautifully-groomed parks are usually placed next to 

elementary schools,” said Jim H. Orr of Orem Parks. “We believe this 

constitutes the best use of our parks, not only for school children, but 

also for families.” 

• Bonneville Park in northern Orem has a soccer field, two lighted 

tennis courts, a playset and a 120-person pavilion. The land totals 

4.3 acres at 1450 North 800 West. 

• Cascade Park features a large playing field, a basketball court, 

playset, softball field, and two lighted tennis courts. This park sits 

on 6.33 acres at 200 North 950 East. 

• Cemetery Field lies just below the Orem Cemetery and is an open 

space for residents to enjoy soccer, outdoor games, kite flying, 

remote control airplanes and picnics. The land will soon be needed, 

however, to expand the cemetery. The track surrounding the 

property will still be available for running and walking. Its 16 acres 

are located at 1200 North 800 East. 

• Cherryhill Park in South Orem is tree-filled with a playset, 80-person 

pavilion and two lighted tennis courts. This park is smaller at 3.02 

acres and is situated at 240 East 1800 South. 

• City Center Park is the center of Orem’s official activities, including 

Summerfest, Arts in the Park, and bandstand performances. Since 

September 2016, it has been home to the All-Together playground. 

City Center Park sits on 24.35 acres at 300 East Center Street. 

• Community Park, adjacent to the Orem Fitness Center, has baseball 

fields, tennis courts, a playground, and soccer fields. At 30.25 acres, 

it is centrally located between Orem Elementary and Mountain View 

High School at 581 West 165 South. 

• Foothill Park sits beneath towering Mt. Timpanogos. It has tennis 

courts, a nice-sized playset and a large playfield and a large pavilion. 

Foothill Park totals 4 acres at 1011 North 1240 East. 

• Geneva Park is a grass park next to the fields of Orem Community 

Hospital and has a large and small pavilion. It features a large 

circular walking path sitting on 20 acres at 260 North 700 West. 

• Hillcrest Park is a neighborhood park with a tennis court, soccer 

field, and playset. The pavilion seats 120 people. The small park 

comprises 1.97 acres at 650 East 1400 South. 

• Lakeside Sports Park is Orem’s premier soccer and baseball facility 

with eight soccer fields and five lighted baseball diamonds. It features 

a one-mile walking path on 55 acres at 1850 West 400 South. 

• Mt. Timpanogos Park in Provo Canyon features eight pavilions 

and a dog park on 44 acres. It is located off Provo Canyon Road, 

Highway 189. 


• Nielsen’s Grove, the oldest park in Utah, showcases a duck pond, 

fountains, gardens, and picnic spots. A large playset completes the 

21.4 acres at 1931 S. Sandhill Road. 

• Northridge Park has two tennis courts, a playset, a soccer field, a 

walking path, and a large and small pavilion. The facility totals 3.2 

acres at 1750 North 165 East. 

• Orchard Park. With 18 acres, Orchard has a full-sized track to go along 

with its four tennis courts, playset, pavilion, and soccer fields. It is 

jointly shared by at the Alpine School District and is closed during 

regular school hours. You can find Orchard Park at 1000 N 750 East. 

• Palisade Park is the newest addition to the Orem parks system. Built 

on the former Cascade Golf Course, it features a playground, soccer 

fields, two lighted tennis courts, and a walking path. It also contains 

a splash pad with a river, water falls, and a first-in-Utah weave 

fountain. Palisade totals 22 acres at 1313 East 800 North. 

• Scera Park is the best-known and most-used park for non-sports 

recreation in Orem. It is home to the community pool, the SCERA 

Shell outdoor theater, and the Colonial Heritage Festival and is 

located at 600 S. State Street. 

• Sharon Park has a small sledding hill for winter fun just behind the 

pavilion. It includes a tree canopy over a large picnic area and new 

pickle ball courts. Sharon Park totals 5.15 acres at 600 North 300 East. 

• Skate Park is the best place in the city for extreme sports. It is .25 

acres at 355 North 1200 West. A mom went to the Orem City 

Council and asked the City to provide a place for her skateboardloving 

son to skate, so he wouldn’t get hurt on local roads or in 

trouble by local merchants. So, the city used land it owned near the 

fire station to build a skate park. It’s a good example for how local 

government can respond to citizen’s needs 


• Springwater Park includes a baseball diamond, a tennis court, a 

basketball court, and a soccer field. Its pavilion holds up to 120 

people on 8 acres at 945 Artesian Road. 

• Westmore Park has a meandering walkway and large mature trees 

that provide abundant shade. It has a basketball court, baseball 

diamond, playground, walking path, and pavilions on 4.21 acres at 

1050 West Main Street. 

• Windsor Park has multiple amenities including horseshoe pits, a 

basketball court, a playset, a baseball field, and pavilion. Its 8.32 

acres are located at 200 West 1270 North. 

✦ 

Right: The City of Orem reconstructed 

Nielsen's Grove after purchasing the 

property in 1999. Based on Nielsen's 

original design, it contains a 

monument and museum that honors 

Jorgen Nielsen's vision of a beautiful 

Scandinavian garden. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF JAY H. BUCKLEY. 

Orem is proud of its parks strategically placed throughout the city. 

They provide a wonderful model for other communities. The All- 

Together playground is especially inclusive. 

“With the All-Together facility, we have a wonderful park that 

accommodates people of all abilities,” Orr explained. More than 4,200 

volunteers, including prominent Orem artists Cassandra Barney and 

James Christensen, gathered to help create the 19,000+ square-foot 

playground at 100 North, behind the Orem City Library in 6.5 days. 

Citizens and businesses donated $689,775 to build the first playground 

in Utah County where all kids can play together. 

With a village-like atmosphere, it features two ziplines, a ride for 

children in wheelchairs, toys, a mountain with four slides, a rock wall, 

space ship, tunnels, an electric light game, and teamwork games. 

Included is a merry-go-round, a tot lot, a train, and some small 

buildings that represent Orem as a small town. Additionally, the park 

contains signs that read “Smarter Every Day” and contain information 

about nature and facts about the city. 

O REM’ S H IDDEN G EM 

As a city of parks, each has its charms, but the most historical—and 

perhaps most lovely—among them is Nielsen’s Grove, a hidden gem a 

little off the beaten path at 1930 S. Sandhill Road. 

Utah’s first official community park comprises 21.4 restored acres 

that embody the dream of Danish immigrant Jorgen Nielsen, who 

wanted to duplicate a piece of home after joining The Church of Jesus 

Christ of Latter-day Saints and migrating to Utah. 

During childhood Nielsen often visited an elegant Danish garden 

where his uncle worked. Called Kongens Have, or The King’s Garden, 

it was on the estate of King Frederick IV, who built his castle in Odense 

in 1730. Nielson admired the grounds and later dreamed of using a few 

acres of the desert to build his own garden. 

Nielsen acquired 40 acres of scrubby Utah land and cleared 

sagebrush, rabbit brush, and wild cedar trees. The park, begun in 1880, 

used design elements from The King’s Garden. At the centerpiece was a 

fountain powered by a natural spring and flanked by four white marble 

statues sculpted by a vagrant who created them in exchange for food. 

Three statues are housed at the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers museum 

in Provo; the fate of the fourth statue is unknown. 


The park contained a reflecting pool, covered dance floor, a steamheated 

greenhouse, vine-covered arbor and a 12-seater carousel swing. 

It drew visitors throughout Utah and Salt Lake valleys as a popular 

picnic park. It remained a destination place until 1910, when drainage 

from the above benches turned it into a swamp. Over time, the land 

was abandoned and used for wheat fields during World War I. 

Orem City purchased the property in 1995 and spent $2.8 million 

to recreate and restore the historical park. After returning it to its former 

glory, Orem added Nielsen’s Grove to the city’s official green space. 

Today’s visitors will find a fountain, reflecting pool, rebuilt carousel 

swing, picnic pavilions, walking pathways, a playground, formal 

gardens and a natural pond with ducks. Every spring, this lovely 

restoration blossoms with tens of thousands of colorful tulips. 

✦ 

AboveL One of the defining features 

of the early Nielsen's Grove park 

was this wooden swing, that has 

been reproduced. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF JAY BUCKLEY. 

Left: Statues flanked the original 

Nielsen's Grove and were carved by a 

passerby looking for food. Three of the 

four are displayed in the Pioneer 

Museum in Provo. The fate of the 

fourth statue is unknown. 

PHOTOS BY LON AND REVA BOWEN 


✦ 

This chapel for The Church of Jesus 

Christ of Latter-day Saints provides 

worship services and is among the 

abundance of Orem Mormon Church 

buildings that seem to be here, there, 

and everywhere. 

PHOTOS COURTESY OF JAY H. BUCKLEY. 

H ERE A C HURCH, THERE A C HURCH 

The history of churches in Orem in its early years is primarily a story 

of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It wasn’t until the 

1940s and the construction of the Geneva steel plant that an influx of 

workers of other faiths moved into the area. 

The LDS Church stood at the core of community life. In addition 

to serving a place to worship, it sponsored dances, picnics, dramatic 

arts activities, parades, and camping, according to Myrl Wertz in her 

life history, 

The church settled all quarrels. [Priesthood] quorums took the place 

of courts and heard all complaints, decided who was guilty and in what 

measure, and levied the punishment. Punishment might be so many 

days’ work on a road, or a public apology in the next church meeting, 

or, in the most extreme cases, excommunication from the Church. 

A local story describes—albeit a little tongue-in-cheek—that you can 

toss a stone from one Latter-day Saint church and hit another one. This 

exaggeration is even true at a few Orem addresses where church 

buildings sit adjacent to one another or at a 90-degree angle from each 

other. If you start driving south at 1200 North and 800 East, you can 

see 12 other Latter-day Saint chapels along the three-mile route. Pick 

another major street, and the results are likely similar. 

When Sharon Stake sold an orchard, Ivory Homes acquired half the 

land to build the large community on 800 East. That sale financed the 

building of the twin double chapels across from Costco and the ball 

field. The LDS Church also built twin chapels north of UVU on 800 

South and 800 West. 

Independent Colorado Mormon demographer Matt Matrinich examines 

trends in church membership and growth and tracks where new 

congregations are created. Orem is included as part of his Utah County data. 


Matrinich indicates a substantial difference exists between being 

included on membership rolls and actual church attendance. He estimates 

that 40 percent of Latter-day Saints in the United States are active, with 

more participation reflected in Utah. He believes roughly half of Salt Lake 

County members are church-goers and 60 percent of Utah County Latterday 

Saints are active in their faith. His statistics indicate that in 2016, 

84.7 percent of the county residents were Mormon. 

“At this pace, it is possible that Utah County, [though slightly more 

than half of Salt Lake City’s size] will have more Mormons numerically 

than Salt Lake County within the next 10 years,” he said. 

When Orem City instituted a disaster emergency contact system, 

they decided to use the names of existing LDS Stakes to designate 

neighborhoods. Each stake then assigned an individual to be the city’s 

contact. In case of an emergency, that person is contacted. These LDS 

Stakes are divided into wards or branches (units), or local 

congregations. Each unit then divides its neighborhoods into emergency 

response districts with a district captain. During Orem City emergency 

drill exercises, the stake emergency person contacts each unit that then 

contacts each district captain who then checks on the individual homes 

or apartments in their designated area. 

M ORE T HAN L ATTER- DAY S AINTS 

With the construction of Geneva Steel, several Protestant and 

Catholic families moved to Orem. A Baptist couple, who had recently 

lost a daughter, donated a movable chapel and named it Grace after 

their deceased child. The Grace Baptist Church was a full-size railroad 

car equipped with a worship area and living quarters. Services began 

October 10, 1943, and the car sat on railroad siding on the Willard H. 

and Veda Meiling Kofford property at 290 North State Street. It offers 

church services today, minus the railroad car, at 300 South 1200 West. 

Other places of worship in Orem include CenterPoint Church, St. 

Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, Orem Community Church, and Utah 

Valley Islamic Center. 

The St. Francis of Assisi Church is the second largest faith in Orem. 

Founded in 1892, the 1,000-seat bilingual parish, originally located in 

Provo, moved to Orem in 2000, and church-goers worshipped in its 

gymnasium for 11 years until St. Francis was completed. Bishop John 

C. Wester dedicated the church Sunday, February 19, 2012. It is located 

at 65 East 500 North. 

✦ 

Bottom, left: Grace Baptist Church. 

PHOTO BY NATASHA HUHEM 

Bottom, center: St. Francis of Assisi 

Catholic Church is an English/Spanish 

parish town ministry and outreach in 

both areas. As the oldest and largest 

Catholic church in the county, the 

church, formerly in Provo, dedicated 

its new building February 19, 2012. 


Bottom, right: Statue of St. Francis 

located on the grounds of St. Francis 

of Assisi Church. 



✦ 

Below: The city's oldest, permanent 

Protestant church is the Orem 

Community Church near the center 

of the community. 


Lower, right: Chaplain Linda Walton. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF LINDA WALTON. 

The first permanent Protestant Church in Orem is the Orem 

Community Church, which affiliates with the United Church of Christ. 

It began with a planning meeting April 1, 1951, at the home of T.H. 

Bennett. For several years church meetings took place in various 

locations, including the Orem Veterans Memorial Building and the 

Sharon and Geneva elementary schools. 

Reverend Verne A. Robinson became the first full-time minister June 

1, 1956. During his tenure, a parsonage was constructed at 130 North 

400 East where Sunday services took place in the basement until 

November 1959. A new chapel costing $40,000 became the members’ 

permanent home. Its meetings are typically full, accommodating about 

250 people. 

A CHAPLAIN’ S 

P ERSPECTIVE: 

55 YEARS IN O REM 

Fifty-five years ago, Linda Walton moved to Orem. The seven-year-old 

quickly learned she was surrounded by Latter-day Saints, but she easily 

adapted and has been happy to live in Utah for more than half a century. 

“I assimilated easily,” she said. “I’m a (Latter-day Saint) Primary and 

Mutual graduate, I attended Mormon girls’ camp and was a counselor, I 

learned the Articles of Faith, and had no trouble at school without being 

a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” 

She said her religion has been either a 

non-issue or a protective-issue. “At Orem 

High School, I sang in a choir under the 

direction of Ed Sandgren,” she said. “The 

only way we could afford touring was to 

perform for Latter-day Saint congregations 

who then fed and housed us in their 


homes. Mr. Sandgren pulled me aside quietly before a tour and told me 

if I was uncomfortable with those travel arrangements, he would be happy 

to rent a hotel room for me. It wasn’t a problem.” 

Her universal acceptance of all faiths contributed to her position as 

Utah Valley University’s chaplain for the past 25 years. “I’m an advocate 

of all faiths, and (former Provo mayor) James Ferguson called me the 

‘friendly gentile.’” 

She met her future husband in the 10th grade after a friend 

introduced them. The appeal, her friend said, was that he was taller 

than Linda and he also attended another church besides The Church of 

Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

“Perhaps assimilation was easy for both of us, because our parents 

affiliated with four different religions.” 

Her faith is fueled by the belief that God loves all his children, 

regardless of religious affiliation. She has been a lecturer addressing the 

topic of being a minority in Utah and jokes that she has studied for her 

MSL—Mormon as a Second Language. Among her services is directing 

an international day of prayer, and she welcomes everyone, including 

protestors outside the building who don’t sanction such a day. “I’m just 

happy when they decide to come in and listen to the service.” 

Walton believes she may be wired differently, because she has only 

felt discriminated against one time. It occurred when she applied 

to work at a Provo newspaper. “My interview was cut short as soon 

as a managing editor realized I did not belong to the dominant faith. 

My friends of other faiths tell me Utah County has not been much 

of an issue when it comes to religion. When I lived in California 

as a child, I attended an Adventist school, and I wasn’t Adventist 

back then, either. It’s been no big deal—ever. Sure, you find jerks, 

but you find them everywhere. You find wonderful people everywhere 

as well.” 

In addition to counseling students at UVU, she works with the other 

41 faiths in the city. Many religions lack chapels of their own but 

find ways to worship in other buildings, such as the facilities at UVU 

and in homes. For several years, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ 

of Latter-day Saints worshipped in Orem in a building that has been 

torn down. 

“Our newest group coming to Orem will be Mennonites,” 

Walton said. 

T HE O LDEST W ARD, THE O LDEST S TAKE 

The oldest church in Orem and the city’s oldest worship center is a 

Latter-day Saint chapel on 800 South and 400 East, designed in 1885 

and completed and dedicated in 1898 as the Timpanogos Ward. Before 

the chapel was finished, the Timpanogos Drama Club used it for 

presentations and donated the proceeds to help complete the chapel. 

Still in use, the church has been remodeled several times. 

Church leaders often had long tenures of church service. Stake 

president Philo Edwards, father of the famed LaVell Edwards, for 

example, served in the stake presidency for 17 years. Sharon Stake, 

dedicated September 15, 1929, is the oldest stake in Orem and will turn 

90 years old this year. Its borders took in the region from Provo on the 

south and Pleasant Grove on the north and extended from the 

mountains on the east and through Provo Canyon to Wasatch County. 

✦ 

The Timpanogos meeting house, the 

oldest church in Orem, was referred to 

as the "mother ward," because its 

original boundaries encompassed the 

largest area and more wards have 

been divided off from this ward than 

any other in the city. 

PHOTO BY NATASHA HUHEM. 


✦ 

Right: The Sharon Stake was the first 

stake center with headquarters in 

what is now the City of Orem. 

PHOTO COURTESY OREM HERITAGE 

MUSEUM/SCERA 

Below: The first newspaper in Orem 

was The Voice of Sharon established 

in 1929 as a monthly publication of 

the LDS Sharon Stake. In 1933 the 

paper was taken over by the Sharon 

Cooperative Educational and 

Recreational Association. Future U.S. 

Senator Arthur V. Watkins, president 

of the Sharon Stake, renamed it the 

Orem-Geneva Times in 1942 and 

made it a weekly newspaper. 

PHOTO COURTESY BRENT SUMNER. 

President Arthur V. Watkins directed the stake from 1929 to 1946 

during the Great Depression and World War II. Under his leadership, 

Orem initiated two significant Orem institutions, the SCERA in 1933 

and the weekly Voice of Sharon newspaper in 1929. 

When Watkins took the helm of the SCERA, he brought The Voice of 

Sharon with him. A member from each of the seven Mormon wards 

comprising Sharon Stake formed the first SCERA board of trustees, and 

Myrl Wentz was its editor. 

Watkins had a controlling interest in the Utah Valley Publishing 

Company, which printed The Voice of Sharon. He renamed it the Orem- 

Geneva Times in 1942. 

President Watkins, released as Sharon stake president in 1946, was 

elected to the U.S. Senate in November of that same year. He sold the 

newspaper and publishing company to M. Neff Smart, who operated 

the enterprise until Harold B. (Jack) Sumner bought the business 

operations July 2, 1953. 

Sumner, a newspaper man who had been working 

for The Daily Herald in Provo, remembered fellow 

employees telling him they would save his position 

because he would be begging for his old job within 

six months after failing with the Orem-Geneva Times. 

They were wrong. The Sumner family ran 

The Orem-Geneva Times at 546 S. State Street for 47 

years until selling it to The Daily Herald in Provo 

in 2000. 

One of Jack Sumner’s cherished moments was a 

telegram he received from Washington Press 

Secretary Pierre Salinger to attend a reception and 

lunch August 10, 1962, with John F. Kennedy in the 

White House. 

President Kennedy wanted to understand national 

concerns from a grass-roots level. They discussed 

construction of the Central Utah Project. His son 

Brent Sumner recalled that when President Kennedy 

was assassinated, it was one of the few times he saw 

his father weep. 

In 1986, Jack Sumner transferred ownership of the 

newspaper to his sons Brent and Jack. Brent directed 

day-to-day operations as a family enterprise that included his wife Becky 

and their four children. Despite this time-consuming venture, Jack 

simultaneously continued a 43-year teaching career. 

Their focus on local news, sports, opinions, politics, hometown hero 

highlights, and city news made The Orem-Geneva Times a well-read 

community newspaper. 

Orem City, under the direction of deputy city manager Steven Downs 

and Digital Newspapers, partnered with Ancestry.com to digitize Orem- 

Geneva Times issues from 1945 to 2006. The process took several 

months using microfilm that was available. The free publication can be 

found at orem.org. 

The Orem Geneva Times with its publishing company was sold to the 

Pulitzer Newspaper chain December 23, 2000. The Orem-Geneva 

Times became the sister publication of the Provo Daily Herald until 

2006, when Pulitzer closed the doors. This ended 77 years of The Orem- 

Geneva Times. 


O REM C ITY G OVERNMENT 

✦ 

Top, left: Orem purchased the 

Stratton house on the corner of State 

and Center street, and it became the 

city's first seat of government. 


Today’s city leaders work in a modern building on the corner of Center 

and State, but it took nearly two decades after incorporation to secure any 

centralized government center. In 1938, leaders finally acquired a 

gathering place for city business by purchasing James G. and Nina 

Stratton’s 38-acre farm and house as the first Orem Town Hall for $14,000. 

Built by Stratton, a prominent fruit grower, the house was one of the 

largest in the city at the time. It has many of the characteristics of the 

Prairie-School style popularized by Frank Lloyd Wright during the first 

two decades of the twentieth century. The Stratton house clearly 

symbolized the prosperity the fruit industry brought to Orem City 

during the first half of the twentieth century. 

Street numbering started at that location, and since then, the site has 

been the governmental heart of the community. 

Upon incorporation, guiding the community originally fell to a group 

of campus trustees, which was its only form of government. Today the 

city council consists of the mayor and six council members elected in 

non-partisan elections. Although the mayor leads the council, he or she 

carries one vote as do the rest of the council members. Orem has a 

manager/council form of government, which allows for a full-time city 

manager and part-time mayor. The mayor and council serve staggered 

four-year, part-time terms. 

Top, right: Despite renovations, 

additions, and moves, the old town 

hall quickly became too small for 

growing Orem. In 1967, an architect 

was hired to design the new center, 

funding was secured, and in 1969, 

they broke ground. When the new city 

center was completed,, it was an 

amazing improvement. The new 

buildings included rooms for city 

government, a new library, and a new 

police and fire station. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF JAY H. BUCKLEY. 

Bottom: The Orem City Council 

consists of a mayor and six council 

members who are elected at large. In 

2018, they included front row, from 

left, David Spencer, mayor Richard 

Brunst,Tom Macdonald, and back 

row, from left, Mark Seastrand, 

Debby Lauret, Brent Sumner, and 

Sam Lentz. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF OREM CITY. 


J. Lawrence Snow J.W. Gillman Ivan J. Burr Emery McKellip B.M. Jolley 

Ray E. Loveless LeGrand Jarman Luzzell Robbins V. Emil Hanse Melbourne D. Wallace 

THE MAYORS OF OREM 

J. Lawrence Snow (1919-1925) 

J.W. Gillman (1925-1931) and (1946-1953) 

Ivan J. Burr (1932-1935) 

Emery McKellip (1936-1937) 

B.M. Jolley (1938-1945) 

Ray E. Loveless (1953) 

LeGrand Jarman (1954-1957) 

Luzzell Robbins (1958) 

V. Emil Hanse (1958-1959) 

Melbourne D. Wallace (1960-1961) 

G. Milton Jameson (1962-1965) 

G. Milton Jameson 


James E. Mangum Winston M. Crawford DeLance W. Squire S. Blaine Willes Joyce W. Johnson 

Stella Welsh Joe Nelson Chris Yandow Jerry Washburn Jim Evans 

James E. Mangum (1966-1967) and (1974-1981) 

Winston M. Crawford (1968-1973) 

DeLance W. Squire (1982-1985) 

S. Blaine Willes (1986-1991) 

Joyce W. Johnson (1991) 

Stella Welsh (1992-1997) 

Joe Nelson (1998-1999) 

Chris Yandow (1999) 

Jerry Washburn (2000-2011) 

Jim Evans (2011-2013) 

Richard F. Brunst (2014- present) 

Richard F. Brunst 


The first city center contained city offices, the post office, and the city 

library. The post office moved to a new location across the street in 1950. 

With the town’s growth, it simply ran out of space. The post office moved 

across the street to a new building where McDonald’s now sits, and on 

October 16, 1951, U.S. President Harry S. Truman appointed Clyde E. 

Weeks, Jr., as the Orem postmaster. Weeks held the post for nearly four 

decades. He oversaw two new post offices, the Orem Post Office at 222 

W. Center and Mountain Shadows Post Office at 877 East 1200 South. 

Daryl Berlin served as Orem’s city manager from 1980 to 1994 and 

believes his biggest contribution was helping the city solve many of its 

financial issues. 

His big challenge was infrastructure. He observed Orem transitioning 

from a rural atmosphere to an urban one and wanted to give people 

amenities while still making Orem affordable. “Nobody wanted to raise 

taxes, however—they never do—so we could not raise enough capital 

to address all our water, street, and sewer needs. I am committed to 

quality and would always choose quality over quantity.” 

He and his team did sewer upgrades, created city master plans, and 

developed water master plans. Many Orem parks became a reality 

during Berlin’s tenure. Additionally, Berlin and his employees developed 

several master plans for streets and parks; he believes the best 

accomplishments during his tenure were city park development and 

income parity. 

“When I came on board, the city had not addressed the issue of 

fairness in salaries, particularly for women,” he explained. “The salaries 

were simply out of line. We worked to fix that, and while it was 

challenging, we finally got that taken care of. We also created a strong 

personnel system and management structure so there was increased 

accountability for what happened in the city.” 

When Public Works Director Bruce Chestnut took over the position 

of city manager in 2011 upon the death of city manager Jim Reams, he 

immediately inherited the UTOPIA project, a costly, controversial 

undertaking. Revamping was required for the fiber optic technology, 

which uses tiny glass strands to transmit information in the form of 

light. Owned by eleven communities and designed to benefit residents 

and businesses, it allows data to travel through the system at incredibly 

high speeds. 

“This digital technology is essential to our future economic growth,” 

Chestnut said. 

Another big challenge was the national economic turndown, which 

began in 2008. “We restructured some of our finances,” he said. 

“Keeping the balanced budget was a big deal.” 

As the great-great-grandson of former city mayor J.W. Gillman, 

Chestnut has inherited his ancestor’s passion for water resource 

management, and he worked as public works director during much of 

his 32-year city career. “I was dedicated to acquiring and buying water, 

drilling wells, and securing water rights, including the Deer Creek and 

Jordanelle dams,” he explained. 

Chestnut worked with the Gillman and Stratton families and with 

Jack Jones and Russ Brown to help guarantee that Orem would never 

have a water shortage problem. 

“Who would have thought when the old farmers brought water from 

Alta Springs in a wooden canal to water their fruit trees and farms a 

century ago that our water resources could expand to serve a 

metropolitan region?” he asked. 


F IRE AND P OLICE 

Scott Thompson became the city’s first fire chief in 1947 and built a 

fire-fighting team with volunteers who attended an intensive 12-week 

training program. Their first fire truck was an American-LaFrance that 

cost $9,000. By the time Chief Thompson retired in 1966 after 42 years 

with the city, the department had received a new diesel fire truck and 

hired three new full-time employees. By then, the department had three 

trucks, seven full-time employees and a score of volunteers. The Orem 

City Fire Department offers a range of fire prevention and rescue 

services and operates three fire stations. By contract, it services Vineyard 

and Lindon. 

The Orem Police Department serves the city well because of the 

progressive and dedicated work of 82 sworn police officers, 41 civilian 

employees, and 20 citizen volunteers working in patrol, investigations, 

and support services. 

One of Utah County’s most notorious arrests took place 43 years ago. 

Convict Gary Gilmore was living in the area and had become enraged 

after an earlier fight with his girlfriend. He killed two young men, one 

a former BYU student and the other a Reuben J. Clark law school 

student. Bennie Bushnell worked a night shift at the Center City Motel 

in Provo, and Max Jensen was working between school semesters at a 

gas station along 800 North in Orem. Orem police officers Gerald 

Nielsen, Toby Bath, Dan Howlett and Ted Peacock were called out and 

participated in various parts of Gilmore’s arrest. 

✦ 

Opposite, top, left: Marianne Bales, 

Miss Orem 1986 and Miss Utah 

1987. 

Opposite, middle, left: Amanda 

Moody, Miss Orem 1994 and Miss 

Utah 1995. 

Opposite, bottom, left: Jesse 

Craig, Miss Orem 2015 and Miss 

Utah 2018. 

Opposite, right: In 1950, the Orem 

post office had to move from city hall 

into a new building across the street to 

accommodate all the mail that needed 

to be processed for the growing 

community. U.S. President Harry S. 

Truman appointed Clyde E. Weeks, Jr. 

as Orem postmaster on October 16, 

1951, and he held the position for 

about four decades. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF JAY BUCKLEY. 

Left: The Public Safety Building with 

the fire and police stations directly 

east of the city center, form the core of 

many of Orem City's essential 

services. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF OREM CITY. 


✦ 

Right: Cover of the Pulitzer Prize 

winning book, The Executioner’s 

Song, by Norman Mailer. 

Peacock described the capture. “Police officials were at the command post 

in Pleasant Grove, and the Provo SWAT team and other officers surrounded 

the home of a friend of Gilmore’s when an Orem officer notified the command 

that a suspect matching Gilmore’s description was leaving the home. I was 

the only officer available who could follow the suspect and get an accurate 

description of the vehicle and suspect. I followed Gilmore about two miles 

and I informed those at the command post where I was and said I would 

stop the suspect when we got to a less populated area. At this point other 

officers arrived as back up. When we got into position, we made the stop. 

“We assumed Gilmore was armed and dangerous. We made a typical 

felony stop with overhead lights and spotlight illuminating Gilmore and 

his vehicle. Orem officer Terry Taylor used his audio PA in his patrol 

vehicle to give Gilmore commands. Gilmore was commanded to stop 

his truck, keep his hands where they could be seen, exit the vehicle, 

and lay on the ground. Gilmore hesitated somewhat but after repeated 

commands, he did as instructed. 

“Gilmore had a rag in his right hand. Some of us thought he might 

have a gun in the rag but when we handcuffed him, we found it was a 

rag taped around his hand where he had accidentally shot himself when 

he left the scene of the second homicide.” 

Gilmore was apprehended and initially taken to the Orem jail. 

He became the first person executed in the United States in almost 10 years 

after the U.S. Supreme Court 

upheld a new series of death penalty 

statutes in 1976. He gained 

international attention when he 

refused appeals and was shot by 

firing squad January 17, 1977. 

Norman Mailer wrote the 

Gilmore story, The Executioner’s 

Song, and was awarded a Pulitzer 

Prize. A TV movie by the same 

name earned two Emmy Awards. 

Among the cast was Orem native 

Kathryn Laycock Little, who played 

Bushnell’s wife. Many Orem’s 

residents, including Ted Peacock, 

appeared as extras. 

CEDO 

In 1983, the City of Orem was primarily a steel town. Geneva Steel 

was the city’s main industry, and the city economy was greatly affected 

by the ups and downs of the steel market. In addition to an unstable 

economy, jobs were scarce, and Orem was losing its large base of local 

college graduates to other areas. 

These circumstances led to the creation of the Commission for 

Economic Development (CEDO), a non-profit designed to attract and 

retain businesses that were not represented in the area. Working hand 

in glove, the City of Orem and local business leaders used CEDO as the 

economic development arm for the city. 

As the city and business opportunities grew, CEDO’s focus shifted to 

include growth, retention and redevelopment. CEDO operated from 

1983 until 2011, when the city moved the economic development 

services inhouse as a city department. CEDO presidents included James 

Renzas (1983-1986), former Orem mayor DeLance Squire (1986-1997), 

and Brad Whittaker (1997-2011). 

During its existence, CEDO, with support of the federal government, 

offered funding to Orem companies that demonstrated potential for 

significant growth. It administered a Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) to 

provide financial assistance to new and expanding businesses, which 

resulted in thousands of new jobs. 

Whittaker is especially proud of the CEDO incubator program, 

established in 1991, that was structured to help start-up businesses get 

off the ground. The incubator package included a small office space, 

phone line, internet connection, receptionist services, and free 

mentoring by established business professionals. Volunteers included 

legal services, accounting, financing, banking, and marketing, among 

others. Applicants were selected based on how well they demonstrated 

their direct potential benefit to Orem’s business community. 

“When we opened, there was strong support for an entity separate 

from the city,” Whittaker says. “We had our own board of directors and 

the assistance of top notch executives and professionals in our 

community. They were invaluable volunteers. With our incubator 

program, established businessmen shared expertise about the ins and 

outs of doing business. This was wonderful mentoring.” 


With the closure of a car dealership, they were able to acquire its 

building, remodel it, and build a second floor. “Once constructed it was an 

awesome place to incubate companies,” Whittaker added. “We connected 

this technology center with Utah Valley University, which runs the program 

today while still using volunteers to offer training and seminars.” 

Before he became the CEDO director, Whittaker had been a 

professional volunteer mentor. “We have so many good people who 

have made a difference for others,” he says. “CEDO had a major impact. 

During its existence, we helped create thousands of jobs.” 

W ORLD W AR II FOREVER C HANGES A F ARM T OWN 

Without the Japanese military air attack on Pearl Harbor December 

7, 1941, there likely would not have been an Orem steel operation on 

the west side of the city nor would there have been a prisoner-of-war 

camp on the east side of the community. 

But the Japanese did bomb the Hawaiian harbor, and more than 16 

million Americans left their homes to serve their country. Only Georgia 

surpassed Utah in enlistees per capita (13.91 percent versus 13.44 percent). 

As Orem residents flocked to the war, farmers faced a dilemma. They 

needed laborers to help plant and harvest their substantial fruit and 

vegetable crops, and their workers had joined the war effort. Orem 

appealed for help and in 1943, the federal government built an 

internment camp in northeast Orem. The plan was to use the prisoners 

to work on the farms. 

Most students attending Orchard Elementary and Canyon View 

Junior High schools today may not realize they are playing and 

socializing on land that served as this internment and prisoner-of-war 

camp. Only a small plaque along 800 East commemorates the camp. 

With the involvement of the Utah Farm Laborers Association and 

the State of Utah, a camp was erected using five acres of land owned by 

James G. Stratton. Utah Governor Herbert Maw dedicated the site 

December 12, 1943. It contained three barracks, a mess hall and 

kitchen, a commissary, latrines, shower rooms, offices and six large tenttop 

cabins for the prisoners. Within a short time, the site grew by 42 

additional cabins. 

Two hundred Japanese-Americans transferred from the Topaz 

internment camp near Delta, Utah, were the first to occupy the camp. 

They planted and harvested crops during 1944. That fall, 60 Italian 

prisoners of war from Salt Lake City’s Fort Douglas replaced the Japanese 

Americans and stayed about six weeks. They built a barbed wire fence 

around the camp, installed lighting, and constructed watchtowers at each 

✦ 

Left: Prisoners of war. 

PHOTOS COURTESY OF OREM HERITAGE MUSEUM. 


✦ 

Above: A diorama at the Orem 

Heritage Museum shows the design of 

the internment and prisoner of war 

camp that housed Japanese, Italians 

and Germans in Orem during World 

War II. 


Right: Many Orem farmers became 

friends with the German POWs who 

worked the fields during World War 

II. One of them was John B. Stratton, 

front row, center, who had several 

prisoners labor on his farm near 800 

North and 800 East in Orem. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF LINDA ROWLAND AND 

TEDDY STRATTON. 

corner of the camp. The heightened security was part of the preparation 

for 350 German prisoners-of-war relocating to Orem. 

From June 1944 to June 1945, German POWs worked with local 

farmers during the day. At night, U.S. troops guarded them. An 

educated group—some of them professors and doctors who had been 

part of the North African campaign—voluntarily came to American 

camps to get out of the prison camps in North Africa. According to 

Gareth Seastrand, long-time Orem resident and founder of the Orem 

Heritage Museum, they were fed better in Orem than their other camps. 

Some befriended the prisoners, and one family asked every prisoner to 

write to them after the war ended. They received many letters throughout 

the years and later traveled to Germany to visit their old field hands. 

With the coming of the war, Orem’s economic picture began to 

change as the city began transitioning from farming to industry. 


T HE B IRTH OF G ENEVA S TEEL 

Take a drive along Geneva Road and you find almost no evidence 

that a huge steel facility with massive production plants dominated the 

west end of Orem for nearly six decades and changed the economic 

landscape of the region from agriculture to industry. 

The birth of Geneva Steel—named after an old resort near Utah 

Lake—began in 1941 when the U.S. Government selected 1,681 acres 

in Vineyard to erect a steel plant for use during World War II. Demands 

for steel escalated during the war, and the U.S. government established 

new mills to meet the need. 

The plant displaced 40 farms, including 17 dairy operations. In 

1943, Orem annexed part of Vineyard, and residential and commercial 

growth began replacing much of the farmland. (Vineyard later 

incorporated in 1989.) 

The inland site was desirable for several reasons. A hundred miles 

of rail lines within the plant connected to other lines running to all parts 

of the country. Iron ore, coal, limestone, and other materials needed to 

make steel were located nearby. Utah Valley provided an educated and 

reliable workforce. Most importantly, It was far away from Japanese 

attacks on the West Coast and was a precaution against closure of the 

Panama Canal. 

✦ 

Two different worlds: A farmer 

works his field using horses while 

the Geneva Steel mill operates in 

the background. 

PHOTO BY NADINE GILLMAN. 


✦ 

Top and bottom left: Geneva Steel, an 

integrated steel mill, operated from 

1944 until 2001 near Utah Lake and 

was a major employer in Utah Valley. 

The blast furnace, top-left, and the Q 

BOP, bottom-left were part of an 

operation where raw materials were 

shipped in by rail, processed into steel 

and steel products, and shipped by 

rails and trucks to their final 

destination. At its peak is produced 

6-percent of the steel used in the 

western United States. 


MUSEUM/SCERA. 

Geneva Steel Works constructed buildings, elevated conveyors, blast 

furnaces, cooling ponds, and railways. Geneva offered substantial 

support during World War II as the largest of several Utah defenserelated 

industries. 

According to the September 12, 2010, Deseret News, Geneva 

employed 4,200 workers and produced 634,000 tons of plate steel and 

another 144,000 tons of shaped steel during the war. Its primary 

products were high-demand plate steel and structural shapes for the 

shipbuilding industry. 

Geneva paid workers wages well above the area’s average pay grade. Not 

surprisingly, this attracted potential employees, and the population swelled. 

“The steel plant brought such a boom that Orem wasn’t prepared for 

the rush of people,” said Philo P. Edwards in his personal history found 

at the Orem Heritage Museum. Edwards was an area home builder and 

member of the city council. An excess of 4,400 trailers were brought in 

to provide housing for workers who had come from throughout the 

nation. “We built small houses,” Edwards said, “and it was such a 

headache. Mayor J.W. Gillman handled that wonderfully.” 

Edwards added that Orem had only about a third enough schools to 

handle the influx of children. 

Far right: The Taylor Allen farm in 

Vineyard provided a patchwork of 

green behind the cooling pond at 

Geneva Steel in a photo Taylor's 

daughter, Nadine Gillman, hangs 

proudly on her wall. The Allen home 

and farm buildings can be seen in the 

lower left corner. 

PHOTOS COURTESY OF NADINE GILLMAN. 


Additionally, water was a challenge. When the steel plant was built, 

Edwards said that a wood stave held water, but half the water leaked 

out of the vessel. “That water never got to the consumers,” he explained. 

The city needed to provide water for its expanding population, and they 

needed a bond to get steel pipe to build water lines. 

“I tell you, it was a problem,” Edwards said. 

Harley Gillman, who later became president of the Provo Reservoir 

Water Users Company, saw the plant’s effect on people from the 

perspective of a young boy delivering newspapers in the Geneva area. 

“I began to call (the newspaper) The Deserted News,” he said in an 

oral history recorded March 23, 1999. It seemed that every time he tried 

to collect for the paper, someone else was gone. The steel mill displaced 

many families. 

With the Japanese surrender August 15, 1945, Geneva Steel 

operations curtailed substantially. Operation arrangements ended 

90 days after the hostilities ceased. Operating only on standby 

maintenance, the plant retained approximately 900 paid employees. 

Because its war-related work ended, the steel plant needed a new 

purpose, and the Utah County Industrial Development Committee 

with the governor’s office diligently sought a way to prevent Geneva 

from closing. 

On June 22, 1946, The New York Times reported that the United 

States Steel Corporation would temporarily operate the Geneva steel 

plant in the name of Geneva Steel Company, a subsidiary of United 

States Steel. As soon as the legal details were settled, operation and 

ownership of the Geneva plant were taken over by Columbia Steel 

Company, another subsidiary of United States Steel. 

It was a great opportunity for U.S. Steel. Although valued at nearly 

three times higher than its sale price, Geneva steel plant was sold as war 

surplus to United States Steel for $47.5 million. 

Operations continued to do well during the 1940s and ‘50s. It was 

the West’s largest integrated steel operation. 

“Geneva was a buzz word in the valley,” said Cecelia Harris Fielding, 

writer and lifelong Orem resident. “A lot of people used the Geneva 

name in businesses and otherwise. There was Geneva Drive-in, Geneva 

Road, Geneva Elementary school, Geneva Rock, Geneva Stake, Geneva 

Pipe, Orem-Geneva Times, Geneva Road, and more. My dad owned and 

operated Geneva Pharmacy.” 

U.S. Steel operated the plant until 1986. Although the mill had 

played an important role in furthering industrial progress in the 

American West and had significantly industrialized the surrounding 

towns, Geneva was beginning to be too expensive to operate. Like other 

steel factories in the U.S., they faced the foreign steel market, high labor 

costs, and air and water pollution challenges. 

Utah investors hoped to revive an operation that had brought 

economic prosperity and urban growth to Orem and purchased 

the plant for $44 million, less than a third of its liquidation value. They 

were forced to declare bankruptcy in 2002, because they could not 

meet financial operations. The closure distressed thousands of workers 

and their families who had depended on the company for their 

livelihood. Along with its many benefits, the presence of the steel plant 

had a downside. Its toll on the environment included air pollution and 

soil contamination. 

The steel mill site, which became part of Vineyard City at 

incorporation, contained nearly 180 buildings and has been reclaimed 

for housing developments, retail stores, office space, industrial 

businesses, and a 13-screen movie complex with an IMAX screen. 

More than two hundred acres of the property are now part of the Utah 

Valley University campus. 

✦ 

Above: The Geneva Works, built in 

1943, operated over 100 miles of 

railroad lines within the plant area. A 

number of diesel switch engines kept 

busy hauling hundreds of loads of raw 

material, fuel and finished products. 

PHOTO BY NATASHA HEHUM 

Left: According to Cecelia Harris 

Fielding, her father, Orville Harris, 

owned a pharmacy, and his closest 

competition back then was Salmon 

Pharmacy. It was run by Jack Salmon 

and his family. “About 1960, when 

my father was diagnosed with 

jaundice and then severe gall bladder 

disease, Jack Salmon organized all the 

other pharmacists in Utah County, 

and they kept Geneva Pharmacy open 

while Dad recovered from surgery— 

and they wouldn’t accept any 

compensation for it. That’s just what 

people did for one another back then.” 


✦ 

Top: Agnes Taylor is shown with a bear 

that Geneva Resort owner Captain 

Dallin brought from the canyon to the 

recreation site sometime before 1900. 

The bear turned out to be harmless, 

but among the rumors surrounding the 

bear was that Dallin fed the bear his 

drunken guests. Although the resort 

was popular, its fortunes rose and fell 

with the depth of the lake. Dallin sold 

the resort in 1907. 


Bottom: The Geneva Bathing Resort 

became so popular, the Denver and Rio 

Grand Western Railroad built a link 

from the main line to the lakeside 

resort for its customers. The fortunes of 

the resort, however, hinged on the 

height of the water. After several lowwater 

seasons, Captain John Dallin 

sold the property in 1907. It exchanged 

hands five times between 1907 to 1935 

before the resort burned to the ground. 

PHOTO COURTESY JAY BUCKLEY AND LDS CHURCH 

HISTORY LIBRARY. 

G ENEVA 

R ESORT 

If there is any truth to the saying 

that the family that plays together, 

stays together is true, then Orem City 

has done much from its earliest years 

to encourage close families. 

In 1888 Captain John Dallin spent 

$200 and bought 10 acres of land on 

1600 North along the shores of Utah 

Lake. He developed the site into a 

recreation spot called the Geneva 

Resort, after his daughter Geneva—or 

Anna. An alternative story came from 

Raymond Partridge whose personal history in the Orem Heritage 

Museum indicates that the common story is incorrect, because, 

as he said, “I was there.” According to Partridge, Dallin’s daughter 

was Anna, not Geneva, and she suggested the name Geneva after 

conversing with a railroad division superintendent who said the 

area reminded him of Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Regardless, 

Geneva became an important name in Orem. 

Captain Dallin planted Lombardi poplar trees, dug an artesian 

well, and built a small house. Piers and bath houses were added 

in 1890, and by 1891 the acreage contained a hotel and pavilion. 

Two-and-a-half stories high, the hotel included a kitchen, 

dining rooms, lobby, and confectionary. The second story featured 

a mezzanine, veranda and 12 guest rooms. A saloon about 200 

yards west of the pavilion had entrances on the east, west, and 

south sides. A spacious 

open-air pavilion south 

of the hotel was believed 

to be the largest dance 

hall in the county. 

At the turn of the 

twentieth century, as 

many as four trains could 

be seen there at one time 

on the Geneva spur of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. 

They came from Ogden, Salt Lake City, Provo, Eureka, Manti 

and Nephi. 

Families flocked for all-day adventures and competitive events 

such as horse racing, ball games, sailboat racing and shooting 

matches as well as boating, bathing, and fishing. 

The fortunes of the Geneva Resort corresponded with the water 

level of Utah Lake. When the lake was high, business thrived; 

when low, business dropped. 

By 1907, the resort had declined, and Captain Dallin sold it to 

the Utah Lake Club, a group of local businessmen who wanted to 

develop the property. They planted hundreds of trees, dug wells, 

and added new picnic areas and a ball diamond. William B. 

Wilson managed the resort, and during his tenure, cabins were 

built, which attracted boaters and fishermen. A large motor 

launch carried passengers back and forth across the lake. Dances 

resumed their popularity, but when the lake receded during 

World War I, the resort entered a second decline. 

Under the ownership of Jake Westphal and Levi Carpenter, the 

resort was used primarily for pleasure boating and commercial 

fishing. In 1916, the title was passed to Knight Trust and Savings 

Bank, and Charles C. Rasmussen leased the property. He installed 

electricity, built new facilities and spearheaded a revival of 

bathing, boating, fishing, and dancing. 

The resort continued to change hands. Leonard R., Thoric C., 

and Wallace S. Hebertson purchased Geneva Resort in 1920 and 

ran it successfully for two seasons. Except for weekends, the 

special excursion trains gave way to automobile traffic. Walter 

Taylor and Frank Eastmond operated the resort from 1923 to 

1935. They were followed by Utah Power & Light, which 

considered the area for a steam power plant. Receding waters made 

that idea impractical, and plans were shelved when a fire leveled 

the structures Captain Dallin had built nearly half a century earlier. 

The land sat unused for 20 years. Weeds choked the acreage 

and debris polluted the view. Orem City Council acquired a longterm 

lease in 1959 and resuscitated the region for a park and boat 

launch. Today the area is part of the Lindon Marina, located in 

the city of Vineyard. 


ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT, PARKS, 

AND RECREATION 

SCERA CENTER FOR THE A RTS 

During the 1930s, many of the 3,000 residents sprawled along the 

bench lost a lifetime of investments in homes and farms because of the 

Great Depression. 

One of the cohesive elements during this challenging time was the 

creation of the SCERA, an anacronym for Sharon Cooperative 

Educational Recreational Association. Orem church leaders, concerned 

about the morale and well-being of its town, pooled limited resources 

and established the SCERA, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday 

Saints donated the land. Reflective of the community’s deep roots 

with the Mormon faith, the name Sharon came from the Vermont 

birthplace of Joseph Smith, the first Latter-day Saint prophet. 

Its founder, Arthur V. Watkins, a Brigham Young University and 

Columbia Law School graduate, presided over the LDS Sharon Stake 

and later became a United States Senator. Through his influence, 

Watkins directed a substantial community effort to offer planned and 

organized recreation. 

The non-profit organization that began in 1933 quickly became and 

remains a key community gathering place for friends and neighbors to 

share fun, enriching, and uplifting activities. 

The focus of each of the five SCERA presidents has been family-friendly 

activities. They include Victor L. Anderson, M. Dover Hunt, Norman L. 

Nielsen, Darrel Berlin, and Adam J. Robertson. Through their dedication, 

millions of Utah Valley residents have enjoyed the SCERA’s educational and 

performing arts programs either as spectators or participants. 

Another constant has been its spirit of volunteerism. Young people 

twelve and older, as well as adults and seniors, serve at SCERA facilities 

sharing talents, learning skills and giving community service. Each year 

✦ 

The SCERA as it appeared shortly 

after it opened in 1941. 

PHOTO COURTESY SCERA 


more than 400 people serve in these capacities and another 500 

volunteer cast members perform in the SCERA’s community theater 

program. Current SCERA president and CEO Adam Robertson estimates 

its volunteers donate more than 172,000 hours annually. 

Lifelong resident Lesa Pulham, who began volunteering at the SCERA 

as a teenager before becoming a full-time employee, has worked for the 

SCERA for more than 40 years. “There is a sense of loyalty, not only from 

me, but also from so many people who consider the SCERA an important 

and lifelong part of their lives,” she said. “The SCERA feels like family.” 

The auditorium opened September 1, 1941, and premiered the movie, 

Shepherd of the Hills, starring John Wayne. Over time, SCERA has added 

Showhouse II, remodeled the Clarke Grand Theatre, and renovated the 

lobby and concession area. Among the center’s highlights is a series of stained 

glass windows by Utah artist Tom Holdman that feature the arts in theater, 

dance, literature, architecture, song, and music. The celebrated artist added 

two floor-to-ceiling custom art pieces and completed glass etchings of the 

SCERA logo in the art deco style in which the building was designed. 

✦ 

Above: Hundreds of children showed 

up at the SCERA on Saturdays to see a 

matinee and buy penny candy, 1948. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF SCERA 

Bottom Row: Presidents of SCERA. 

PHOTOS COURTESY OF OREM HERITAGE MUSEUM 

Authur V. Watkins 

(Co-Founder) 

Victor C. Anderson 

(1933-1951) 

M. Dover Hunt 

(1952-1981) 


During its history, the “C” 

name in the SCERA has 

changed from “Cooperative” 

to “Community,” and from 

“Community” to its current 

designation, “Cultural.” 

Activities unfolding through 

the SCERA include feature 

films, classic cinema series, 

children’s summer matinees, 

art galleries, and youth arts 

education programs for drama, 

music, dance, and art. Special 

events include Sunday 

firesides, Theatre for Young 

Audiences, Celebration of 

Veterans, Star Awards for 

outstanding contributors of the arts, and the LDS Film Festival. It also 

rents theaters and multi-purpose rooms for fairs, festivals, meetings, 

reunions, conferences, recitals, rehearsals, and more. On its south side is 

a courtyard with a 20-foot working sundial, three life-size bronze figures 

depicting a family, a giant chessboard, pavers with the names of generous 

donors, and sayings about time in the flower beds. Nearby is the Orem 

Heritage Museum, which operates under the auspices of the SCERA. 

SCERA Park holds the SCERA Shell Outdoor Theater, built in the mid- 

1980s when Norman L. Nielsen was SCERA’s president. 

“We had a seldom-used baseball diamond in the park,” Nielsen 

explained. “By this time, we had the Orem Rec Center, and the city had 

taken charge of recreation. We put our focus on arts and entertainment 

ideal for families. We emerged with the idea of an amphitheater for 

concerts, musicals, and other events, but we needed to be creative. We 

didn’t have the funds to dig the hole.” 

Nielsen got an idea. He visited Utah Technical College and met with 

Earl Butts, who worked at the college with heavy equipment. Nielsen 

✦ 

Top, left: An original SCERA “love 

seat” with enough space for two 

people is displayed at the Orem 

Heritage Museum along with an 

old SCERA cash register and 

other memorabilia. 


Norman L. Nielsen 

(1981-2002) 

Daryl Berlin 

(2003-2004) 

Adam Robertson 

(2004-Present) 


✦ 

Above, right: The SCERA Shell 

outdoor theater. 

PHOTOS BY JAY H. BUCKLEY 

Below: Stained glass artist Tom 

Holdman highlighted the arts in the 

SCERA Center for the Arts and did 

these panels in the Art Deco style 

which inspired the SCERA 

Auditorium that opened in 1941. 

Academy Award-winning actor Charlton Heston visited the 

SCERA for a fund raiser in 1989 after former SCERA marketing 

employee Branden Miller used his “It doesn’t hurt to ask” 

philosophy and invited the star to a special sold-out showing of 

The Ten Commandments. The event also featured a display of 

celebrated artist Arnold Friberg’s paintings depicting the famous 

film as well as the red robe Heston wore as Moses in the movie. 

Miller said Heston’s secretary told him she was surprised that 

Heston said “yes,” because he typically turned down requests. 

She said it was the volunteer spirit of the SCERA where so many 

of its workers were community volunteers that persuaded him 

agree to come to Utah. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF BRANDEN MILLER. 

asked whether Butts would be willing to take on the proposed outdoor 

theater as a student project. Butts said, “Sure,” and the only expense 

the SCERA incurred was gasoline. 

“Students would work during the day, and at night Earl would return 

to the site and straighten it out. We got the hole dug for almost 

nothing,” Nielsen added. 

The Osmond Brothers inaugurated the Shell with a concert that 

played out on a hill filled with 4,500 persons. During the following 35 

years, audiences have enjoyed concerts, seen musicals, dance 

competitions, watched outdoor movies and been entertained by 

celebrities such as Boyz to Men, Rodney Atkins, Megan Hilty, Glen 

Campbell, Debbie Reynolds, Shirley Jones, David Archuleta, Jason 

Aldean, Richard Marx, Jack Turner, Bobby Vinton, and Mel Tormé as 

well as original and tribute bands, all performing against the spectacular 

Wasatch Mountain landscape. Several performers have had their start 

in entertainment at the SCERA Shell, including hip hop violinist 

Lindsey Stirling, who also was the 2017 runner-up in the popular 

television show, “Dancing With the Stars.” 

Other facilities include a scene shop and costumes building. 

Fiercely proud of their heritage, SCERA employees like to say, “Every 

time a curtain rises, so does the quality of our lives.” 

“SCERA has been filling its anticipated role from the beginning,” said 

Robertson. “We remain open to new ideas and look for ways to include 

our community. Many arts organizations have called to see how they 

can duplicate our programs. We help them, but I believe, that in many 

ways, the SCERA is one-of-a-kind.” 


✦ 

Top, left: Vietnam veteran Gary 

Campbell, who volunteers at the 

Orem Heritage Museum, donated his 

purple heart, his uniform, other 

medals, and photographs of his fellow 

soldiers, 38 of whom died in battle. It 

is part of a wall that honors five 

generations of military service in the 

Campbell family. It begins with Gary’s 

grandfather, Alford Chadwick, who 

served in World War I. Chadwick’s 

memorabilia include letters from 

George V, king of the United Kingdom 

and the British Dominions, and U.S. 

Army General John J. Pershing. 

O REM H ERITAGE M USEUM 

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and author David McCullough tells 

us, “The laws we live by, the freedoms we enjoy, the institutions that we 

take for granted—and we should never take for granted—are all the 

work of other people who went before us.” 

In a very real way, we are what we were, and a valuable glimpse into 

Orem’s past can be seen in the Orem Heritage Museum. Gareth 

Seastrand, long-time resident, educator, council member, and World 

War II veteran, spearheaded the museum efforts. 

Seastrand got the idea for a museum in 1974 when a nationwide gas 

embargo forced teachers to cancel school field trips. He thought a local 

historical museum might be good place for such outings and obtained 

funding during the 1976 Bicentennial year when the State of Utah 

appropriated about $300,000 for communities who wanted to do 

Bicentennial projects. 

Seastrand proposed a museum where children had a place to visit 

and learn about Utah and their local community. His idea gave birth to 

the Orem Heritage Museum, and he donated one of its artifacts: his 

sailor uniform from World War II. 

Also highlighted are Gary’s father, 

Nephi Campbell, an Army veteran of 

World War II; Gary; his son Dustin 

Campbell, who served in the Army in 

Afghanistan, and his grandson, Army 

Sgt. Jacob Campbell. Their medals are 

displayed in cases as does the 

American Flag that was placed on the 

grave of Alford Chadwick. 

PHOTO BY CHARLENE WINTERS 

Top right: The military room in the 

Orem Heritage Museum includes 

medals, military uniforms and 

memorabilia from residents of Orem 

who served in battle beginning with 

World War I. 



✦ 

Top left: The progression of Utah 

Valley University from a technical 

school to the largest university is 

depicted in a corner of the Orem 

Heritage Museum. 


Bottom: The Chauntenettes Women's 

Chorus. The 2018 singers include, 

front row, left to right: Barbara 

Oldroyd, Loy Evans, Denise Haag, 

Penny Spresser, Sylvia Muhlestein, 

Carol Hayden, Leona Fitzgerald, 

Jackie Weyland, Carolyn James, Pat 

Koyle, Joyce Benson. Middle row: Irene 

Jenkins, pianist; Bonnie Slade, ass’t 

director; Chris Francis, Joyce Johnson, 

Florine McKinney, Chris Blackhurst, 

Laurel Conrad, Marilyn Wursten, 

Tanja Clark, Tammy Palowski, Kathy 

Mortensen, Sharon Hansen, Margaret 

Barfuss, director; Cathleen Metten, 

Lanell Reeder, Sandra Shaw, Karen 

Rogers, Joanne Anderson, Susan Stone, 

Jennie Barber, Mary Jean Garrison, 

Erlene Lott. Back row: Laura 

Carmack, Jeri Lin Dowdell, Janet 

Hacking, Becca Cardon, Dixie Spresser, 

Marsha Hill, Janene Moore, Joyce 

Canfield, Rienna Lynn, Doris Baker, 

Cheri Loumeau, Sally Agle, June 

Hunter, Lynn Petersen, Denise Briscoe, 

Karen Peterson, Julie Clay, Candy 

Miller, Patty Jones, Coleen Reynolds, 

Carol Grudzinski, Diane Lewis. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF ERLENE LOTT. 

Seastrand received the first SCERA 

Founder’s Day Award in 2014 for his 

contributions to the City of Orem and 

the museum. When he received the 

award, SCERA president and CEO 

Adam Robertson observed, “He is one 

of those people we realistically could 

call Mr. Orem. He has generously given 

his time and talents for our city.” 

The Orem Heritage Museum began 

in the basement of the Orem 

Friendship (senior) Center. The center 

eventually needed the space and the 

collection was transferred to storage 

until the SCERA provided a large room 

on its second floor in 1986. Had the memorabilia remained in the senior 

center, it would have been lost, because the center burned down. The 

collection was moved to an historic structure in November 2012. 

Appropriately, officials used a pair of antique sheep shearers for the 

ribbon-cutting. 

Originally erected in 1931 as an LDS Seminary building, the stucco 

building stood near the bygone Lincoln High School. After its use for 

seminary classes, the building was available for rent, and its tenants 

included The Commission of Economic Development in Orem (CEDO) 

and the Orem Chamber of Commerce. 

Among the volunteers who give free tours of the museum are Gary 

Campbell and Ed Anderson, two veterans who usually wear baseball caps 

with logos that declare their military connections with Korea and Vietnam. 

One of more than 30,000 artifacts housed in the historic building is 

an original loveseat from the SCERA auditorium, a 125-year-old reed 

organ, a 1940s diorama of the City of Orem with a miniature train, and 

a large section about Geneva Steel. A kitchen display from the past 

features a coal stove, butter churn, and rolling pins as well as an oldfashioned 

washing machine and an Ironrite ironing machine. 

Vietnam veteran Campbell donated his purple heart, his uniform, other 

medals, and photographs of his fellow soldiers. Five generations of his family 

are commemorated on one wall. The military room contains a diorama of 

the internment and prison-of-war camp built in northeast Orem. 


Max Pederson set up a blacksmith shop and Arden Rowley organized 

an agricultural display at the museum. The space is crammed with a 

collection of Indian petroglyphs and arrowheads, toys and dolls, a 

Victrola phonograph, Victorian wedding dresses and the evening gown 

of former Miss Utah director Roseanne Tueller Nielsen. As Miss 

Washington, D.C., she wore the dress the night she was named first 

runner-up to Miss America in 1963. Hundreds of prominent Orem 

citizens and veterans shared life experiences in histories stored at the 

museum. The Orem Women’s Club donated its scrapbooks, which 

chronicle the city’s growth from 1945 to 2009 from a quiet community 

to a bustling city. Seventeen women formed the civic organization April 

4, 1945, and at its 50-year celebration, charter members Doris Asay and 

Bernice Clark were still active. The club operated under the motto, 

“Power Through Progress,” and every year presented a spring fashion 

show and other fund-raising projects on Orem’s behalf. Among the 

organization they helped were the SCERA, Orem Friendship Center, 

Food and Care Coalition, and the Children’s Justice Center. They helped 

families during the Christmas season, sent students to Girls State, and 

instituted scholarships. After more than 70 years, the Orem Women’s 

Club disbanded in 2017. 

H AIL THE H ALE C ENTER T HEATER 

Utah natives Ruth and James Nathan Hale left their Utah home for 

California during World War II to break into show business. Acting jobs 

were hard to find, and they followed a producer’s suggestion to establish 

their own theater. That way they could star in their own shows and 

nobody could fire them. 

The Hales opened the Glendale Center Theater in 1947. Still open, 

it remains a family enterprise that has expanded into Utah and Arizona. 

The Hales had planned to retire in 1979 and accepted a church 

mission call to Nauvoo, Illinois. When they came home, however, their 

grandson, Cody Swenson, said they were “bored to death.” His 

grandmother complained that “a person could die from watching 

television and tatting doilies." 

The Hales relocated to Utah to be near their extended family and decided 

to return to the theater business in the Salt Lake City area. Five years later, 

they asked Swenson if he wanted to take charge of a theater in Orem. He 

✦ 

Above: Hale Center Theater opened a 

new performance venue in 1990 after 

re-purposing an old veteran’s hall that 

had been converted into a reception 

center. With its reputation firmly 

established in Glendale, Calif., and 

the Salt Lake area, the Orem theater 

has played to capacity crowds from 

the beginning. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF HALE CENTER THEATER. 

Left: Among the many productions 

performed at the Hale Center 

Theatre, "Joseph and the Amazing 

Technicolor Dreamcoat" was a 

cast and audience favorite. 



✦ 

Below: Chris Brower as Ebenezer 

Scrooge in a performance of the 

Hale Center's A Christmas Carol. 


was attending the University of Utah in theater arts but jumped at the 

opportunity. In 1990, Orem became a beneficiary of the Hale Theater legacy. 

The family found an old veteran’s hall being used as a reception center on 

225 West and 400 North. They saw a large room without any posts to block 

the view and knew they had found their home. They tore down a fiberglass 

fountain in the middle of the space and began creating a workable stage. 

They added risers, seats, installed electricity, added a grid on which 

they hung lights, and built a lobby. Orem’s Hale Center Theater opened 

in May 1990 with The Burr Trail, a Ruth Hale play based on a 

contentious trail in Southern Utah. 

“Grandma Hale loved taking something controversial and turning it 

into a comedy,” Swenson said. The opening show did well, in part, 

because the Hales had a good reputation. “We did Ruth and Nathan 

Hale plays at first, but it wasn’t long before we assembled a board and 

decided to produce other works and royalty plays.” 

Hale Center Theater opened to enthusiastic audiences. As soon as 

they installed a phone line, people started calling. It wasn’t long before 

they had a devoted core of season ticket holders. 

Every year since opening, the theater company has staged a 

version of Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol. It plays during 

the holiday season to full-house audiences and is the Hale Center’s 

oldest tradition. 

The production holds one of Swenson’s most haunting memories. 

One evening he and Cody Hale, a relative, were doing special effects 

using dry ice for the Ghost of Christmas Future scenes. A malfunction 

occurred, and the ice took on a life of its own. It kept rising until it 

reached the booth where Swenson and Hale were working. 

“I don’t know why we didn’t think about opening the door 

and letting fresh air in, but we were busy making the musical work,” 

he said. “When dry ice fills the space, you have no air, and it felt 

so weird that I couldn’t breathe. I jumped above the dry ice, 

grabbed a breath, and then worked until I had to jump again. The 

audience, of course, never knew what was happening, but that’s 

the nature of live theater. Every show offers a different challenge and 

a different joy.” 

The Hale Theater philosophy is to provide a mix of recognized works 

such as Annie and Little Mermaid with lesser known plays they think 

will provide the audience with a greater range of theatrical experiences. 

Because of their success, Hale Center Theater executives are seeking 

a bigger venue with easier access and working with the City of Orem to 

locate another site. 

“We still want to retain our trademark intimate environment,” 

Swenson said, “but we would love a place for storing our sets and a 

place to expand our staging capabilities.” 

To that end, Hale Center Theater changed from a for-profit to nonprofit 

organization, so it could seek donations for a new home. 

Orem City is helping the Hale Center Theater, SCERA and other nonprofit 

groups with its Cultural Arts and Recreation Enrichment Tax (CARE). 

Approved by Orem voters in 2005, the program allows 1/10th of 1 percent 

of sales tax to be collected and used for Orem arts and recreation. CARE 

went into effect in 2006, and the first grants were awarded in 2007. 

In addition to a seven-play season, Hale Center Theater began an 

audition youth theater program with classes, workshops, and voice 

lessons. The children’s shows comprise a five-ticket season, and the 

children obtain a professional theater experience with the same design 

teams as the regular season performers. 


Hale Center Theater rents costumes and draws customers not only 

from Utah but also in other places in the United States and some foreign 

countries. Their costumes become popular rentals during Halloween. 

As an organization that regularly receives awards for its plays, 

Swenson, his advisory board, and the employees credit their success to 

Orem supporters. 

“We have had wonderful audiences since we opened nearly 30 years 

ago, and we are so happy to add to the arts in our city,” he said. 

S UMMER 

C ELEBRATIONS 

of Family City USA. During the July 21 to 24 celebration, State Street 

was temporarily renamed Family City Boulevard, and “mayor” Edwards, 

wearing a top hat and tuxedo, presided over Family City with Orem 

Mayor DeLance Squire by his side. The following year Dick Nourse, 

popular Channel 5, KSL TV news anchor, wore the mayoral top hat. 

Another year Disney sent Mickey Mouse, who served as mayor. He 

brought Goofy, Donald Duck, and Snow White with him. 

The SCERA, which owns the name, folded Family City USA into its 

summer program at the SCERA Shell Outdoor Theatre, and the city now 

calls its celebration Summerfest. Orem’s annual parade became a night 

processional and moved from State Street to Center Street. For many 

years the Miss Utah Pageant took place at Mountain View High School, 

and dozens of contestants from throughout Utah waved from 

convertibles along the parade route. Norman and Roseann Nielsen 

directed the Miss Utah Pageant in Orem for 20 years and introduced a 

service component to the national program. 

✦ 

Far left: The Fourth of July parade in 

1904 on Church Street (800 South) in 

Orem where young men were 

recreating a scene from the Book of 

Mormon wherein Helaman's stripling 

warriors helped protect and defend 

the freedom and liberty of the 

Nephites. Helaman was portrayed by 

Artemus Holdman, Sr., who was 

selected because of his stature since he 

stood at 6 feet, 6 inches tall. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF LON BOWEN 

The towns and cities in Utah Valley typically have names to describe 

their community celebrations. American Fork has Steel Days, for 

example, as a nod to the steel plant that provided employment for many 

of its residents. Provo is home to America’s Freedom Festival, after the 

celebratory way it commemorates the July 4th holiday. 

Orem City Council approached SCERA president Norman L. Nielsen 

in the early 1980s to suggest a motto to distinguish Orem. He came up 

with three: International City, in appreciation of its many returned 

missionaries who speak foreign languages; Home of the Osmonds, and 

his personal favorite, Family City USA. 

The council selected Family City USA, and for several years that 

became an identifying trait. “It represented Orem’s emphasis on family 

values from its earliest days,” Nielsen explained. “We could focus on 

building families spiritually, educationally, financially, culturally, and 

civically. We would be honoring families, our most valued resource.” 

In July of 1985, LaVell Edwards, whose BYU Cougars had won the 

nation’s collegiate football championship in 1984, was selected mayor 

Left: The SCERA Center for the Arts 

won the grand prize for most 

outstanding float at the 2018 

Summerfest with an entry that 

celebrated the historic organizations's 

85th anniversary. 

PHOTO BY APRIL BERLIN 


✦ 

Top: Pageant queens from Orem and 

the surrounding towns are a major 

part of the Orem Summerfest parade 

each year. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF CITY OF OREM 

Bottom: Pioneer fireworks at Orchard 

Park, University Place. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF WOODBURY CORPORATION 


T HE O SMOND L EGACY 

The Osmond family has entertained national and international 

audiences for more than 50 years, and at their peak, the 

singer/dancer/musicians had so many screaming fans, their success was 

dubbed Osmondmania. Collectively, the Osmonds have sold more than 

102 million records. Donny, the seventh of eight Osmond sons. became 

a heartthrob for teenage girls, and Marie, the only daughter, had her 

first number one hit at age 13 with the song, “Paper Roses.” 

The years had been good for the family, but by the mid-1970s, they 

longed for home. They had studied with tutors instead of attending 

regular schools. They had worked incessantly and craved a Utah lifestyle 

with their friends and family. Their father, wanting his children to find 

Latter-day Saint spouses, bought the Riviera Apartments in Provo and 

relocated the family to Utah. 

The family built a 91,000-square-foot television production studio 

in 1977 surrounded by fruit orchards at 777 North Palisades in Orem. 

Osmond Productions produced the Donny & Marie television show, 

The Osmond Family Show, and other productions. Additionally, they 

maintained a successful tape-to-video enterprise. 

“People thought we were crazy,” said Alan Osmond of Orem, who 

was the show’s executive producer. “I walked into the executive offices 

at ABC television in Los Angeles to pitch the Utah studio after Donny 

and Marie’s show had reached the top-ranking show on Friday nights 

and we had been renewed for another season.” 

Osmond assured studio executives they could build a facility that 

would match or exceed what was available in California and could 

arrange to fly guest performers into Utah and give them firstclass 

treatment. 

“The City of Orem bent over backwards to work with us and help 

make our business happen,” he said. Key to assisting them was Merrill 

Gappmayer, who served on the Orem City council. 

✦ 

Left: Donny and Marie Osmond 

headlined their own national 

television series in the late 1970s 

from the family production studio in 

Orem, Utah. 

Right: Osmond Studios was 

constructed in the heart of North 

Orem's orchards at 777 N. 

Palisades Drive near the mouth of 

Provo Canyon. 

PHOTOS COURTESY OF ALAN OSMAND. 


✦ 

Above: Each dressing room at the 

Osmond entertainment complex had a 

theme. This one was reminiscent of a 

winter lodge. 

Right: The Osmond Studios control 

booth was built with the best-known 

technologies of the 1970s. 

PHOTOS COURTESY OF ALAN OSMAND. 

Gappmayer received a late-night call from Alan Osmond asking him 

to meet him at the Riviera Apartments and talk about a project the 

Osmond family was planning. 

“I said, ‘Sure. When do you want me?” Gappmayer asked. “How about 

now?” Alan replied. Gappmayer drove to Provo and walked into a room 

with about 10 people, including an attorney. Osmond explained that 

they wanted Orem to be renamed the City of Osmond and would like 

land at the Cascade Fairways golf course for a major production facility. 

“First off, I told them we wouldn’t be changing the name of the 

town,” Gappmayer said. “I looked at the attorney who was smiling. He 

also knew that wasn’t going to happen. But we were willing to help them 

with their property requests.” 

By negotiating with the Stratton family, the Osmonds received 

Stratton farm property on the south side of 800 North near the mouth 

of Provo Canyon. At the same time, Orem City helped the Strattons 

secure additional land on the north for its Cascade Golf course. 

Gappmayer was invited to the dedication, which had a distinctly 

Osmond touch. At one point, a plane dropped a load of purple socks onto 

the property. In the 1980s, purple socks were a Donny Osmond trademark. 

Working against a production deadline, the Osmonds formed a 

union, recruited key people from Los Angeles, and gathered local talent 

to help operate Osmond Studios. 

Alan wanted a touch of Hollywood with a walk of fame but 

recognized that with Utah’s winters, a snow blower could damage the 

carved pavers. The solution was a wall of fame, which contained the 

hand prints of Hollywood legends such as Bob Hope, John Wayne, and 

Lucille Ball, as well as other movie stars and leads from popular 

television shows. 

Guests had personal drivers and received first-class accommodations. 

One housing option was actor Robert Redford’s Sundance resort. 

“Guests often told me how much they loved the lifestyle here, and 

the splendor of Mt. Timpanogos always impressed them.” Charlene 

Winters interviewed the guest stars for The Daily Herald, and 

remembers that Betty White not only stayed at Sundance, she also 

“rented” a dog to take on long walks near the canyon resort. “Betty 

White was one of the most witty and intelligent persons I ever 

interviewed,” Winters said. 

Marie Osmond often dined at Marie Callender’s restaurant, which 

opened in 1974 in the northwest corner of University Mall. Michael 

Cloyd Thompson, who worked there as a college student, said Marie 

and many celebrities who flew into Utah for The Donny and Marie 

Show were frequent guests. The restaurant gave them privacy by seating 

them in a closed section of the eating establishment. 


Alan recalls the excited reactions of local audiences and the 

“tremendous pool of talent” that worked at the studio. Managing a 

major facility was demanding, and Alan still marvels at some of the 

problems they solved. The Los Angeles location had featured an ice rink, 

for instance, but financially, the Osmonds did not want to build two 

stages. “Instead we installed a wide, heavy automated door that would 

lift and allow the studio to bring in an ice rink on wheels that fit the 

existing floor. It was crazy, but it worked.” 

The Osmonds did most of the work inhouse. They formed their own 

printing operation, built a costume shop, created sets, and more. 

“I still have people approach me and tell me they got their start in the 

business by working with us,” Osmond said. One of them, Gilbert Howe, 

moved from Wisconsin to Orem to get into television production. He has 

remained in Utah and works with Alan as an education adviser for Osmond’s 

One Heart, Inc., and serves as executive producer at Firstvision Entertainment 

Group. “Helping others get a start on their careers and the spin-off company 

are long-lasting benefits that make me happy,” Osmond added. 

The studio operated until 1981 before it was sold for several reasons. 

The Donny and Marie Show finished its run, the Osmond brothers 

starting recording and booking concert tours, and Osmond Studios 

hired people who, in hindsight, did not necessarily work in the 

company’s best interests. 

“We weren’t watching it as we should,” Alan said, “and as we made 

money, we needed to send it back to keep the studio operational. The 

equipment was aging, and we lost control a bit.” 

Jimmy Osmond, the youngest family member, purchased the 

property, but eventually it was sold it to local business people, Dick and 

Joann Losee. Their son Richard turned it into Cirque Lodge, a high-end 

drug addiction treatment facility. 

“The site certainly still has value,” Osmond said. In addition to 

getting people launched on careers, the studio was the original site of a 

telethon that began in 1981. Founded by the Osmond Foundation for 

the Deaf, it was renamed The Children’s Miracle Network with Marie 

Osmond and actor John Snyder as hosts. It has mushroomed into a 

North American non-profit organization that raises funds for children’s 

hospitals, medical research, and community awareness of children’s 

health issues. Since the first telethon, Children’s Miracle Network has 

raised several billion dollars to improve children’s health. 

S LEEPY R IDGE G OLF— 

N OT S O S LEEPY A NYMORE 

In 2004, Vineyard farmer Keith Holdaway and his associate, Golden 

Holt, built an 18-hole public golf course designed by Matt Dye. Holt, 

the landscape director at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, had approached 

Holdaway with the idea of creating a course by leasing land and using 

water from Orem City. 

Called The Links at Sleepy Ridge, the course graces the eastern 

shores of Utah Lake and attracts up to 85,000 people a year. 

“Our goal is to be the friendliest course in the valley,” said Gary 

Graham, former manager who still works two or three days a week at 

Sleepy Ridge. “We were a hidden treasure in 2004, and now we are busy 

year-round. We built our clubhouse in 2007 and use it not only for golf, 

but also for weddings and other events. Ernie Zabriskie, owner of 

Orem’s Ernie’s Sports Deli, operates the grill.” 

✦ 

The Links at Sleepy Ridge added a 

clubhouse in 2009, which quickly 

became a sought-after venue for 

weddings and corporate events. 

PHOTO COURTESY SLEEPY RIDGE. 


C ASCADE: 45 YEARS OF D RIVES, SLICES, 

P UTTS AND M ULLIGANS 

When the golf course first opened, lifelong Orem/Vineyard resident 

LaDell Gillman became something of a legend. The retired public 

educator helped control the links’ extensive gopher population. 

According to an April 4, 2006, column by Orem journalist and 

Deseret News reporter, Dick Harmon, “Holt told Gillman he could have 

a free round of golf for every gopher he eliminated. “Gopher Dundee,” 

as Gillman was called, would “peg out his traps with little irrigation flags 

and check them regularly around the boundaries of the golf course.” 

Harmon said the gopher hunter was up to 465—and counting. That 

meant Gillman would need about 2,000 hours or 87 days to cash in on 

his golf deal with Holt. Gillman’s yield in 2018 exceeds 2,000, and he 

has earned a lifetime pass. 

“Guys who golfed with Gopher Dundee said it was a hoot,”Harmon 

said. “He carried a small gardening shovel in his bag. You teed off with 

him and then he disappeared and materialized on the green when the 

others were putting. He was checking his traps between shots.“ 

After 45 years of golfing against the beautiful Wasatch mountains 

near the mouth of Provo Canyon, players put away their irons and 

woods one last time and dragged their carts from the 18-hole Cascade 

Fairways Golf course. 

The course was filled during its final days. Slippery grass and 

dripping pines from persistent rain did little to deter players who 

stopped by for one final round of golf. They wanted to say good-bye. 

The story of Cascade Golf is a tale of dreams and determination. 

In the early 1960s, Herb Stratton, Cliff Pyne, Earl Farnsworth, Richard 

Nimer, Dexter Wilberg, Rex Kofford, and Harley Gillman approached the 

Orem City Council about building a golf course in Orem. 

“We believed a golf course would help Orem grow,” said Stratton, 

“and we wanted to provide the residents of Orem with a nice 

golf course.” 

Orem City organized a committee headed by Parell Peterson, sports 

director at Lincoln High School, with Stratton serving as one of the 

members. Orem hired Nolan Waltham, head golf professional at Mick 

Riley Golf Course in Murray, Utah, to conduct a golf course study. The 

$1,800 study concluded that Orem City could support a nine-hole golf 

course. However, concerned about the financial risks, the city council 

later voted unanimously not to build the course and chose instead to 

focus on plans for a new city center. 


Although the committee disbanded, Stratton still believed Orem 

needed a golf course and approached his brothers and other family 

members about building one on their properties in northeast Orem. 

The Stratton family owned approximately 85 acres from the corner of 

800 North and 800 East going north to 1200 North. 

When city councilman Gillman heard the Strattons were considering 

using their own land, he suggested an alternative plan to purchase a 

piece of city-owned property near Provo Canyon. At the time, it was a 

gravel pit and served as a city dump. Orem had purchased the land 

previously for its water rights (Alta Springs), and did not want to sell. 

After a full-year of discussion, an arrangement was reached for a 99- 

year lease on the property. 

On December 12, 1965, the terms of the lease were approved. The 

group assembled that day included Mayor James E. Mangum, Earl 

Wengreen (city manager), Vern Wentz (city attorney), Gillman, Stratton, 

and other members of the Orem City Council. 

The agreement authorized Orem to construct a golf course, and 

Herbert B. Stratton maintained his vision to construct a golf course on 

city-owned land. The agreement included land for nine holes on the 

north side of 800 North and about 1300 East, as well as land for the 

construction of a driving range on the south side of 800 North. 

After the lease was signed, Stratton tried to secure financing through 

local banks and businesses for more than a year. He later looked 

for financing in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, but all 

proved futile. 

Stratton eventually approached the Small Business Administration 

in Utah, where he was initially turned down, but Ren Smith, director 

of the Salt Lake City office, contacted the national office in Washington 

D.C., and helped Stratton arrange a 15-year loan. 

The loan required that 10 percent of the funds be financed through 

a local bank. Finally, Warren Murphy of Orem State Bank agreed to 

finance the 10 percent if Stratton and his brothers Frank and Vern 

would offer their homes and farms as collateral. After five years of 

payments, the bank released the mortgage on the brothers’ properties. 

“Herb, Frank, and Vern mortgaged their butts off while we just sat 

back and held our breath,” said Farnsworth, an original member of the 

research committee. “About all we did was pat them on the back and 

say, ‘You can do it.’” 

Construction began in the spring of 1967, and Cascade Fairways 

Golf Course officially opened May 6, 1968. The par 35, nine-hole 

course was between 2,261 and 3000-yards long. Green fees were $1 for 

adults, 75 cents for seniors, and 50 cents for youth. 

Stratton opened a driving range south of 800 North in 1971 and 

began working on architectural designs for an executive nine holes on 

the same property. Orem City, however, approached Stratton requesting 

land for Osmond Studios. Stratton agreed to sell the lease on that 

portion of land back to the city. 

Throughout the first ten years of operation, the Strattons received no 

profits. In fact, many times the family subsidized the golf course to keep 

it going. In 1979, Herb bought his brothers’ share of the property and 

became the sole owner of Cascade Fairways Golf Course. Herb's son 

Keven began managing the golf course in 1986 and became the proprietor 

in 1989. Former BYU golfer Mike Smith served as the first PGA Golf 

Professional at Cascade Fairways from 1968 to 1969. He was followed 

by John Evans, a former BYU Cougar, from 1970 to 1982. Long-time 

Orem resident, Randy Anderson, who had worked at Cascade for 16 

years, took over as the course golf professional in 1987. 

✦ 

Opposite, top: Gracing the eastern 

shores of Utah Lake is the premier 

18-hole Sleepy Ridge Golf course that 

opened in 2005. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF JAY H. BUCKLEY 

Opposite, bottom, right: Cascade 

Fairways Golf Course opened in May 

of 1968 and served the community for 

nearly 50 years. Part of the land is 

now Palisade Park. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF DUFF TITTLE. 

Opposite, bottom, left: LaDell 

Gillman earned a lifetime golf pass at 

The Links at Sleepy Ridge for helping 

control its gopher population. He is 

proudly showing off the ball he used to 

score a hole-in-one. 

PHOTO COURTESY NADINE GILLMAN 

Left: An aerial view of Cascade Golf 

Course circa 1980 also shows 

abundant orchards and the Osmond 

production studios. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF CEDO. 


✦ 

Above: Orem artist James C. 

Christensen created the first poster for 

the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival 

in 1990, and imagined a sage old 

storyteller regaling his listeners with 

astonishing fables. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF CAROLE CHRISTENSEN.. 

Right: Orem's Fitness Center, adjacent 

to Mountain View High School, has 

provided training, a pool, track and 

workout equipment for more than 

three decades. 

PHOTO COURTESY JAY H. BUCKLEY 

Looking back on the years of work he put into making Cascade 

Fairways a reality and then managing it, Stratton commented, 

“We provided a great service to the community of Orem for nearly 

50 years.” 

Todd Pedersen of Vivant acquired the land in 2013, and in exchange, 

he returned about 20 acres to the city for park land, sports fields, 

parking, and bathrooms. Palisade Park, which opened in March of 

2014, features a playground, covered pavilion, snack bar, walking trail, 

two tennis courts, three sports fields, a fountain, and a splash pad. 

T ALES B ENEATH T IMP: THE T IMPANOGOS 

S TORYTELLING F ESTIVAL 

Whether spinning cultural tales, describing childhood memories, 

offering spine-tinglers, or other types of stories, a storytelling festival 

that began in an Orem backyard in 1990 has become the largest festival 

of its kind in the Western United States. 

In 1989, Karen Ashton, president of the Friends of the Orem Library, 

was seeking ways to promote community involvement in the library. She 

saw an advertisement for a national storytelling festival in Tennessee and 

decided to attend. She thought she would gather new materials for the 

library’s story hour. 

She got what she expected, and much more. She observed thousands 

of adults crowding into tents to listen to talented performers share tales 

of history, culture, folk, community, and family life. 

Inspired, she launched a storytelling festival in her backyard and 

those of her neighbors. It required moving livestock, mowing fields and 

raising tents. She brought in three nationally-known storytellers and 

used the area talent, including James Arrington, Marvin Payne, and 

Gaye Beeson, for a two-day event. 

Word spread, and so did the festival. The next year, the committee 

added another field, another tent, five national storytellers, and 

musicians. The festival grew, and in 2004, Orem designed Mt. 

Timpanogos, a 44-acre park in Provo Canyon, in part, to handle the 

needs of a yearly festival that drew about 30,000 attendees. 

Ashton wanted a storytelling institute with a place for year-round 

storytelling and related events. To accommodate those needs, the festival 

relocated at the Thanksgiving Point gardens in 2017 in nearby Lehi, Utah. 

O REM F ITNESS C ENTER 

The SCERA had worked with Orem City beginning in the 1930s to 

bring about a recreation program that included movies, a swimming 

pool, and city sports programs. In the 1980s the City of Orem 

purchased the SCERA’s outdoor pool as well as Scera Park, and parents 

ran non-profit youth programs. The SCERA’s focus became training 

youth in several areas of the arts and enhancing the region’s cultural 

arts through performances, classes, and firesides. 

The city opened a new pool at Scera Park after the existing one closed 

in 2002 and built a recreation center at 580 West 160 South. The Orem 

Recreation Center has offered fitness services for more than 30 years 

and is starting to show its age. City leaders recognize that fitness trends 

have changed. Like many cities, an abundance of runners can be seen 

year-round throughout the city, the canyon, and at the fitness center. 

Director Karl Hirst said major remodeling talks are under way, and 

the city is discussing, among others, cross fit training, a climbing wall, 

enlarged facilities, and better parking options. Additionally, they may 

bring the dark underground track into a lighter space. 

Another place for fun and recreation is the Orem Friendship Center 

at 93 North and 400 East. Designed for senior citizens, it offers socially 

enriching experiences, intellectual stimulation, physical fitness 

programs, educational opportunities, arts classes, and a daily nutrition 

program. Transportation is available, and all seniors are welcome. 


A N I DYLLIC E RA 

Growing up in Orem during the 1970s and ‘80s was a dream 

life for a child, said Duff Tittle, associate athletics director over 

communications at Brigham Young University. As a boy, he played 

in city leagues and later, as an adult, he coached Orem Youth 

Baseball for 14 years. 

“When I was a kid we had Little League, Pony League, and Colt 

League,” he said, explaining that he and his friends played in 

fields at the City Center Park, the Scera Park and Orem High. 

“For a boy growing up in 1983 in a neighborhood full of boys, 

Orem was heaven,” he said. “We hopped on our bikes and played 

at a ballpark almost every day. If we didn’t have enough players for 

a full team, we divided the diamond in half and played that way.” 

The orchards, canals, and ditches made for a great childhood. 

“The orchards that surrounded us and the canals that ran through 

the orchards made this a kid’s playground. We played army, hide 

and seek, kick the can, and, despite some danger, we had a great 

time in the canals.” 

He and his friends would grab their mothers’ salt shakers and 

head to the orchards where they sat in fruit trees for hours while 

they sprinkled salt on green apples or ate cherries. 

Tittle and his friends explored the foothills of North Orem near 

the site of Orem Cemetery. “We would spend all day hiking or 

building forts,” he said. “We shot our BB guns and built fires. 

Looking back, it’s a wonder we didn’t light the whole hill. One of 

the Strattons had a fruit farm where we hung out, and we played 

with horses, chickens, and sheep.” 

His life playing sports, shopping for baseball cards and “penny” 

candy, and exploring the orchards is replayed in the minds of 

thousands of children who grew up in Orem, and in Tittle’s case, his 

love of sports even extended into a full-time career in athletics at BYU. 

Most orchards have given way to housing and urban growth, 

but Tuttle said he appreciates that Orem had the foresight to create 

an abundance of parks near Orem’s schools, so children still have 

areas in which to play. 

Steven Diamond also has great memories of growing up in Orem. 

“We tubed down the irrigation canal behind our home. [It was] great 

fun except the day we decided it would be a good idea to go under 

the road...One time twenty of us took ten snowballs apiece and 

plastered the next car that came down the road in front of the mayor’s 

house. We did 200 snowballs in succession, and the car was covered. 

We thought it was so cool until lights flashed on the top of the car. It 

was a police vehicle. I guarantee the twenty of us broke world-record 

sprint times that day.” 

✦ 

Brett Pyne and Duff Tittle, pals since 

childhood, thought nothing 

could be better than growing up in 

Orem in the '80s. Still best friends, 

they work in athletics at Brigham 

Young University. 

PHOTOS COURTESY OF DUFF TITTLE. 


A NEW W AY OF S HOPPING 

✦ 

Above: The first store to open at the 

University Mall was ZCMI. It 

anchored the west end of the new 

shopping district. 

As Orem, grew, so did business, especially along State Street. On 

October 1, 1947, First Security Bank opened a branch there, and 

residents could bank in Orem instead of Provo. Long time State Street 

businesses included Kirk’s Café, Burr's Sporting Goods, Market Basket, 

Hillcrest Motel, Triple E, Huish's, and McGee’s Stamp and Trophy (the 

last two are still in business). Additional stores followed, but the growth 

of business was gradual. Clyde Weeks, Jr., wrote, “There were several 

stores and professional centers on State Street, but Provo City was the 

Utah Valley’s central business area.” 

As he explained, “A townsite or cluster of successful commercial 

businesses was slow developing in Orem because commercial zoning had 

been established only along both sides of State Street...Customers found 

this scattered business area too inconvenient, and State Street businesses 

had troubling prospering.” Those disadvantages disappeared with the 

construction of the University Mall in the early 1970s. When the highly 

anticipated shopping center opened in Orem in 1973, its design was 

reminiscent of a gym barbell. Two large department stores anchored each 

end of a long, rectangular indoor strip housing smaller, specialty stores. 

It quickly became the place for shopping in Utah Valley. 

Bottom, left: JC Penney was the 

second anchor when the University 

Mall opened in 1973. The classic 

department store was also welcomed 

by resident shoppers. 

Bottom, right: PF Chang’s China 

Bistro and California Pizza Kitchen 

offer alternatives to the food court at 

University Place. 

PHOTOS COURTESY OF WOODBURY CORPORATION 


Today the mall—now called University Place—is the center of a different 

kind of barbell. The barbells are two major universities that anchor 

University Parkway—UVU at the west end and BYU on the east. University 

Place sits between the borders of State Street and 800 East along the Parkway. 

For more than 45 years, University Place has been growing and adapting. 

“After it opened, University Mall quickly changed the way our 

citizens shopped,” said Jamie Davidson, Orem City manager. “Not only 

did it eliminate much of the need to travel to Salt Lake City for 

shopping, but it also gave Orem an invaluable sense of place.” 

Family members of the Woodbury Corporation developed the 

property after examining sites for a major shopping center in Utah 

Valley. Woodbury decided the area had grown large enough to justify 

and support a mall. 

“It made sense to look at either Provo or Orem because these cities had 

the greatest population in Utah County,” explained Rob Kallas, University 

Place general manager and a Woodbury employee for the past 44 years. 

“At the time, Provo was a considerably larger metro area than Orem, but 

Orem had some decided advantages,” he explained. “First, Orem had the 

land. Woodbury needed at least 100 acres where we could build and grow. 

The ground where University Place stands was full of orchards and vacant 

lots, and land was much less expensive in Orem [than Provo],” he explained. 

“Provo did not have the acreage. Putting a mall in downtown Provo (which 

was considered) would have meant tearing down existing buildings.” 

According to Kallas, the second advantage was its access to the I-15 

freeway system. You could exit the freeway and travel east until you 

reached the end of University Parkway. The parkway today extends to 

BYU, but it originally ended at State Street, next to what would become 

the southwest corner of the mall. 

“It all came down to land costs and location,” Kallas added. “Malls 

were not unheard of in the early ‘70s, but they were in their infancy. 

With our weather conditions, an expansive indoor shopping space 

where exciting activities could unfold sounded wonderful.” 

✦ 

Orchard Park is University Place's 

contribution to recreational green 

space in Orem. 

PHOTO COURTESY WOODBURY CORPORATION. 


✦ 

Right: University Place has an indoor 

playground for children inspired by the 

abundant aspen trees in Provo Canyon. 

Below: The University Orchard Park 

at night is a gathering place for 

community events and has added a 

new dimension to the centrallylocating 

shopping and business district. 

PHOTOS COURTESY OF WOODBURY CORPORATION 

To meet the needs of the consumers who usually shopped in Salt 

Lake City, the Woodbury developers brought in ZCMI and JC Penney 

as anchors to attract buyers. 

“Customers responded really, really well,” Kallas said. “ZCMI was 

popular immediately, and the Orem Penney’s became its most successful 

store in the Intermountain West.” 

For the first time, shoppers had access to many small, specialty stores 

with merchandise that in the pre-Amazon and online shopping era 

would be difficult to find otherwise. 

“University Mall, now University Place, has always been a flagship 

for Utah County and has been a great tax revenue source,” said former 

city manager Bruce Chestnut. “The coming of the mall brought and 

continues to bring economic vibrancy to the community.” 

The mall was successful, and within a year and a half, the structure 

nearly reached its capacity. Some businesses sprang up in the parking 

lot, but by 1981, the demand was so large--and the mall had performed 

so well—that Woodbury built a wing on the east side and brought in 

Mervyn’s as a national anchor. 

Mervyn’s and other new stores prospered for many years until 2008, 

when the industry started to change, and the economy took a dip with 

a national recession. Mervyn’s closed its stores nationwide in 2008, and 

several other businesses closed. With the declining economy, people 

began to spend less. An additional challenge for all retail shopping came 

with the emergence of online buying. 

Determined to retain its value as a destination place, University Mall 

rebranded itself as University Place. More than a mall, it is using its land 

for housing, office space, entertainment, recreation, shopping, and dining. 

Woodbury reduced mall space by tearing down the defunct Mervyn’s 

facility, which made way for two-and-a-half acres designed as a 

performance park with a $1.5 million showpiece fountain and cabanas 

and picnic areas. The large, grassy area is used for events, and a children’s 

indoor/outdoor play space helps parents and their children. 

“We’ve hired two event planners, and our goal is to have continual, 

year-round activities, both large and small,” Kallas explained. “We offer 


yoga and Zumba classes, car shows, festivals, fireworks, and more. 

The whole idea is to give people a place to enjoy themselves, do 

some shopping, and pick up something quick to eat or experience 

fine dining.” 

With a desire to contribute to the arts, Woodbury worked with Utah 

Valley University to open an art gallery in the mall. “They graciously 

named it the Woodbury Art Museum, and it is run exclusively by UVU,” 

Kallas said. 

“You won’t find a mall built today as they were in the 1970s,” Kallas 

added. “Taxes are higher, and you have to compact things. When we 

are finished, we will have more parking than we had when University 

Mall opened, but it is multi-story and closer to the main building. 

Things are changing faster than we know.” Woodbury foresees a time 

when smart cars will take customers to the mall, park at a satellite 

parking structure, and return to pick them up. 

Unlike the ‘70s, Orem today is quickly becoming landlocked. One 

solution is to build upward. “This option is not attractive to everyone— 

particularly to residents who remember Orem’s small-town past, but of 

necessity, retrofitting and redeveloping space is a high priority,” 

Davidson explained. “The future of Orem involves going vertical 

because of land limitations.” 

And it is happening at University Place. “Naturally, we need to 

remain strong, viable, and successful,” Kallas said. “Part of that means 

growing upward. We are in our third year of a ten-year plan and 

are developing a mixed-use center and a downtown area for the 

community, not just Orem.” In addition to the original mall site, 

University Place encompasses 124 acres from 800 South to University 

Parkway and 800 East to State Street. Included are Costco, the 

University Mall movie theater complex, and apartments. As the first of 

its anticipated office space, a premier four-story building sits on the 

southwest corner of the land, and a terrace provides parking on the 

northwest part of the mall. Trader Joe’s opened in late July 2018 and 

plans include a major grocery facility. 

A fourth generation of Woodburys has joined University Place and 

is converting the area to a place where people can work, shop, eat, 

recreate and live. Already constructed and nearly at full capacity are 

484 apartments called the Aston with amenities including garden plots, 

a dog park, workout space, and pools. 

T HE S EEDS OF H IGH-TECH B USINESS 

Orem was an early leader in the hightechnology 

explosion that has catapulted the 

population and salaries of the area to 

impressive heights. Orem, with its businessoriented 

city government structure, is home to 

4,549 businesses as of 2017. 

“Orem no longer has the land to 

accommodate many of the technology 

businesses that have either migrated to or 

originated at the north end of Utah County,” 

Davidson explained. “But we were at the early 

stage of the evolution and remain a vital part of 

the business climate in Utah.” 

According to Orem.org/business, the city 

has been a hotbed for technology companies 

with more than 236 high-tech companies 

within the city limits. Many high-profile, 

internationally recognized companies such as WordPerfect, Novell 

PowerQuest, and MyFamily.com all got their start in Orem. Others 

include Signetics, Blendtec, Bluehost, Vivint, Fishbowl Inventory, 

Qualtrics, Flexsim, Mity-Lite, Omniture, PowerQuest, SecurityMetrics, 

Wahoo Studios and NinjaBee, a subdivision of Wahoo. These 

enterprises represent the city’s continuing innovative and successful 

entrepreneurial spirit. In 2017, Forbes Magazine named Orem as 

number two in the nation for best places for business and careers. 

W ORDP ERFECT 

BYU professor Alan Ashton of Orem and one of his graduate 

students, Bruce Bastian, contributed substantially to international 

advances in computer technology and development with WordPerfect 

Corporation in 1979. The manufacturer of word processing software 

enjoyed great popularity in the 1980s. 

“They created WordPerfect in the basement of the Orem City Center,” 

Davidson said. Its value on multiple personal computer platforms was 

✦ 

Apple orchards disappeared to make 

way for the WordPerfect campus, 

built during the peak of the technical 

giant's history. It provided places for 

high tech companies to incubate and 

grow. Today it is known as Canyon 

Park Tech Center. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF CEDO. 


commercial real estate investment company, acquired the campus with 

the intent to reposition and upgrade the property. 

Muller’s business plan includes investing $8.6 million dollars into 

the infrastructure of the park to create new amenities and enhance the 

property’s physical appearance. The goal is to transform Canyon Park 

into a world class tech/office destination positioned to attract both startups 

and well-established firms. 

N OVELL D ATA S YSTEMS 

✦ 

Alan Ashton and one of his graduate 

students, Bruce Bastian. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF BRUCE BASTAIN. 

revolutionary and displaced most other systems. WordPerfect hit its 

apex in the 1980s before the ascension of Microsoft Word, which 

dominates the market. 

In the beginning Bastian oversaw program improvements while 

Ashton taught morning classes at BYU. Ashton then worked on program 

development and recruited his best students. They hired W.E. Peterson 

to organize the company’s books and serve as office manager. He 

received a small, tie-breaking stake in the company. 

Both Ashton and Bastian have become substantial Utah benefactors, 

especially in Utah and Salt Lake counties. 

Canyon Park Tech Center, as it is known today, is a 14-building 

business park nestled on 85 acres at the foot of Mount Timpanogos in 

Orem, Utah. The Park, which houses nearly a million square feet of office 

space, was originally built and occupied by WordPerfect Corporation 

1980. WordPerfect merged with Novell, Inc., a local networking software 

company, in 1994. The merger eventually led to the outright ownership 

of WordPerfect by Novell. In May of 2000, the Orem Campus of Novell 

was purchased by TCU Properties, a group of Utah County real estate 

investors. In February 2018, The Muller Company, a California-based 

Another early giant in high technology was Utah native Ray Noorda, 

commonly referred to as the father of network computing. He was 

recruited to revive Novell Data Systems, a bankrupt company founded 

in 1979. He shortened it to Novell, Inc. and grew it from 17 employees 

in 1983 to 12,000 at its peak. 

Among his biggest contributions was Novell Netware, which linked 

desktop computers to printers, file servers, and directories. After 

resigning as Novell’s CEO in 1995, he founded Canopy Ventures, a 

venture capital firm that provides high-tech companies with facilities, 

security, office management, and onsite technologies. 

Noorda earned a University of Utah engineering degree and 

embarked on a 21-year career with General Electric before focusing his 

efforts on turning around struggling companies, most notably Novell. 

And when he died October 9, 2006, Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr., 

described Noorda as “one of the innovators of the Utah Miracle,” a 

reference to the growth of high technology businesses in the state. 

O REM B USINESSMAN T ODD P EDERSEN 

Long-time Orem businessman Todd Pedersen co-founded APX 

Alarm Security Solutions in Provo in 1999 and never expected the 

security systems company would grow into a $2 billion company with 

1.3 million customers and $882 million in revenues. 

But under his leadership, it did just that, and Vivint, as the company 

rebranded itself in 2011, has become a leading smart home company 

in North America. More than half of its 10,000 employees work in Utah. 

The company recently made the Forbes list of “America’s Best 

Employers” for the second time in three years. 


In Orem, Pedersen has become well-known for his generosity. 

Through Vivint, Pedersen funded Utah Valley University’s new 

professional sales program with a $2 million gift in 2014. Located in 

the UVU Business Resource Center, the lab provides undergraduate and 

graduate marketing students with opportunities to work on projects 

sponsored by area businesses. 

Foothill Elementary School in Orem had something to celebrate 

when Todd Pedersen and his wife Andie matched whatever the school 

raised for computer and related materials. The goal was $10,000 over 

the next five years. Todd convinced Lesa Oliver, the PTA president, that 

the goal was too little and too slow. The school had 600 students who 

only had 30 minutes a week in the computer lab. Another computer 

lab sat empty because of insufficient funds. 

Pedersen challenged her to raise $150,000 in 30 days and said he 

and his wife would match it. Foothill took the challenge, named the 

campaign the Epic Technology Fundraiser, and raised about $180,000 

through teachers who applied for and received grants, from area 

business, and from donations from Foothill Elementary families. 

B LENDTEC 

When you swing into the 

parking lot of the Blentec 

corporate offices, there is 

no doubt that the business 

has something to do with 

blenders. Inventor/owner Tom 

Dickson’s playful nature is 

evident from the moment you 

see the building. Instead of 

the typical entrance, his is a 

two-story high blender. You 

walk through the base of 

the blender—aka the front 

door—look down and see 

gigantic, whirring blades 

simulating a blend. On the 

second floor you walk out of 

an office into the blender where Dickson plans to suspend a Mercedes smart 

car. It will be his most gigantic “blend” ever. Even the chandeliers 

downstairs are inverted blender jars. The whimsey throughout the building 

belies the reality that while his building is playful, welcoming, and 

imaginative, he is absolutely serious about his successful line of products. 

A LAN AND K AREN A SHTON 

Utah Valley has benefited noticeably through the generosity of Alan 

A. Ashton and his wife, Karen Jackson Ashton. Ashton, who left a 14- 

year BYU faculty position to serve full-time as president and CEO of 

WordPerfect in collaboration with creative co-founder Bruce Bastian, 

was known for his highly successful hands-off management style—but 

there is nothing hands-off about the couple’s generosity. 

One of their most visible projects has been Thanksgiving Point, a farm, 

garden, and museum complex perched on the north side of Lehi near the 

I-15 freeway at 3003 N. Thanksgiving Way. The development opened in 

1995 and has grown to include the 55-acre Ashton Gardens, Museum of 

Natural Curiosity, Children’s Discovery Garden, 

Waterfall Amphitheatre, Farm Country, Butterfly 

Biosphere, Museum of Ancient Life, Electric Park 

Fairgrounds, Thanksgiving Point Golf and Club House, 

a movie complex, and a business district. 

The BYU Management Society honored the couple 

with its annual Pioneer in Leadership Award in 2016, 

and Karen Ashton explained at the awards ceremony, 

“We wanted to create something for the people 

around us. We’ve been blessed financially and with a 

large family. We wanted to give something back to the 

community and the families in our area.” 

The fruits of their patronage are evident many 

places, including stained glass windows at the Orem 

Public Library that sparkle with a rich unfolding of 

children’s fairy tales. The revered tradition of 

storytelling got a generous boost through the 

Timpanogos Storytelling festival that distinguished 

Orem for nearly 30 years before moving to 

Thanksgiving Point. 

✦ 

Below, left: Blendtec corporate offices. 


Below: Orem couple Alan and Karen 

Ashton have been great benefactors in 

the years since Alan co-founded 

WordPerfect with Bruce Bastian. 

Among their biggest projects has been 

Thanksgiving Point in nearby Lehi, 

Utah. Established in 1995, 

Thanksgiving Point is a nonprofit 

complex that includes the Museum of 

Natural Curiosity, Farm Country, 

Ashton Gardens, the Museum of 

Ancient Life, and Butterfly Biosphere. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF JAY H. BUCKLEY 


✦ 

Right: Students receive blacksmithing 

instruction at Central Utah 

Vocational School. 

PHOTOS COURTESY OF UVU. 

U TAH V ALLEY U NIVERSITY: 

O UR C OMMUNITY’ S C OLLEGE AND U NIVERSITY 

While Orem was creating a facility for steel manufacturing 

during World War II, a group of hardworking, devoted individuals 

started an educational institution that would become the largest 

university in Utah. It anchors Orem’s west side, alongside Interstate 

15, a constant reminder that education provides increased 

opportunities on the road of life. Perhaps just as strongly illustrated 

though, the institution fills an ever-increasing need. The humble 

school that opened in September of 1941 was named Central Utah 

Vocational School (CUVS) and was made possible by national defense 

funds. The United States needed skilled workers to produce arms 

and ammunition for use during World War II, and CUVS’s first leader, 

Hyrum E. Johnson, located and recruited experts around the valley 

to a centralized location. He served during the war years, from 1941 

to 1945. 


As one of only two schools in the state dedicated to a curriculum that 

included trade, industry, business, and distributive education, it provided 

specialized and technical training. A rented house on 134 South and 300 

West in Provo served as its central office, and the abandoned Civilian 

Conservation Corps barracks at the Utah County Fairgrounds at 1100 S. 

University in Provo became its main operations site. 

With tuition at $150 a quarter, students could clock-in 30 hours a week 

and learn many trades ranging from sheet metal, power sewing, electrical 

wiring, and meat cutting, to auto mechanics, painting, radio servicing, 

merchandising, and stenography. Other skills taught included garment 

making, business, carpentry, auto body, welding, nursing, and more. 

With the end of the war, however, 90 percent of the school's budget 

was lost with the cancellation of the war production training funds. 

Cutbacks followed, which meant fewer classes. The school received a 

needed boost of $50,000 in operating costs from the state. Utah 

Governor Herbert Maw made CUVS a state institution in 1945 and 

selected Wilson W. Sorensen as its director (later as president). For nearly 

four decades, from 1945 to 1982, Sorensen led the effort, along with the 

help from the faculty, staff, student, and community members, to shape 

the school. This effort included the purchase of 13 acres at 1300 N. 

University Avenue, which led to the first building being built in 1951. 

During his tenure, the school changed its name twice, to Utah Trade 

Technical Institute in 1963 and then to Utah Technical College in 1967. 

Sorensen could see the school was quickly outgrowing its Provo 

campus. Between 1966 and 1977 he directed the purchase of 185 acres 

of farmland in southwest Orem with convenient access to I-15 on the 

west. The first building at the present-day main campus was completed 

in 1977, dedicated by Spencer W. Kimball, president of The Church of 

Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

The institution’s third president, Dr. J. Marvin Higbee, focused on 

broadening the educational opportunities for students and pushed the 

college toward community college status. 

During his five-year tenure (1982 to 1987), a strong athletics 

presence began to develop. During Higbee’s last year, the school became 

Utah Valley Community College. 

More growth and another name change occurred during the tenure 

of the fourth president, Dr. Kerry D. Romesburg (1988 to 2002). UVCC 

would become known as Utah Valley State College (UVSC) in 1993 and 

began offering bachelor’s degrees. Under his persistence, Utah Valley’s 

athletics made the jump directly from junior college competition to 

Division I competition—the first (and last) institution to do so. He 

expanded arts and humanities, international education, and added 

buildings. Through his efforts, an 8,500-seat combination athletic and 

community events center was approved, as well as land and buildings 

for the Wasatch Mountain Campus in Heber City, Utah. 

His tenure was followed by Dr. William A. Sederburg, whose 

presidency was capped on July 1, 2008, when the college became Utah 

Valley University. The Utah State Legislature unanimously approved its 

university status. Under Sederburg’s leadership, the school emerged with 

a strategic planning model that aligned planning with budgeting and 

accountability. Athletic and academic programs prospered, and he 

spearheaded a state-of-the-art library (dedicated July 1, 2008 by LDS 

President Thomas S. Monson, with all previous institution leaders except 

Hyrum Johnson in attendance). The 31 bachelor’s degrees offered in 2003 

expanded to 58, and 130 new faculty members with specific areas of 

expertise helped qualify the institution for university status and master’s 

degree programs. On August 18, 2008, Sederburg left UVU to accept a 

position as Utah’s seventh commissioner of higher education. 

✦ 

Students participate in hands-on, 

engaged learning in a welding class. 



✦ 

UVU presidents, left to right: Kerry 

D. Romesburg, William A. Sederburg, 

Matthew S. Holland, Lucille Stoddard 

(interim), J. Marvin Higbee, Elizabeth 

Hitch (interim). 

PHOTO COURTESY OF UVU. 

Shortly after attaining university status, UVU welcomed its sixth 

president—Dr. Matthew S. Holland, a political science professor from 

Brigham Young University. Over nine years, Holland earned and 

maintained a reputation as a respected educator, serious academic, 

savvy problem-solver, and master communicator. 

With large amounts of input from the campus, he developed core 

themes for the university: serious, inclusive, engaged—all leading and 

contributing to student success. Like his predecessors, Holland insisted that 

the institution stay true to its roots of educating in the trades while 

expanding offerings. Not only would the open-admission institution 

maintain and support vocational instruction, UVU would offer a first-rate, 

serious university experience—including master’s degrees—under one roof. 

It’s what became known as UVU’s “dual-mission model,” combining 

the access and affordability of a community college with the rigor of a 

well-rounded university experience. UVU utilized “structured 

enrollment,” a way to help students receive individualized attention to 

meet their goals. And programs are “stackable” at UVU, meaning a student 

may earn a certificate program and continue to a graduate degree. 

As the open-enrollment university continued to grow, President 

Holland and members of the administration pushed for acute equity 


offered nearly 40 certificate programs, more than 60 associate degrees, 

over 80 bachelor’s degree options, and eight graduate programs. 

Athletics regularly brought home championships competing in the 

Western Athletic Conference (WAC). The greatest amount of growth for 

the university was coming from its junior and senior classes. 

Enrollment at UVU in fall 2018 approached 40,000 students, 

and projections suggest that by 2025, the university will be helping 

50,000 students. 

Coming at an amazing time of opportunity, with more than 80 

countries represented by the student body, Dr. Astrid S. Tuminez was 

selected as the seventh president of UVU—its first woman to occupy 

the position. 

The institution began in a set of borrowed, broken-down barracks. 

Today, the university’s facilities consist of hundreds and hundreds 

of square acres with more than 50 buildings and structures. Its 

main campus is in Orem, but the university has expanded to Provo, 

Heber City, Vineyard, Capitol Reef National Park, Thanksgiving Point 

funding to close the disparity of state funding 

compared to other state institutions. The 

request was eventually granted by the state 

legislature in 2014. This increase to base 

funding enabled the increased offerings of 

high-demand classes by hiring more faculty 

among other programmatic improvements— 

all in support of the institution’s mission of 

student success, and without unnecessarily 

raising tuition. 

It was also a time of unparalleled 

expansion of facilities at UVU, including 

the Clarke Building, the Wee Care Center, 

the Noorda Center for the Performing Arts, 

the NUVI Basketball Center, Student Life 

and Wellness Center, the Cole Nellesen 

Building (devoted to providing autism 

resources), and many more. 

Before Holland left UVU in June 2018 

to serve as an LDS mission president, UVU 

✦ 

Top, left: Students stroll in the Clarke 

Building, a 244,000-square-foot 

building that opened in early 2015. 

Left: Each year, UVU graduates on 

average more than 5,000 students. 

PHOTOS COURTESY OF UVU 


✦ 

Right and below: The opening of 

Roots of Knowledge at Utah 

Valley University. 


in Lehi (in the heart of “Silicon Slopes”) and is in the process of 

procuring land in Payson. 

Utah Valley University is unique in its dual-mission model and 

central focus on student success—helping students at every juncture to 

accomplish their goals. UVU, in turn, has become Utah Valley’s 

university, providing a crucial service, and—year after year—educating 

more students from Utah County than do all other state-owned colleges 

and universities combined. 

That’s part of the reason President Matthew S. Holland emphatically 

declared during the university’s 75th anniversary, “Our present 

is so much grander than our past—but it is not nearly as grand as our 

future. Our best days and finest accomplishments are ahead of us, not 

behind us.” 

And that excitement is palpable from President Astrid S. Tuminez. 

“In all my years with elite academic institutions, Harvard, MIT, and the 

National University of Singapore, Utah Valley University is the most 

dynamic and inventive institution,” she said. 


GONE, BUT FONDLY REMEMBERED 

Most towns have colorful characters who may not be prominent in 

a traditional sense, but who are nevertheless well-known. Owen Nielsen 

was one of them. 

O WEN 

“OLLIE” NIELSEN 

Owen “Ollie” Nielsen was neither a businessman, politician, nor 

church leader. People called him Owen, Ollie, and Uncle Owen, and he 

was an Orem fixture who almost daily could be seen walking up Fourth 

South toward State Street to grab a doughnut and coffee and make friends 

along the way. 

Nielsen was known for his friendliness and hygiene, or lack thereof. 

Even as a child, he had an aversion to bathing, and as an adult, he wore 

the same outfit until it was in tatters before getting another set of clothes 

and wearing them until they, too, were beyond reclamation. 

“But he was the nicest guy you could ever meet,” said lifelong county 

resident LaDell Gillman, who worked with Nielsen while earning money 

for a mission and college. They gathered the city’s garbage. “He was kindhearted,” 

Gillman explained, “He just had this strange reaction to water.” 

Nielsen, born February 23, 1906, served in the U.S. Army Fortieth 

Hospital Unit in Italy during World War II, and often talked to Gillman 

about a girl with whom he had fallen in love. 

“Ollie returned home after the war and said she would join him later 

when they could afford it,” Gillman explained. “He scrimped until he had 

$2,000. That was a lot of money in the ‘40s. He sent her the money to 

travel to the States, but she never replied. That was it. He never married.” 

Gillman remembered his garbage work with the fondness only time 

softens. “Orem didn’t have any garbage regulations, and we made do 

with a truck with a wood seat and a tailgate we had to pry open with a 

crowbar. I can still recall the stench.” 

People left garbage in all sorts of containers, and some were too 

heavy to lift. “Ollie and I would have to tip the 50-gallon drums onto 

the street and use a scoop to shovel the garbage into the truck.” 

The duo then took the trash to a gully in north Orem near 800 East. 

“One day while we were up there, Ollie started talking with some friends,” 

Gillman said. “He was a great talker. I guess to get him ‘clean,’ these 

friends tossed him into the canal, and he came out like an enraged bull. 

I’ve never seen a guy get so mad, especially a guy as amiable as Ollie.” 

Many remember that good nature. Earl Tenney said Owen frequently 

bought ice cream for winners of Little League baseball games. “He 

always gave you a coin if you stopped to say hello,” said Tawnya Lange, 

who is creating her own archive of Orem history. Eileen Lima 

remembers he bought her an ice cream cone after she accidentally 

dropped hers. 

Earlene Partridge Lott considered him her hero. Her family lived on 

South State. One day her mother asked her to get something from the 

nearby Albertson’s grocery store. “I was approaching the light at Center 

Street when a carload of boys rolled down a window and asked if I 

wanted a ride,” she said. “I ignored them, but to my dismay, the light 

✦ 

Owen Nielsen was a local character 

who harbored a broken heart but was 

largely seen as a friendly military 

veteran who walked the town for 

decades—and had an unusual 

aversion to water. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF ADAM ROBERTSON 


✦ 

Park's Cafe, the first restaurant in 

Orem started as a fruit stand along 

State Street and was a great example 

of friendly small town dining. 


changed to red and their car stopped. The back door opened, and a boy 

started to get out. I was frightened and didn’t know what to do. 

Suddenly, I heard a male voice behind me. It was Owen. He told the 

boys, ‘The little lady isn’t interested.’ I was never so happy to see anyone 

in my life. Owen walked to Albertson’s with me, waited, and walked 

me home. He was a dear, sweet man.” 

Many Orem residents looked out for Nielsen. 

Part of his walking routine was a trip to Bill and Iva’s Café where he 

received free meals. “Bill and Iva fed him with a generous heart,” said 

Craig Clyde Olsen. 

During the summers he often joined Fran Paxton’s family for lunch 

picnics. “Mom bought him new overalls and a shirt every Christmas 

and for what she called his birthday in July.” 

When he visited Belle and Ernie’s lounge, Belle would have him 

shower and change into clean clothes she had for him,” Lott added. 

“She took his dirty clothes home to wash and iron. And she saw to it 

that he had a hot meal.” 

“I totally remember him,” said Ray Donaldson, adding that someone 

would donate a haircut and shave for him about once a year. 

Nielsen was a legend among Don Houskeeper and his friends. “We 

heard all kinds of rumors about him. He was a millionaire, a war hero, 

a bum. We would always honk at him. We considered him an iconic 

Orem personality and wondered what his real story was.” 

Vickie Newell said he was related to her husband’s grandmother, who 

told stories about him as a little boy. According to Grandma Newell, 

“He really did not like cleaning or bathing. His family tried to help him 

with that but had no success.” 

“They (his parents) had to burn his overalls about every six months,” 

added Mark Infanger, who said his parents lived on his church‘s 

boundaries. “His trailer had a large collection of hubcaps. He was a good 

guy, though, and affable. I don’t know anyone who didn’t love him.” 

Children often mistook Nielsen for Santa Claus because of his white 

beard, and he played a toymaker in the 1972 Winterfest parade 

sponsored by Orem merchants. With his distinctive look, Nielsen often 

posed for local photographers and Utah Technical College art classes. 

Newell recalls her grandmother’s assessment of the local character 

who died December 14, 1979. “She often said he had a broken heart, 

but it was a heart of gold.” 

B USINESSES 

Although Orem boasts more than 4,000 businesses, most early 

ventures, even the most successful enterprises, are long gone. Here is a 

sampling. This is not intended to be a comprehensive list of former 

business establishments. Rather, it reflects the memories of residents 

both past and present who have lived here and remember their smalltown 

charm. 

P ARK’ S 

C AFÉ 

Orem’s first restaurant, a mom-and-pop operation, originally opened 

as John and Bertie (Bertha) Park’s fruit stand. 

Park’s Café was an ideal example of the friendly hometown diner and 

was the first of many that cropped up along State Street. The Parks had 

opened a fruit stand in 1928 and added sandwiches and ice cream. It 

expanded to home cooking and became Park’s Café. 

“I think what made Park’s famous was my grandmother’s fried 

chicken,” said Judy Park Cook. “She parboiled the chicken and then 

hand breaded it. It was delicious and crispy, sort of like Kentucky Fried 


Chicken, but before there was a KFC. Later she hired other good cooks, 

and two of them later worked at the Skyroom Restaurant at Brigham 

Young University.” 

B ILL AND I VA’ S 

parents in 1982. That same year, the U.S. Postal Service issued a series 

of floral “Love” postage stamps, and postmaster Clyde Weeks, Jr., 

delivered a “bouquet” of stamps to Rohbock’s to honor its status as 

Orem’s oldest business. 

“My dad worked all the time,” said his daughter Linda Rohbock Rowland. 

“It takes a lot of pansies at fifty cents a dozen to raise several families.” 

Her sister, Teddy Rohbock Stratton, said her father worked many 15- 

hour work days. 

“He hardly ever had weekends off because funeral viewings typically 

occurred Sunday evenings; he oversaw the floral arrangements,” she 

explained. “It was hard work, but we loved it.” 

Rohbock’s sold its last carnations, roses, and other popular flowers from 

the shop in 1995. The floral business was changing. Small florists could 

not compete with box stores, and supermarkets began selling flowers. 

“We had beautiful poinsettias,” Rowland said, “but with semi-trucks 

making massive poinsettia deliveries, there was no room for us.” 

Charles maintained the business from his home for four more years, 

but finally left the business for good in 1999. 

The Olsens had the best food at Bill and Iva’s,” said Kristy Clayton. 

“I think it was because my mom and grandma cooked for them for 

years.” Bill and Iva's Cafe served fresh diner fare for 47 years at its 

location at 207 S. State Street in Orem. 

“We had a lot of family restaurants along State Street,” said Orem 

City manager Davidson. “Now we have an abundance of chains.” The 

family and local restaurants tend to focus on Asian, Japanese, Thai, 

Mexican, Peruvian, Indian, and other ethnic foods. 

R OHBOCK’ S AND S ONS’ FLORAL 

Rohbock’s and Sons’ Floral, Orem’s first flower shop, operated for 

more than 70 years before closing operations in 1999. The family 

business began after Carl Ernest Rohbock left Germany to escape World 

War I. He came to the United States for mining opportunities but shifted 

to flowers in 1928. 

Charles E. Rohbock (Chick) was the oldest of four brothers who 

ran Rohbock’s and Son’s Floral with their father. He bought out his 

✦ 

Top, left: For nearly half a century, 

Bill and Iva's served popular food 

from scratch. 

PHOTO BY OREM CITY 

Above: Mildred (Mink) and Charles 

(Chick) Rohbock pose by his latest 

funeral arrangement. 

PHOTO COURTESY ROHBOCK FAMILY 

Left: Rohbock's and Son' Floral, was 

Orem's first floral shop. Although the 

building is still standing on State 

Street, the last member of the family 

stopped selling flowers nearly 20 

years ago. 

PHOTO COURTESY ROHBOCK FAMILY 


P ARK’ S 

S PORTSMAN 

✦ 

Above, left: Park's Sportsman was a 

mainstay on State Street for more 

than half a century, and Randy Park, 

who took over the business from his 

father Russ, said the family took 

particular pleasure in serving three 

and even four generations of the same 

family at the store. 

Above , right: Park's Sportsman 

started out as a pool hall and 

eventually became a popular sports 

and athletics store. 

Right: In a history that spanned 57 

years, the store only had two owners: 

Russ Park and his son, Randy. 

PHOTOS COURTESY OF RANDY PARK. 

Park’s Sportsman, which 

operated for more than half a 

century in north Orem, closed 

in 2014 but was formerly the 

go-to place for athletic teams 

and serious sports enthusiasts. 

Russ Park began the 

business in 1957 as a pool hall 

with six pool tables and a 

snack bar. He added sports 

equipment, and patrons could 

purchase punch boards to see 

if they had won merchandise. 

In 1972, Park eliminated the snack bar and pool tables to sell sports 

and athletics equipment exclusively. His emphasis was good service. 

Park also supplied the needs of the area’s schools and gave “Athlete of 

the Year” awards. Russ liked children and gave them his mismatched 

skis and bindings at no cost when they wanted to learn to ski and 

needed equipment. 

“Eighty percent of our business came from repeat customers,” said Randy 

Park, who took over the store from his father. “We would start with parents 

who came here as children. We took care of their kids, and then their kids. 

We had as many as four generations in a family who shopped with us.” 

Among their returning clients were BYU football coach LaVell Edwards, actor 

Robert Redford, and national television and radio host Larry King. 

Sorely missed, many Orem residents remember the sports shop. 

“Here’s a story for you,” said James Bishop. “For about 12 years, we 

lived in a big red brick house next door to Park’s. We had a small farm 

with sheep, a horse, and a mean rooster with devil spurs.” 

One day the Bishops received a phone call from the store’s secretary 

to let them know one of their lambs had wandered into the store. When 

anyone—or anything—stepped on the store’s black rubber mat, the 

door opened. 

“Well, that’s what our lamb did,” Bishop explained. “They didn’t 

mind when Freckles, our collie, did the same thing. I guess our dog got 

bored when we were at school, so she would either check out 

Sportsman’s or Fashion Dry Cleaners, our neighbors on the other side. 

They never called us about Freckles, but the lamb was just too much.” 

Bishop also remembers the night he and a friend spent the night on 

his covered front porch and slept through a shootout. 


“Sportsman was robbed. The police took several shots in the parking 

lot, and we slept through the whole thing,” Bishop said. A police officer 

had no idea his son was sleeping on Bishop’s porch. 

“The next morning, my dad showed us a bullet hole in the side of 

our house. Man, that was a great story for show and tell at school the 

next day.” 

“Some friends and I accidentally started a fire at the field next to 

Park’s,” added James Cox. “I still have the memory of seeing Russ Park 

with a garden hose spraying down the south side of the Sportsman. 

Firemen had to save the day. Sorry, Mr. Park.” 

Troy Lovell, who thought Park’s was a great store, purchased his 

baseball and football equipment there. “I can still smell the leather of 

the mitts in the spring,” he said. 

S ALMON 

P HARMACY 

The Salmon Pharmacy was a landmark on State Street after 1949. J. 

Warren Salmon had several stores though the years and knew his 

customers by their first names. Still open after 70 years, it has a modern 

location on 800 North. As time went by, national chains affected many 

of the longtime family-owned and operated businesses in town. It was 

a regular place to stop, says Phillip Murdock. “We used to stop at 

Salmon’s on the way home from junior high and have a fountain soda. 

Then we would go to Park’s Sportsman and play pinball.” 

T IMPANOGOS 

B OWL 

Another Park family venture was the Timpanogos Bowl located about 

a half mile northwest of the city cemetery. Russ Park developed the 

naturally-formed bowl into a stadium and erected bleacher seating to 

accommodate about 30,000 spectators. It provided an arena for rodeos, 

pageants, chariot races, stock car races, motorcycle races, and ice 

skating. Park had planned to sell the stadium to either the City of Orem 

or to Brigham Young University, but both declined. Business dropped 

until the stadium was closed and replaced by a neighborhood 

appropriately named Bowl Street. 

✦ 

Above: Russ Park developed the 

naturally-formed Timpanogos Bowl 

into a stadium and erected bleacher 

seating to accommodate about 

30,000 spectators. 

Left: The Salmon Pharmacy was a 

landmark on State Street after 1949. 


MUSEUM, SCERA 


✦ 

Right: Pears are a major crop at the 

Crandall Farm on Center Street, a 

family business established in 1877. 

With no intention of leaving, the 

Crandall family continues to plant 

new fruit trees annually. 

PHOTO BY JAREN WILKEY. 

Below: Shown removing a screen from 

the top of a tank full of apple cider 

are Lynn Starley, mill owner, right, 

and Fred Davis, his assistant. Behind 

Starley can be seen the stack of oak 

racks and cloths containing apple pulp 

placed under the apple press where 

they will undergo 40 tons of pressure 

to extract the pure juice. 

PHOTO COURTESY CLYDE WEEKS FAMILY. 

F RUIT S TANDS AND O RCHARDS 

The Crandall family on the corner of Center Street and 800 East 

operates one of the oldest and few remaining commercial orchards in 

Orem. The family began growing fruit in 1887 when C.W. Crandall 

began homesteading on the bench. 

“We have every intention of keeping our land as a fruit farm,” said owner 

Tim Crandall. Trees from his family farm are featured on the cover of this 

centennial narrative. “We are proud of our legacy and invite people to 

experience the farm lifestyle in the middle of Orem. We know we could 

make more from interest than from farming, but we like it for ourselves, 

our kids, and our grandkids. It’s our heritage.” 

The farm sells apples, apple juice, Bartlett pears, peaches, and 

depending on the year, may offer honey, raspberries, tomatoes and 

more. Occasionally, they offer cherries, but Crandall said the cost for 

labor for picking cherries is high, and that has become an issue. 

“Farming on a hill with little water made the bench challenging at 

first, but it was, and is, a good place to grow fruit,” Crandall explained. 

“It’s a little warmer than much of the region, and the canyon wind works 

as a wind machine. As long as the air is moving, it protects the fruit.” 

“I made many visits to Verd’s fruit 

stand on State Street,” said Cecelia Harris 

Fielding. “My mom shopped there for 

the Jonathan apples, freestone peaches, 

and pears, and I waited for her in the 

cooler the whole time. It was so 

refreshing on a hot summer day.” 

Julie Hansen Johnson said Verd’s Fruit 

Stand was a favorite for candy and soda 

pop, but she “didn’t care as much for the 

healthy stuff.” Kim Whiting Weinreb said 

Verd’s was a favorite place for her sister 

Rachel, who, she said, “spent every 

penny she ever earned at that fruit stand.” 

Christine Alleman loved bicycling with 

her friends to buy penny candy at Verd’s. 

“Good times,” she added. 

Area children now in their 30s and beyond remember the fruit stands 

as a perfect place for penny candy. Natalie Dawn Lewis said one of her 

favorite childhood memories was spending a quarter for surprise candy 

bags at Stratton’s fruit stand along 800 North in the 1980s. “My friends and 

I looked under couch cushions and other places to find money,” she said. 

“We didn’t tell our parents, because we had to cross 800 North to get there.” 

U TAH V ALLEY R OOFING 

Earl Partridge, who owned Utah Valley Roofing from 1959 to 1980, 

was known for hiring police officers. Their work at the roofing company 

provided a welcome subsidy to their regular salaries. He said he needed 

employees, but he also hired officers because he wanted to help them out. 


C ORBETT T RAILER S ALES 

Merrill and Betty Corbett ran a family business. “It was a great place, 

with honest individuals, awesome folks,” explained Vern Fisher. “They left 

the trailers open occasionally,” added Ron Prestwich. “This gave my 14- 

year-old buddies and me a grand tour and a quick restroom stop. Sorry 

about that.” Pam Dain and Craig Jacobson grew up working the family 

business. “Their son Craig and his wife DeAnne Jacobson took over the 

business for many years until the property was sold,” added Vern Fisher. 

S TAN’ S B OXING C LUB 

When Geneva Steel worker Stan Chynoweth noticed his sons and 

other boys getting into fights at school, he decided to organize a boxing 

club to teach them the fundamentals of fighting—and discourage the 

school yard scraps. BYU provided boxing space for a year in 1956 before 

Chynoweth found a more permanent facility in west Orem. It was small, 

and had been part of the old Union School, but it provided a boxing 

outlet for boys from age seven to college age. 

Among its superstars was Danny “Little Red,” Lopez (b. 1952), a pale 

redhead who wore an Indian bonnet and sported an Hispanic surname. His 

father was half California Mission Indian and half Hispanic. His mother was 

half Ute Indian and half Irish. He liked to say, “It’s like I came out of a blender.” 

He learned the fundamentals of boxing at Stan’s Boxing Club under 

coach Garry Brown. Known for his tremendous punching power, he 

was a world champion in the featherweight division and became a 

popular fighter on television in the 1970s. His impressive career record 

was 42 wins and six losses. Thirty-nine of his wins were knockouts. In 

June 2010, Lopez was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of 

Fame. His older brother, Ernie “Indian Red” Lopez, also boxed at Stan’s 

and twice fought for the world welterweight boxing title. 

Another International Boxing Hall of Famer visited Stan’s Boxing club 

when he lived in Utah. Jack Demsey (1895-1983) reigned as the 

heavyweight champion of the world from 1919 to 1926. Demsey had 

trained in the historic Orem home belonging to Otto Olsen. 

Kim Pyne said the club was reminiscent of an army barracks with a gym 

and a ring in it. “Stan’s operated during the Muhammad Ali and Jo Frazier 

era,” he explained. “Boxing was a popular sport, and I think Stan’s Boxing 

Club helped the self-esteem of many young men who were struggling. 

Danny and I, plus a few others, did the boxing circuit with state and regional 

programs as well as national competitions. I never lost a fight. The main 

difference between Danny and me is that I chose to serve a Mormon mission. 

I got home and boxed a little, but my future wife wasn’t a fan. I am proud 

of my boxing experiences, though, and it was a highlight in my life.” 

“It was a great place,” said Don De St. Jeor, who boxed there about four 

years as a boy and whose father, Max De St. Jeor, was a trainer. The club 

closed in the late 1970s. 

F OOD AND D RINK 

Much lamented are the Timpanogos Cinemotor Drive-In (Timp 

Drive-In) and Geneva Drive-In as well as the Maple Lanes Bowling Alley. 

Another entertainment favorite included Trafalga Entertainment Center 

on 1200 West just east of the freeway. The Miracle Bowl opened in 1981 

and still is a favorite place for bowlers. 

Dozens of former and current residents recall favorite eating spots. On 

the “You Know You’re from Orem” Facebook site, they listed Park’s Café, 

Bill and Iva’s Café, Kirk’s Café, Ukiah Cafe, the Hi-Spot, Chiam Café, 

Golden Apple Buffet, State Street Grill, Bob’s Café, Shellenberger’s Sub 

Shop, Marie Callender’s, Hire’s Root Beer, Prestwich Farms, Tiger Island, 

the Tiki Hut, and more. Notably missed is the Tiffin Room at ZCMI’s, a 

fine dining room that was situated on the second floor of ZCMI’s at the 

University Mall. It was a great way to end a shopping day or, during the 

holidays, to have breakfast before going downstairs to see Santa. 

O REM 

B ARS 

“So back in the day, were there several bars in Orem?” asked Matt 

Hew, “(That is) probably not correlated to our simpler, happier times 

as youth.” Dan Luker listed them: Calypso, Tiki, Driftwood, Imperial, 

LeRoys, 7-Up Lounge, Stork Club, Red’s on Geneva Road, Reed’s 

Billiards, Geneva Café, and Browns. “We used to dig up the night’s 

empty bottles from the dumpster, divide them, and have bottle wars on 

the big cement pad behind the bar. I guess we could have put an eye 

out from flying splinters of glass now that I think about it.” 

✦ 

Left to right: Lloyd Unright, Ernie 

Lopez and Garry Brown. 

PHOTO COURTESY DON DE ST JEOR. 


✦ 

"The Widow's Mite" has become a 

sought-after collectible limited edition 

print. He made the widow young to 

suggest that her challenges were just 

beginning, but he illuminated her in 

light because of her faith in God. The 

ugly, judgmental rich men do not 

realize they are in the dark. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF CAROLE CHRISTENSEN. 

Bottom: James C. Christensen. 

PHOTO BY JAREN WILKEY. 

A SAMPLING OF CELEBRATED CITIZENS 

J OURNEY OF I MAGINATION: 

J AMES C. CHRISTENSEN 

As a young man, James C. Christensen once jumped onto a car and 

began to dance after seeing a musical with his future wife, Carole. The 

Orem resident’s exuberance was a bit embarrassing, but Carole said he 

was so fun, she married this whimsical art major. 

Despite his merry nature, Christensen took his work seriously and 

warned his children that, unless there was a fire, they were not to enter 

his studio when he was working. 

“Life was never boring with Jim,” Carole said lovingly of her husband, 

a renowned artist who finally lost a long battle with cancer January 8, 

2017, at age 74, not long after collaborating on a masterwork, a large 

wall mural for the Provo City Center LDS Temple. 


Trained in fine arts, he developed an interest in illustration while 

working for The New Era. He was accustomed to painting landscapes 

and portraits, but when a neighbor requested something resembling the 

doodles Christensen sketched for fun, he found his profession in the 

world of imagination. 

“I remember when Jim spoke at Orem High School and had us draw 

a bad picture, explaining that you can always draw another one” said 

Tom Holdman. Christensen said that to become an artist he painted 

1,000 bad paintings, followed by 1,000 fair paintings, 1,000 good 

paintings, and 1,000 even better paintings. The process was ongoing. 

His art reflected his considerable talent, but they also showed a creative 

nature he said made him proceed with life just a little left of reality. 

Christensen gained a national reputation beginning in the 1980s 

through his work with the Greenwich Workshop in Connecticut 

and became famous for fantasy-inspired art. Yet, he still maintained 

his local roots. In 2013 he exhibited at the Springville of Arts with his 

artist daughters, Cassandra Barney and Emily McPhie. He gave a 

one-of-a-kind look with imaginative sculptures at the Provo Shops 

at Riverwoods. 

Christensen wrote books on the process of imagination and one of his 

admirers, artist Charlotte See of Boise, Idaho, likes to read his books before 

going to bed. “I have the most wonderful dreams whenever I do that.” 

K IM D ELGROSSO: GOTTA D ANCE 

Kim Delgrosso will be the first to tell you she has a wonderful life, 

in part, because of her passion for nurturing young dancers and raising 

eight children. 

In interviews, she is so excited about the dance world that it requires a 

keen focus to grasp everything she says. Her enthusiasm takes over, and 

it isn’t hard to see she is an aminated advocate for dancers everywhere. 

Delgrosso began dancing at age nine. Not too long after, she realized 

she wanted to teach dance. The Center Stage for the Performing Arts, 

the Orem studio she co-directs and co-owns with Alex and Robin 

Murillo, has been selected as National Studio of the Year, chosen from 

a field of 176 studios nationally and internationally. 

Among her students who transitioned dance into a career is Mandy 

Moore, an early student with whom she maintains a deep friendship. 

✦ 

Kim Delgrosso loves to dance, but her 

passion extends especially to teaching 

and promoting dance on a national 

basis. Her performers have been 

netting nearly perfect scores in the 

2018 season of NBC TV's "World of 

Dance," including contemporary 

dance teenagers Charity Andres and 

Andres Penate, who earned a perfect 

score early in the competition from all 

the judges. 


✦ 

Lower, left: Stained glass artist Tom 

Holdman stands in front of one of his 

panels of "Roots of Knowledge," which 

he visualized and collaborated with 

scholars, other artists and Utah Valley 

University students. 

Lower, right: Tom Holdman drove by 

the children's library at the Orem 

Public Library and thought, "Those 

large windows need to be in stained 

glass. Through a benefactor, he was 

able to persuade the library to let him 

fill the windows with favorite 

children's stories. 

PHOTOS COURTESY OF TOM HOLDMAN. 

Moore (the choreographer, not the actress) is an Emmy Award-winning 

choreographer whose recent film credits include the Academy Awardwinning 

film, “La La Land.” 

Delgrosso was an early teacher for Derek and Julianne Hough, who 

danced in her Orem studio and have gained national fame for dancing, 

singing, and acting. Many others have appeared on TV’s “Dancing With 

the Stars,” “World of Dance,” “America’s Got Talent,” “So You Think You 

Can Dance,” American Idol,” and “Glee.” Her students put Disney 

Shows, movies, Broadway, and Las Vegas on their resumes. 

“Orem is an amazing dance town,” explained Kim, an ambassador 

for the national Dance Teacher Summit. “The word has gotten around 

that this area explodes with talent. Many excellent dancers and teachers 

make their home here, and one thing that stands out, is that 

we encourage each other. This spirit of cooperation is atypical in 

this business.” 

Delgrosso said she feels strongly supported by the city. Her dancers 

have been featured at Summerfest and perform annually on the SCERA 

outdoor stage for “Dancing Under the Stars.” 

“My daughter took dancing from Kim,” said Pam Wells of Orem. 

“What stands out to me is that the classes were challenging, but after 

every class, Kim gathered the students in a circle for a group hug. My 

daughter loved it.” 

There is no doubt that Tom Holdman’s intricately-designed stained 

and painted glass art works are beautiful. Beyond beauty, however, the 

artist wants his art suffused with meaning. 

Holdman has made the SCERA more inviting, the Orem Library 

more enticing, and other businesses and homes more appealing. For 

the SCERA, that means art-deco panels that reflect the style of a building 

constructed during the art-deco movement. For the children’s library, 

that means a world of storytelling to capture a child’s imagination. In 

many homes, his art reflects a love of Christ through glass. 

Especially spectacular is the depth represented in “Roots of 

Knowledge,” his impressive 60,000-piece art and stained-glass 

T OM H OLDMAN: THE W ORLD IN G LASS 


masterwork permanently installed at Utah Valley University. Holdman 

gleaned inspiration from the oldest tree on earth in Death Valley, 

California. Logic would say the tree couldn’t survive because it annually 

only receives nutrients for a couple of months and is rooted in poor soil. 

Yet the tree has hung on for more than 5,000 years. Holdman’s 

interpretation of knowledge begins with a panel depicting the gnarled 

tree with roots extending at the base of all panels of the 200-foot long 

showpiece. From there it branches out to reveal knowledge through time. 

Much of Holdman’s international recognition comes through his work 

with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Beginning with the 

Palmyra Temple, Holdman has contributed stained glass images for 83 

Mormon temples worldwide. From there, his work has adorned temples 

worldwide. When visitors attend the new temple near Rome, Italy, 

scheduled for dedication in spring 2019, for example, they will not only 

see his stained glass in the temple, but they can also view the Savior 

captured in glass and surrounded by parables in the nearby visitor’s center. 

With a thriving glass business at Thanksgiving Point, it is apparent 

the self-taught artist’s work is in high demand, but the road getting to 

that point had had a few bumps. 

In elementary school, kids bullied him because he stuttered. After 

one particularly rough playground experience, Holdman fled to his 

second-grade class where Val Wilcox, an understanding teacher who 

had minored in art, told the crestfallen boy there were many ways to 

communicate besides speaking. She handed him paper and pencil and 

suggested he draw an American flag. 

“It turned out well,” he said. “When the other kids came in, they were 

impressed and said, ‘Wow. Did you do that?’” It was a breakthrough moment. 

Later, at Orem High School, his life was forever changed when he 

learned basic techniques of stained glass. After completing the class 

assignment, he tackled a stained-glass tiger, Orem’s mascot. 

He immersed himself in pieces of colored glass, and the school 

prominently displayed his work. When the school was torn down recently, 

school officials kept the tiger, which hangs in the new high school. 

“I’d kind of like it back,” Holdman smiles. “But I don’t suppose that 

is going to happen.” 

The word “massive” doesn’t begin to describe Holdman’s plans for 

his next major creation, Roots of Humanity. Tom is working with 

multiple artists and scholars to bring to life 11,000-square feet of 

stained glass images depicting worldwide humanity for exhibition on 

the six inhabited continents. 

✦ 

Above: This section of the massive 

Roots of Knowledge stained and 

painted glass installation at UVU 

focuses on art, writing and inventions 

as viewers see Edison, Tesla, Mark 

Twain, Emily Dickinson and others 

against a backdrop of Van Gogh. 

Left: Celebrated glass artist Tom 

Holdman found his passion for 

stained and painted glass at Orem 

High School. After completing his first 

art project, he took on the task of 

creating a tiger in glass of the school's 

mascot and is prominently displayed 

at OHS. 

PHOTOS BY TOM HOLDMAN 


J ERRY E LISON: A LIFE ON THE S TAGE 

✦ 

Top, right: Jerry Elison of Orem 

starred in the 1965 Orem Summer 

Festival production of The Sound of 

Music as the wily and charming Max 

Detweiler. Kathryn Dorton of Lehi 

portrayed the wealthy and 

sophisticated Baroness Elsa Schräder. 

Orem postmaster Clyde E. Weeks 

served as the show's producer and his 

wife Helen was the assistant director. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF CLYDE E. WEEKS FAMILY. 

Lower, left: Jerry Elison. 


Lower, right: "Fiddler on the Roof" is 

among Jerry Elison's favorite musicals 

and allows him the luxury of using a 

large cast. He has cast his friend and 

former Orem High School teacher 

Neal Barth several times in the 

starring role of Teyva. 


Whether behind the scenes or center stage, long-time Orem resident 

Jerry Elison has shaped Utah Valley theater for nearly seventy years in 

school systems, Sundance Summer Theater, Hale Center Theatre, the 

SCERA for the Arts, and more. 

He cannot remember a time when he didn’t do theater, and neither 

can anyone who knows him. Even as a child, Elison recruited 

neighborhood kids to act and take his show on the road—to his 

elementary school. 

During the Great Depression, Elison frequently searched for pennies 

in sofa cushions and the seats of the family car. Whenever he collected 

10 copper coins, he had enough money to attend high school musicals 

with his classmates. If he couldn’t scrape up a dime, it was a bad day 

for the thespian often called “Mr. Orem.” 

After earning a master’s degree, he taught in elementary, junior and 

high schools for 41 years and is in the Utah Educators Hall of Fame. 

After an early community play, Brigadoon, played to sparse crowds 

for the Orem Boosters, he wheeled the set to the SCERA stage, and the 

show sold out. Nearly four decades later, he still directs SCERA shows 

for capacity crowds. 

Spending much of his time 

in educational theater, Elison 

has cast thousands of children in 

hundreds of plays. He is known 

for his huge casts because he 

wants to give everyone an 

opportunity, especially children. 

If some musical calls for 30 cast 

members, he might double the 

cast if they include children. In 

his viewpoint, theater is a 

wonderful way to make friends 

and establish connections. He 

makes sure everyone knows 

everyone else’s names, because 

“It matters.” 

He once cast a wheelchairbound 

boy several times. He 

nicknamed him “Steelsides” as a 

nod to the then-popular TV 

show, “Ironsides.” Handicaps or 

disabilities do not deter Elison. 

All are welcome on his stage. 

Not surprising, Elison holds 

a special place in the hearts of 

many children—even though 

some of those children are now 

senior citizens. “It always 

breaks my heart to turn a child 

away,” Elison explained, “so I 

try to find a way to use them.” 


E LAINE 

E NGLEHARDT: 

A DVOCATING E THICS W ORLDWIDE 

More than forty years ago, Elaine 

Eliason Englehardt stepped into the 

classroom at Utah Technical College, 

now Utah Valley University, and 

quickly fell in love with teaching and 

higher education. 

Over the decades, the UVU 

Distinguished Professor of Ethics has 

been a professor, dean, director, vice 

president, director of the UVU 

Center for the Study of Ethics, 

founder of the integrated Studies 

program and a founder of a national 

park field station. Among other 

achievements, Englehardt moderated 

her own television show on ethics for 22 years. 

“I have learned how valuable ethics are in learning what it means to 

be a well-educated person, and with support from National Endowment 

for the Humanities, we initiated an interdisciplinary core ethics course 

at UVU. All students take it and have a similar grounding in ethics.” 

Securing funding for this program required persistence, and 

Englehardt learned the art of grant writing. It took three attempts, a few 

tears, and considerable persistence to get a “yes” from the National 

Endowment of the Humanities. In time she was awarded a series of 

grants that allowed her to use experts, and institute additional tools for 

a rigorous program. 

With funds in place, Englehardt developed a pilot course she expected 

to refine over time. What she had not anticipated was student resistance. 

“Ethics is a study of morality and moral behavior,” she said. “It 

is a way to use rational justification, which is different from a belief 

system or testimony. The class requires critical thinking and 

self-confrontation. The students needed to examine their views 

and refine their thinking on important issues such as euthanasia and 

capital punishment.” 

To strengthen the fledgling class, she brought in recognized experts 

to help teach not only the students but also other UVU professors. 

Students became more open, and it still pleases her whenever students 

say they loved learning to be responsible for forming and justifying their 

own points of view. 

“Elaine Englehardt taught me how to think critically,” said Ryan 

Clark, economic development manager for Orem City. “She was also 

the toughest teacher I ever had.” 

“Through ethical study, I have become a better person,” Englehardt 

added. “I am a kinder, more reasoned, and patient human being. 

Through questions, I look for positives in life. I could do this the rest 

of my life. Besides my family, I would love nothing more than to keep 

teaching, reading, presenting papers, and writing books.” 

G OLDEN H ARPER’ S G OLDEN S HOES 

It’s been nine years since Orem championship runner Golden Harper 

melted glue from the insole of an athletic shoe using his toaster oven, 

extracting the insole, and replacing it with flat padding. He called the 

modified shoe “zero drop,” meaning that no difference existed between 

the shoe’s heel and toe height. 

Harper observed that the stride and gait of barefoot runners changed 

when they put on running shoes. The runners became more injuryprone, 

and he thought the shoe’s heel was too high compared to the 

mid-foot or toe—and whether their shoes were too tight. 

The Orem Runner’s Corner employee already had noticed another 

challenge: athletic shoes typically tightened to a point, often pinching toes. 

To counter the discomfort, he and his dad Hawk recommended 

purchasing shoes one or two sizes larger and lacing only part of the 

shoe. That was before Harper created Altras, from the Latin word, 

“altera,” meaning fixing or mending something broken. 

He designed a zero-drop shoe with a toe box shaped like a human 

foot. When friends and family liked them, he contacted Orem cobbler 

Robert Glazier, who modified 1,000 pairs that quickly sold out. 

“I didn’t want a shoe-making business,” Harper said, “I knew finding 

a place among the seven established shoe lines was not promising. But 

the idea kept gnawing at me, and after a year, I realized the cobbler 

option couldn’t work on a large-scale.” 

✦ 

Elaine E. Englehardt. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF ELAINE E. ENGLEHARDT 


✦ 

Top: Golden Harper, a champion 

runner, invented a shoe that has 

broken into the highly competitive 

athletic shoe industry. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF AMBER ANDREWS 

Bottom: By using a toaster oven, 

Golden Harper found a way to create 

a "zero drop," wide toe box athletic 

shoe called Altras. Through creativity, 

tenacity, and education, the shoe has 

found a loyal following in the United 

States and beyond. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF GOLDEN HARPER 

Opposite, top, left: Stella Welsh was 

the Orem City mayor at the time the 

Senior Friendship Center was 

dedicated in 1995. 

PHOTOS BY NATASHA HUHEM 

Opposite, top, right: Stella Welsh. 

Opposite, bottom: The Orem Senior 

Friendship Center at 93 North on 400 

East, is a place for seniors 55 and 

older to meet for tai chi, zumba, line 

dancing, crafts, movies, friendship 

and more. 

PHOTO COURTESY NATASHA HUHEM. 

He approached athletic shoe companies—no interest. He then flew 

to China, where he learned the intricacies involved in manufacturing 

shoes. With determination and debt, Harper soldiered on until 

two venture capitalists and former Nike executives agreed to work 

with him. 

The shoe has gone from a backroom operation to a major brand sold 

in 50 states and 55 countries. More than a million pairs of Altras sell 

annually, and Runner’s World Magazine has honored Altras with the 

Editor’s Choice Best Debut award. 

The bottom line, however, remains word of mouth. “Unless 

you’re familiar with Altras, you might think they look funny,” Harper 

said, “but to me, they’re normal. When I go to an airport and see 

multiple athletic shoes. I’ve started thinking of them as pointy toe 

elf shoes.” 


A T THE H ELM: STELLA W ELSH 

The Bible tells us, “We drink from wells we did not dig” and “we are 

warmed by fires we did not kindle” to acknowledge people who have 

enriched others’ lives. 

When it comes to Orem, Stella Welsh is one of those diggers 

and kindlers—and she has been digging those wells and warming those 

fires for a long time. If someone were to say, “There goes Mrs. 

Orem,” odds are good they would be referring to Stella Welsh, who 

received the SCERA 2016 Founders Day Award for her considerable 

community contributions. 

Whenever Welsh visits Nielsen’s Grove near Utah Valley University 

or the skate park on 1200 West, she can take pride in her role for 

rallying the votes for land acquisitions and protective zoning. 

In her six-year tenure as Orem’s mayor and eight as a member of the 

city council, Welsh helped Habitat for Humanity obtain land for the 

first house in Utah County. Her commitment extended to five years as 

chair for Humanity of Utah County as well as sitting on its building 

committee for several more years. During her tenure, 22 Habitat homes 

were built 

She helped bring Timpanogos Regional Hospital to the area, 

and she became an active advocate of community parks. As a 

progressive leader, she encountered occasional resistance for such 

projects as the expansion of the shopping district at 1200 South, 

expensive road building, and a substantial revamping of the senior 

citizen center. But she prevailed, and believes the region is better 

for it. 

Welsh has been quoted as saying, “Sometimes it was a battle, but you 

have to do what is best for the community.” What helped her was her 

fearlessness and her ability to remain largely neutral, bowing to neither 

Republican nor Democratic initiatives on the virtue of politics. It helps 

that she possesses an extraordinary ability to deal with people plus a 

generous heart. 

Welsh earns credit for serving citizens along the generations whether 

that meant providing a van for senior citizens who no longer drove, 

providing substance abuse centers, or finding a way to provide early 

education for children with handicaps. 


A ND THE L IST G OES O N 

It’s not possible to list the thousands of people who have had a direct 

impact on Orem or who distinguished themselves personally or 

professionally. But even a partial list demonstrates the quality of people 

Orem claims as its own. 

A THLETICS 

✦ 

Right Artist, James Christensen with 

daughters Emily McPhie and 

Cassandra Barney. 

PHOTO COURTESY BYU MAGAZINE 

Below: Utah Governor, Gary Herbert. 

Ben Cahoon, first-round draft choice for Canadian Football League, 

Grey cup winner twice, and inductee of the Canadian Football Hall of 

Fame; Jay Chessman, two-time All-WAC basketball player who traveled 

on college all-star team in South America; Gary Cooper, BYU 

All-American baseball player, WAC player of year, 10-year professional 

baseball career; Steve and Brad Eager, All-State baseball players with 

minor league careers; LaVell Edwards, BYU football coach; Travis 

Hansen, former guard for the Atlantic Hawks; Paul Kruger, 

NFL linebacker for the Cleveland Browns; Chad Lewis, NFL tight end; 

Orrin Olsen, Orem High All-American and BYU player before having a 

short career in the NFL; Noelle Pikus-Pace, 2005 overall World Cup 

skeleton title winner and silver medalist at 2014 Sochi Winter 

Olympics; Doug Padilla, Olympian runner; Shauna Rohbock, 

professional soccer player with San Diego Spirit WUSA and silver 

medalist in women’s bobsleigh at the Turin 2006 Olympics; Brad 

Rowley, All-American and NFL player; Erin Thorn, WNBA guard; Shelly 

Schaerrer, seven-time All-American gymnast; Reagan Scott WNBA 

player and Utah State University coach; Karl Tucker, BYU golf coach, 

Brady Walker, Celtics basketball player, Utah, BYU and Nevada hall of 

Fame, Olympic gymnast Wayne Young. 

G OVERNMENT 

William Campbell, California State legislator; Gary Herbert, State of 

Utah Governor; Val Oveson, Utah Lieutenant Governor; U.S. Senator 

Arthur V. Watkins. 

Church: Lyle J. Cooper, LDS Area Representative; George D. Durrant, 

LDS General Authority; Jay Jensen, LDS General Authority. 

A RTS AND L ETTERS, NEWS 

AND 

E NTERTAINMENT 

James Arrington, UVU faculty, Farley Family one-man shows; Daniel 

(Dan) Bammes, radio personality; Casandra Barney, artist; 

composer/musicians Kurt Bestor and Sam Cardon; London Bridge, soft 

rock group; Don J. Black, motivational youth speaker, author; Clinger 

Singers; Ally Condie, New York Times bestselling author of Matched 

series; Brett Helquist, illustrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events; Tyler 

Glenn, Neon Trees front man and Broadway performer; Chelsie 

Hightower, So You Think You Can Dance season four finalist and 

professional ballroom dancer on Dancing With the Stars; Alison Holker, 

So You Think You Can Dance season two finalist; Derek Hough, 

professional dancer, Emmy Award-winning choreographer, Dancing With 

the Stars and World of Dance; Julianne Hough, professional ballroom 

dancer, judge on Dancing With the Stars; Kathy Jenkins, author; Bert 

McCracken, lead vocals on rock band The Used; Emily McPhie, artist; 

actor Mathew Modine who attended elementary school in Orem; Heather 


Brown Moore, author; Don Norton, writer/speaker; Marie Osmond, 

actress and singer; Lindsay Skousen Storrs, KUTV meteorologist; Howard 

Taylor, author of Schlock Merenery; Dian Thomas, author/speaker, TV 

celebrity; Dan Wells, author of I Am Not a Serial Killer and Partials book 

series; Brian Wimmer, actor, China Beach. 

F ARMERS AND THEIR FAMILIES 

Allen, Andersen, Anderson, Arnold, Barrett, Baxter, Beardall, Bellows, 

Biggs, Bjork, Blair, Blake, Bunker, Bunnell, Burr, Bylund, Calder, Carroll, 

Carter, Christensen, Clayton, Clegg, Codner, Conrad, Cordner, Crandall, 

Crawford, Croft, Cullimore, Davis, Dickey, Downs, Edwards, Ercanbrack, 

Evans, Farnsworth, Farley, Ferguson, Finch, Ford, Gammon, Gappmayer, 

George, Gibson, Gillman, Golding, Gordon, Gowans, Graff, Gren, Hales, 

Hansen, Harris, Heaps, Holdaway, Hollister, Hooley, Hudson, Hunt, Jarman, 

Jenkins, Jensen, Johnson, Jolley, Keeler, Kelander, Kent, Kirk, Kitchen, Kurts, 

Lott, Louder, Loveless, Lunceford, Lupus, Marchbanks, Marrott, Merritt, 

Miner, Morris, Olsen, Otten, Patten, Peay, Prestwich, Pulham, Pyne, 

Rawlings, Reese, Reed, Richardson, Rohbock, Rollins, Rowley, Roper, Sabey, 

Shimada, Skinner, Stark, Spaulding, Stratton, Steele, Sumsion, Swenson, 

Taylor, Terry, Ungermann, Wadley, Walker, Watkins, Wentz, Whitely, 

Wilkinson, Williams, Zimmerman, Zubek, and many LDS Church farms. 

As LaDell Gillman, 88, said, “Everybody had a farm when I was a 

kid. Some were small, and some were huge, and a lot of them were 

second and third generation farmers.” 

“Who wasn’t a farmer back then would have starved to death,” added 

Norene Jensen, whose grandparents, Allen and Ethel Dickey, were fruit 

and vegetable farmers in west Orem. 

Jesse William Cordner, grandson of farmer Thomas Cordner, Orem’s 

first permanent resident, had a large cherry orchard on the site of Orem 

High School. He shipped cherries throughout the United States and had 

a very good farm until suffering a stroke at age 48. 

Paula Bailey Hunsaker used to pick cherries with migrant workers 

at the Larry and Fay Steele cherry orchards north of 800 North 

near Provo Canyon. She was earning money for school clothes, 

and earned one or two cents a pound, depending on whether the stems 

were removed. 

Tara Larsen says Theodore Farley helped put in the Provo water line 

in Provo Canyon high in the rocks and was paid in peach trees. He once 

received a letter from U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt telling him 

how much he enjoyed his peaches. 

O THER 

✦ 

Walker fruit stand. 

PHOTO COURTESY LON BOWEN. 

Thomas Sederberg, creator of T-spline. A T-spline is a surface for 

which a row of control points is allowed to terminate without traversing 

the entire surface. 

L OOKING A HEAD TO THE N EXT 100 YEARS 

As Orem anticipates its next century, a major consideration will be 

population. “Our community will continue to grow, because more and 

more people want to call Utah Valley home,” said Orem city manager 

Jamie Davidson. “The estimate is that in the next 20 to 30 years, Utah 

County’s population will double.” 

He acknowledges that Orem no longer has the acreage it once had 

but believes that “Being in the center of the county along with Provo is 

going to require us to accommodate the growth that will occur.” 


✦ 

Above: Jamie Davidson, the Orem 

city manager. 

Below: Orem City is supporting new 

transportation options, including the 

Utah Valley Express. 

PHOTO COURTESY UTA. 

At the same time, he said Orem City intends to remain a familyfriendly 

community committed to maintaining its neighborhoods. 

“Our strengths are our assets, our open space, our parks, and 

our infrastructure.” 

A continuing part of that growth will be a thriving business and 

commercial sector as well as further development of a progressive university. 

Just as the Provo Bench once needed enhanced transportation for 

its produce via a vital rail system, a high focus on transportation 

remains imperative. The future of Orem includes a multi-module 

approach to transportation. Historically, transportation through Orem 

has been car- or truck-centric, but a national trend is leaning toward 

other choices. 

“As we study our growing population and the future of our 

commerce needs, we need to change the way we think about 

transportation,” Davidson says. “We are looking at many options. We 

opened Utah Valley Express (UVX) in August of 2018, which provides 

a transportation connection from the Orem inter-urban module to the 

Provo inter-module every eight minutes. It moves in and around Utah 

Valley University, up University Parkway into Provo where it wraps 

around Brigham Young University and the Missionary Training Center 

before heading south on 900 East in Provo to 700 North and cutting 

across to University Avenue. From there it will travel south past the 

library, downtown, and Provo City Temple. Eventually it will reach East 

Bay and Provo Town Centre.” 

BYU and UVU staff and faculty and their dependents will have access 

to UVX at no charge. 

The Frontrunner rail provides north/south transportation 

connections, and the city is looking at transportation that will include 

the State Street corridor and part of the north county as well as south 

along State Street in Orem to 500 West in Provo, past Utah Valley 

Regional Medical Center, and into downtown Provo. 

The community’s request for more walking areas and additional 

opportunities for trails, bike lanes, and other recreational outlets are 

also under examination. 

Davidson applauds the grid network that was established in the 

city’s infancy. 

“It has really helped facilitate traffic movement for decades and will 

continue to be the foundation of our transportation efforts,” he said. Life is 

significantly different for today’s residents than it was for the early settlers in 

the second half of the nineteenth century, but some common threads exist. 

“Then, as now, people have championed this community,” Davidson 

added. “They have always sought to improve our quality of life, and 

many people then and now have worked diligently to make that 

happen. The names may be different, but the purpose remains.” 

The orchards that bore fruit have evolved into healthy communities, 

places of commerce, educational institutions, and places of worship. 

“The makeup of the community continues to change, but the spirit of 

the community and its energy will continue to exist.” 



94 ✦ THE CITY OF OREM: A Centennial Benchmark

SPECIAL THANKS 

SHARING THE HERITAGE 

Capital Community Bank 

49 West University Parkway 

Orem, Utah 84058 

801-226-669 

www.ccbankutah.com 

Historic profiles of businesses,organizations, 

and families that have contributed to the 

development and economic base of the City of Orem 

Central Bank Utah 

415 North State Street 

Orem, Utah 84057 

801-224-1420 

www.centralbankutah.com 

The Marketplace..........................................................................96 

Quality of Life...........................................................................136 

Zions Bank 

180 North University 

Avenue, Suite 100 

Provo,Utah 84601 

801-370-4100 

www.zionsbank.com 

Building a Greater Orem .............................................................172 

Sharing the Heritage ✦ 95


THE MARKETPLACE 

Orem’s financial, retail, and commercial establishments 

offer an impressive variety of choices 

Blendtec ..................................................................................................................................98 

First Colony Mortgage..............................................................................................................100 

Harman Companies..................................................................................................................102 

Moxtek, Inc. ...........................................................................................................................104 

Nature’s Pressed......................................................................................................................106 

L. A. Bowen Insurance..............................................................................................................108 

Scofield Tax Service, LLC .........................................................................................................110 

Squire & Company, PC .............................................................................................................112 

Vivint Smart Home ..................................................................................................................114 

Green Seed Technologies ...........................................................................................................116 

Brent Brown Toyota .................................................................................................................118 

Alder Holdings, LLC ................................................................................................................119 

Brigham Larson Pianos.............................................................................................................120 

Alpine Credit Union.................................................................................................................121 

Cleggs Car Care ......................................................................................................................122 

Candlelight Media Group, Inc.................................................................................................... 123 

FlexSim Software Products, Inc.................................................................................................. 124 

Eagle Systems, International .....................................................................................................125 

Morinda, Inc. .........................................................................................................................126 

Escape Salon ..........................................................................................................................127 

Out N Back ............................................................................................................................128 

Mr. Mac.................................................................................................................................129 

Runner’s Corner ......................................................................................................................130 

Rock Canyon Bank ...................................................................................................................131 

Utah Community Credit Union...................................................................................................132 

Tour Ice of Central Utah ..........................................................................................................133 

Huish’s Enterprises, Inc............................................................................................................134 

Lammert, Inc. .........................................................................................................................135 

The Marketplace ✦ 97

BLENDTEC 

✦ 

Tom Dickson has a variety of blenders 

for both residential and commercial 

use. He created Blendtec and has 

invented its line of blenders, 

dispensers, mills, and mixers. 

Tom Dickson smiles mischievously when asked about the half a 

billion online views of him blending things like iPhones, glow sticks, 

raw chickens and Bic lighters in the Blendtec blender he invented. 

On the day of this interview, Dickson was getting ready 

to blend an Amazon Alexa-controlled speaker, half expecting Alexa to 

shriek “Nooooooooooo” as he blended her into oblivion. 

For eleven years, this entrepreneurial inventor has amassed fascinated 

fans and loyal customers by highlighting the power of Blendtec blenders 

in his famous “Will It Blend” videos. 

As the industries’ leading innovator of high performance blenders, 

Dickson’s desire to create a blender that would not break originated 

when he received a blender as a wedding gift. “It barely outlasted the 

honeymoon,” he said. That started him thinking and tinkering, two 

things he had been doing since he was a child. 

Dickson’s inquiring mind began with his parents. His father was a 

tool and die maker and inventor. His mother, a beautician, invented 

rods to give women a permanent wave. During the war, when his father 

was in the Army Air Corp, his mother was one of the “Rosy the Riveters” 

who oversaw twenty male electricians who were wiring battleships. 

As an eighteen-month-old, Dickson spied a toy crane under the 

Christmas tree and spent hours playing and analyzing it. He was 

soldering by the time he was four and welding by six. By age twelve, 

Dickson was working on a Bridgeport milling machine. Give him a tool, 

ask him to solve a problem, and Dickson is in heaven. 

Inside the Blendtec corporate headquarters in Orem, Utah, there is a 

kitchen-like alcove displaying a lineup of Blendtec blenders. Dickson grins 

as he explains to guests the sleek sound enclosure “Stealth” technology he 

invented to provide industrial-strength power without industrial-strength 

noise. He describes the power of his motors, which can generate up to 3.8 

peak horsepower, 1875 watts, and 15 amps in laboratory testing. 

Programmed cycles are another feature he is pleased to describe. 

Dickson is proud of each of his blenders. Among residential 

blenders, he offers the classic Blendtec Fit with one touch technology, 

four-button display, and a Wildside+® jar. He also has the designer 675 

with advanced blending technology, and the Professional 750, which 

can be on top of the counter or built into it. Additionally, he 

manufactures a variety of other jars, including a twister jar (ideal for 

turning peanuts into peanut butter) and the Blendtec GO® travel bottle 

accessory, which offers the first disposable blend-in cup option for 

single-serving blending in a convenient to go reusable bottle or blending 

directly into a disposable cup for the ultimate grab-and-go option. 

“He never slows down,” says Dickson’s wife. “You just have to hang 

on for the ride. Tom turned seventy-two in July, and if anyone loves to 

get up and go to work, it’s Tom.” 


Dickson also owns a company called Blendfresh that offers nutrientdense 

food powders perfect for use with Blendtec blenders. A third 

company Dickson owns, GEO Essential Oils, sells organic essential oils. 

“We are one of the few organic oil packers in Utah,” he explains. Our 

oils are pure. We avoid using oils that stretch, dilute or extend the oil.” 

Blendtec has a successful e-commerce presence. They are also in 

more than ninety countries around the world. In fact, while most 

industries are buying everything from China, China is buying from 

Blendtec and is one of its biggest markets. 

Dickson has segued the use of oils to a new product he is developing 

call VairaFlo, an adaptor for the infusion of essential oils in conjunction 

with a CPAP machine. 

When told his invention and processes have him soaring, he 

chuckles, “That’s not the half of it.” He also operates a division of 

Skycraft airplanes, which are single-person planes constructed at a 

hangar at the Provo Airport. 

Hmmm. It makes you wonder Will IT blend? 

Additional information is available at www.blendtec.com. 

✦ 

Tom Dickson's favorite episode of 

"Will It Blend?" occurred when he 

blended glow sticks. They lit up the 

entire Blendtec jar, effectively creating 

a twelve hour lantern. 


FIRST COLONY 

MORTGAGE 

✦ 

Above, left: John Aldrich. 

Above, right: Scott Shelley. 

With fixed-rate mortgage interest rates hovering between 12.5 

and 13 percent, 1984 did not appear to be a good year to open a 

mortgage loan company. That, however, did not deter John Aldrich, 

who, in late 1984, opened the doors of First Colony Mortgage. On his 

first day, he did a million dollars in potential mortgage—---and the 

business mushroomed. 

Today, with thirteen branches in Utah and surrounding states, First 

Colony Mortgage has processed tens of thousands of loans while 

providing a personal touch to its customers. 

Aldrich had been in the banking business for eight years before 

creating his own company and realized not many local hands-on 

lenders existed. As he thought about his own destiny, he knew he 

wanted to be independent. 

“It was important to me to operate as a stand-alone mortgage 

banker,” he says. “This way, I could pre-qualify, originate, process, 

underwrite, and fund loans on-site. We were one of the first, if not the 

first, mortgage companies in Utah County offering one-stop service.” 

Aldrich also decided it was essential to surround himself with the 

most qualified people and hire employees who could work together 

well and count on each other. “From the beginning, I wanted a family 

atmosphere,” he says. 

To that end, one of his early hires was Scott Shelley, whom he met 

when Shelley was working for another mortgage broker. Aldrich 

invited him to join the team. Like other mortgage workers in Utah 

County, Shelley had been traveling frequently to Salt Lake City to 

complete mortgage loans, and he liked the prospect of doing every 

aspect of the mortgage process in one place. 

They became partners for the next thirty-two years until they both 

retired two years ago. Long-time friends, they continue a warm 

association with each other as well as their families. Both continue to 

be invested in First Colony by serving on the board. 

“I don’t know too many partnerships that last happily for thirty-two 

years,” Aldrich says. 

“We still provide the same hometown service that has come to 

characterize First Colony Mortgage,” says Corey Shelley, who grew up 

doing odd jobs at First Colony for his father, Scott. “We owe John 

Aldrich and Scott Shelley so much.” 

Although mortgages can be accomplished through the Internet, 

Aldrich says their personalized service continues to thrive. “Every 

mortgage deserved a hands-on experience. There are many details to 

work out for a loan and in the end, we get the satisfaction knowing a 

job is well done and the borrower is happy.” 

First Colony takes customers through the steps they need to qualify 

for a mortgage. Factors include income, credit, job stability and debt. 

“If the borrower is credit-worthy, and we think they can afford their 

mortgage, we are pleased to give them a loan,” Aldrich explains. “And 

if they don’t, we give them a plan for becoming qualified buyers.” 

Among many smart moves, First Colony Mortgage avoided 

the 2007-2010 subprime mortgage crisis by largely avoiding 

substandard loans. 

“I attended a conference where many people championed the 

subprime mortgage business where people could get into homes with 

no credit, bad credit, insufficient income and other factors that should 

have disqualified them,” Scott explains. “I told them they were crazy, 

and they told me, I was crazy for not doing the loans. Yet when 

subprime mortgages collapsed nationally, we were fine.” 

“We attribute our success to John Aldrich and Scott Shelley,” Corey 

says. “We honor and applaud them for creating a competent, caring 

company. It’s fun to come to work. First Colony Mortgage does feel 


like family, not only for me, but also for most of our employees. 

They typically stay with us many years.” 

Scott agrees, explaining that they have loan officers who have been 

with them for twenty-five or more years. 

The Utah County is flourishing as people continue to move into a 

valley exploding with new businesses. But as always, there are 

challenges. “On the plus side are historically low interest rates,” 

explains Corey, who is now one of eight presidents at First Colony. 

“The challenge is that the market is tightening, and some housing 

is becoming unaffordable. But rest assured, First Colony Mortgage is 

dedicated to finding solutions and helping people reach their dream 

of home ownership.” 

✦ 

The First Colony Mortgage 

Ownership team. Top row, left to 

right: Corey Shelley, Jon Aldrich, Jr., 

Lane Aldrich and Paul Carter. 

Bottom row, left to right: Emily 

Rowley, Jackson Ogden, Gary 

Richards and Conner Jensen. 


HARMAN 

COMPANIES 

✦ 

Top: Part of the Century 21 Harman 

Realty team. 

Bottom: Harman House at 145 East 

Center Street. 

David Harman was a junior at Brigham Young University in 1972 

when he bought a 1950s four-plex and converted the property into 

singles housing. Not only did he find a property ideally situated across 

from the BYU campus, Harman also found his profession. He turned 

the six-bedroom, four-parking space property into housing for up to 

twenty females. It was a great return on his investment. 

The four-plex was the launch of a career that today is known as the 

Harman Companies. His businesses include Century 21 Harman 

Realty, Harman Real Estate Academy, a real estate pre-licensing school, 

Harman Developments, and Harman Property Management Group. As 

his businesses move toward the half-century mark, Harman shows no 

signs of slowing and likes to joke that his last day of work will be the 

day he eats his last meal. 

“I learned I was not destined for a 9-to-5 job somewhere,” he says, 

“and I think I would probably be a lousy employee. I wanted to work 

for myself and chose real estate.” 

After graduating from the BYU in communications, Harman studied 

for and received his master’s in public administration in 1975. That 

same year he got his real estate license, and in 1977 obtained his 

broker’s license. He opened Century 21 Harman Realty where he has 

trained and managed hundreds of agents. 

Harman founded the Harman Real Estate Academy, a pre-licensing 

school for prospective real estate agents, and has instructed more than 

5,000 students. He continues to teach students every week. The odds 

are good that anyone who has earned a real estate license in Utah 

County within the last thirty years, received instruction from Harman 

and heard some of his first-hand experiences. 

Harman has been the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award 

from both the Utah Apartment Association and the Utah Central 

Association of Realtors. Harman has owned, managed and brokered 

hundreds of properties in Utah and seems to have an uncanny ability 

to convert blighted properties into profitable sites. 

For example, when Harman was looking at the Hillcrest Apartments 

in Orem, he found a poorly-managed property that was so run down, 

the City of Orem had shut down the property. As he spoke with an 

appraiser, the appraiser advised him to bulldoze and start over. “I saw 

real potential,” Harman explains, “so I bought it and fixed it up. It has 

been filled with tenants ever since.” 

Another time he looked at an old carpet warehouse along University 

Parkway in Orem. It had an acre of weeds behind the building, but he 

envisioned an office building. He purchased it, added a second story, 

turned the weeds into a parking lot, and converted the warehouse into 

a nice multi-tenant office building. 

Harman’s career is peppered with similar stories, and he has worked 

hard to build a solid reputation as he maneuvers a business with many 


ups and downs over the decades. His standing as a qualified and honest 

professional has served him well. 

When working with one city on a specific apartment project, an issue 

arose that could have killed the deal. Harman approached city officials 

and told them what he needed to do to keep the project afloat. They 

listened to him and said, ‘just do it.’ “I think they had confidence in 

me, because they asked no more questions,” he explains. 

His success has been rewarded many times, including Best Overall 

Renovation, the Quality Service Pinnacle awards, the Centurion award, 

and the President’s Club Award, among others. His name is attached to 

many developments, and a sampling are the Neighborhood Apartments, 

Township Condominiums, the Kensington Condominiums, Victoria Place 

Condominiums I and II, Sterling Court Townhouse, many subdivisions 

of single family homes and townhomes, the Harman Business Center, and 

the Harman House Apartments, which earned him the Best Overall 

Renovation award in 2012. He recently worked on the Bonneville Vista 

Townhouses in American Fork. 

Service is another Harman hallmark, as demonstrated by a partial 

list: Orem Chamber of Commerce, Utah State Apartment Association 

Board of Directors, president of the Century 21 Utah County Broker’s 

Council, president of Utah County Board of Realtors, board member 

for Utah Association of Realtors, and more. He has earned the 

“Excellence in Real Estate Award” every year since 2006. 

As for his original four-plex, Harman bulldozed the aging site and 

built the Township condominiums in its place. As usual, he made a 

good return on the investment. 

Harman Companies is headquartered at 55 West University Parkway 


✦ 

Staff of Harman Property 

Management Group. 


✦ 

MOXTEK, 

INC. 

Right: MOXTEK is the leading 

supplier of x-ray detectors and 

sources for handheld XRF 

applications. Customers choose 

MOXTEK components because of 

their dependable performance and 

durability in harsh environments. 

Below: MOXTEK’s expertise in Nanostructure 

design and high-volume 

manufacturing have enabled MOXTEK 

to be the world’s number one supplier 

of wire-grid polarizers used in many 

projection systems worldwide. 

MOXTEK’s patented products enable 

bright, beautiful images. 

MOXTEK, Inc., is a leading developer and manufacturer of advanced 

nano-optical and x-ray components used in display electronics, 

imaging, and analytical instrumentation. 

For more than thirty years, MOXTEK has provided innovative, 

solution-based products and services focused on performance, quality 

and value to customers all over the world. Since MOXTEK was founded 

in 1986, they have been actively engaged in the development and 

manufacturing of innovative technology. Each year, MOXTEK products 

enable many new scientific discoveries across many fields and markets. 

MOXTEK has successfully partnered with many prestigious 

businesses and research institutions. Today, their products are used in 

a variety of x-ray and optical instruments. 

MOXTEK began its first research collaboration in 1986, resulting in an 

exciting breakthrough—the ultra-thin polymer x-ray window, which was 

quickly adopted by most semiconductor labs and research institutions 

worldwide. From there, MOXTEK began consistently releasing new 

breakthrough x-ray products for handheld and benchtop XRF and XRD 

applications and is well recognized for its contribution in these markets. 

In 1997, MOXTEK achieved a great milestone by providing an x-ray 

window onboard the Mars Sojourner rover. NASA choose MOXTEK’s 

window because of its exceptional durability in harsh conditions. Since 

then, NASA has used a MOXTEK window on every Mars mission (Spirit, 

Opportunity, and Curiosity) to date 

because of its reliability. MOXTEK will 

also provide the x-ray window and the 

x-ray source for the next Mars rover 

mission planned for launch in 2020. 

MOXTEK’s x-ray technology has 

revolutionized portable and handheld 

XRF instrumentation by developing 

miniature, durable, battery operated x-ray sources, windows, and detectors 

for on-site, portable applications. MOXTEK’s x-ray sources have replaced 

hazardous and expensive radioactive isotopes previously used for portable 

applications resulting in lower cost of ownership and minimal 

environmental risk. MOXTEK x-ray windows have improved the sensitivity 

of elemental mapping inside scanning electron microscopes used to make 

consumer electronics. MOXTEK x-ray detectors are used by many XRF 

vendors because of the small size and dependable performance. 

In 1998, MOXTEK developed the first inorganic ProFlux wire-grid 

polarizer. This polarizer allowed television and projector companies to 

increase the brightness of their projection systems while providing better 

contrast and image quality. This advantage revolutionized the projection 

display market by allowing consumers to “keep the light on” in a room 

when viewing projected images during a business meeting or in a 

classroom setting. MOXTEK was awarded the 2002 Silver Award by the 

Society for Information Display (SID) for the development of this polarizer. 

MOXTEK has also collaborated with 4D Technology to develop a 

pixelated polarizer for their highly sensitive laser interferometer, which 

was used to measure the mirrors on the long-awaited James Webb Space 

Telescope that will soon replace the celebrated Hubble Telescope. 

Today, MOXTEK customizes their polarizers for many different 

applications including: Head-Mounted Display (HMD), Head-Up 

Display (HUD), scientific/medical/dental instruments, and security 

applications. MOXTEK’s expertise in Nano-structure design and highvolume 

manufacturing have enabled MOXTEK to be the world’s number 

one supplier of wire-grid polarizers. 

MOXTEK employs more than 200 employees and manufactures all 

their products in its Orem, Utah, factory. MOXTEK also supports many 

local groups and charities and is interested in the continued success of 

our community. 


✦ 

Above: MOXTEK has been in Orem 

since 1993 and is located at 452 West 

1620 North on State Street. 

Left: MOXTEK’s DuraBeryllium 

x-ray windows are used onboard the 

XRF elemental mapping system on 

every Mars rover. MOXTEK will also 

provide the window and x-ray source 

for the next rover mission scheduled 

for launch in 2020. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF NASA. 


NATURE'S 

PRESSED 

✦ 

Above: Nature's Pressed's staff of 

four include long-term employee 

Alice Thomas (second from right), 

her daughters Joni Elegante and 

Julie Lopp, and owner Robert 

"Bob" Jackman. 

Right: These brilliant pressed petals 

and leaves have been arranged into 

a long-lasting piece of art. 

Robert (Bob) Jackman just might have the most interesting and 

unique occupation on the planet. The owner of Nature’s Pressed spends 

most days planting, tending and harvesting garden flowers, wild 

flowers, leaves and ferns, and pressing these beautiful botanicals in 

floor-to-ceiling presses before sending them throughout the United 

States and even worldwide. 

His backyard resembles a botanical garden. The rows, beds and 

banks of larkspur, coral bells, columbine, lavender, black-eyed susans 

and other blooms have been part of the business Jackman has built and 

owned since 1986. His preserved flowers, leaves and ferns ultimately 

end up in jewelry and candles, embedded in glass walls and windows, 

or simply framed as natural art. 

Jackman and his team carefully press, pack, label, and ship well over 

two million pieces each year. 

“See this pressed delphinium?” He points out the rich, purplish blue 

of the popular perennial. “The colors are still brilliant after fifteen years.” 

He opens a sleeve of rose petals. “You can’t press roses, because the 

flower is too thick. But you can press the petals. These red rose petals 

turn a rich burgundy when pressed. Look at these bay leaves. They are 

a welcome addition to many pieces. They’re imbedded in candles and 

applied to cards and many other items. It’s the same herb you use in 

soups and stews!” 

Jackman began his business in 1986 near Whittier, California. He 

had tried other employment options but regretted the long hours away 

from his family. He recognized that the unusual business of pressing 

botanicals to sell worldwide could fill both the need to provide 

financially for his family and the desire to spend time playing with his 

children. Throughout the years, his flexible schedule has allowed him 

long weekends and vacations with his family, and time to coach his 

children’s baseball and softball teams. 

When drive-by school shootings began near his California 

neighborhood, Jackman knew it was time to relocate. He moved his 

family and business to Orem, Utah, where he bought a house on a 

double lot in the middle of the suburbs. 

Even some of Jackman’s neighbors do not know there is a flowery 

paradise behind the brick home and inconspicuous workshop. With a 

staff of four, including long-time employees Alice Thomas and her two 

daughters, Joni Elegante and Julie Lopp, Nature’s Pressed plants, tends, 


harvests, and presses alyssum, baby’s breath, 

caspia, and daisies, and through the alphabet to 

zinnias. Even the trees in his yard have been 

thoughtfully chosen for their leaves and flowers. 

Autumn finds Jackman and his crew combing 

the mountains and canyons for leaves. With 

permission from the appropriate agencies, of 

course, they gather maple, aspen, oak and others 

in stunning fall colors. 

When Jackman started the business in 1986, 

the Internet was not available. He went to trade 

shows, called on businesses, and sent out catalogs. 

These days most of his business is from 

manufacturers of gift items, repeat customers, and 

his website, www.NaturesPressed.com. 

Throughout its more than thirty years in 

operation, Nature’s Pressed has weathered a 

few downturns in the economy. When times get 

tight, the gift industry is one of the first to suffer; 

people just stop buying. “We feed into the gift 

industry and it’s far better for us when the 

economy is good.” 

The seasons and flowers themselves sometimes bring other 

challenges. A spring that is too hot and dry or too wet and cold affects 

an entire crop. This year larkspur, which usually flourishes, struggled. 

“The crop only provided about 10,000 of the 100,000 blossoms I was 

hoping for.” 

Even with the sometimes uncertain nature of his business, Jackman 

loves what he does, and what having this unusual business has done 

for his family. “My three children, Bob, Kevin, and Chrissy, always knew 

they could have spending money if they were willing to work for it. 

There was always work that needed to be done. The flower farm was 

the place they learned to work—a lesson each has carried into 

adulthood.” The greatest benefit has been to Jackman himself: “Unlike 

the dad who was always at work, I was at home and got to attend the 

birthday parties and the ball games. For me, these opportunities are the 

ones that make you rich.” 

✦ 

Above: Autumn is an ideal time for 

Bob Jackman and his workers to head 

to the mountains to gather brilliantlycolored 

leaves that will be pressed 

and preserved for his Nature's 

Pressed business. 

Left: Chrissy, Bob, and Kevin Jackman 

grew up working in their father's 

flower beds to help with his Nature's 

Pressed business. 


L. A. BOWEN 

INSURANCE 

When Al Bowen began working at Meadow Gold 

Dairy in Orem, he thought it was a great company 

to work with, but he knew it was not going to be a 

permanent part of his future. He attended Brigham 

Young University, and studied accounting, business 

management, and insurance law for three years. 

He found his interest in insurance and started his 

own company, L. A. Bowen Insurance, October 1, 

1961, at 514 South State Street in Orem. 

“With no customers and no income, it was a real 

challenge,” he says of the early years, adding that “the 

citizens of Orem City pulled me through to where we 

are today.” 

His desire to be included in City of Orem: A 100-Year 

Portrait was to publicly thank everyone who has 

been with him “all or most of the way and made any 

success possible.” 

He says he can never repay the support and help he 

received from the following: Toffee Hauzen, Ken 

✦ 

Above: Al Bowen at one of his 

insurance locations. 

Right: For several years, Al Bowen 

conducted business in a former 

Stuckey’s facility along I-15. 

Lunceford, Harry Shimada, Warner Murphy, John and 

Fawn Huish, Bill and Iva Olsen, Ruth and Kent Stilson, 

Peter Fakler and Sons, Global Coating, Jay Nielson, 

Mike Holmes, Dr. Fred Jackman and his 

family, Lindstrom brothers, Lynn Lowry, Bob and Pat 

Moss, George and Hazel Atkins, Jack and Brent 

Sumner, the Bilco Co. and Wormley Family, Core Cut, 

Heber Lee and JoAnn Davis, Dave Sheets, Frank and 

Coleen Morgan, Tom and West Cordner, and Wallace 

and Maureen Ohran and family. 

Bowen also wants to express thanks to all the friends 

who were with him for twenty to twenty-five years. 

“Space doesn’t permit me to list them but know you 

are appreciated,” he says. 

He especially wants to acknowledge long-term 

support and friendship from several “faithful partners,” 

beginning with his wife, Barbara Bowen, who began 

working in 1966, ran her own agency at Key Bank from 


1970 to 1984, and retired in 2015 after 

forty-nine years. 

Appreciation also goes to Bob Taylor 

who helped operate Taylor, Bowen and 

Leavitt for more than twenty years 

total—and who worked with Bowen 

fifty-four years. Another valued friend 

is the late Dean Wilkinson, who was a 

Bowen employee for thirty-six years. 

Bowen calls him the “best salesman I 

ever worked with.” Wendi Dean, the 

bond specialist came from the Cedar 

City Leavitt office and has been with 

Bowen for thirty years. 

“I also want to thank Brenda Nuttall 

whom I hired when she was twelve,” 

he jokes. “She doesn’t want me to 

mention her age, but we have worked 

together for forty-four years. She is 

now the owner and operator 

of Nuttall & Associates. It’s a very 

successful and hands-on customer 

service agency that has been in 

business for twenty years.” 

From his State Street beginnings, 

Bowen moved to the Key Bank Building 

in 1965 and relocated to the Freeway 

Office in 1980 (the former Stuckey’s 

Building.) He sold the business to his 

son, Layne Bowen, in 2006. Layne 

operates out of L. A. Bowen, a new building on 1600 North near the I-15 

freeway in Orem. 

Bowen has handled insurance needs in a city that has been everchanging. 

He says that in 1961, when he opened his doors, Orem was 

a town with about 8,000 people, and he has seen it grow to nearly 

100,000 residents. There was no I-15 in the early 1960s, nor was there 

a strong business district, Utah Valley University, and no transit 

system. He did a lot of business, however, with Geneva Steel 

employees. The mill has been torn down and, among other uses, has 

become the incorporated city of Vineyard. Today, he conducts business 

in a city with a freeway, strong business district, a major university, and 

a transit system. 

“What hasn’t changed,” he says, “is an abundance of good people 

and neighbors. So, thank you Orem City. You’ve been an invaluable 

friend to my family and me during my sixty-three years of doing 

business here.” 

✦ 

Left: Together, both Al and Barbara 

Bowen have shared long histories in 

the insurance business. 


✦ 

SCOFIELD TAX 

SERVICE LLC 

Robert and Carol Scofield. 

The founder of Scofield Tax Service LLC probably never would have 

come to Utah except that, while working as a carpenter in Vermont, 

Robert A. (Bob) Scofield’s boss belonged to The Church of Jesus Christ 

of Latter-day Saints. 

Scofield joined the faith and was baptized January 17, 1965, at the 

Joseph Smith Memorial in Vermont. The next January, he transferred 

to BYU in Provo, and a year later, he married his newly-found wife, 

Carol, in the Salt Lake City Temple. 

Bob began Scofield Tax Service after his discharge from the military 

in 1972, near the end of the Vietnam War. He had served four years 

and returned to Provo with his wife and two children for graduate 

school. While in school, he answered an ad offering work as a selfemployed 

tax preparer with Tax Corporation of America (TCA). Bob 

quickly learned enough to amend his own tax return with a refund 

greater than the $65.00 course fee. 

With another child coming, Bob scrambled to earn money to support 

his family. He became licensed in real estate sales and took other 

jobs. For the 1972 tax season, Bob distributed newsletters and $5 discount 

coupons with tax preparation fees of $15 and up. Bob visited 

clients’ homes, gathered their tax information, and sent it to TCA for 

computer processing and printing. 

Bob’s businesses grew, and the family built a home; the Scofield 

family grew with two additional children. On New Year’s Day 1975, 

the Scofields moved to 300 East in Orem, where they still reside. Since 

the income tax business is seasonal, Bob also became a licensed general 

contractor, started a swimming pool/spa business, and opened a 

store selling pool and spa supplies. 

Scofield Tax Service expanded—so did the family, with four more 

children. All eight graduated from Sharon Elementary School and 

Orem High School. 

Since Bob considers Orem the “coupon capital of the world,” his 

most effective advertising tool was “door hangers” or discount coupons 

hung on doors. Although Bob hired others to distribute coupons, his 

built-in workforce lived at home. His children describe the “child 

abuse” they suffered as they froze while walking wintery streets 

and hanging coupons. They did, however, like the opportunity to 

earn money. 

By 1987 the IRS was experimenting with electronic tax filing, and 

Bob bought a computer, modem, and laser printer to process and print 

tax returns before electronically filing them with the IRS. Bob was 

among the highest volume electronic filers in Utah. 

Having the ability to finish and print the client’s tax return changed 

his business. Clients began coming to his home office, and within a 

few years, Bob no longer had time to travel to their homes and needed 

a larger office than in his basement. 

In 1995, they converted their two-car garage to a disability-accessible 

office and expanded their home. 

By 2000, Bob reached the limits of Orem City’s “home-based business” 

criteria. Additionally, the Scofields were looking for ways to 

retire. A Jackson Hewitt Tax Service representative approached him 

after noticing the many tax returns that came from Bob’s residential 

address; he wanted to recruit Bob as a franchisee. That meant moving 

the home office. The representative said it would be easier to sell 

the business with an actual commercial location. That clinched the 

deal, and Bob found an office. Bob opened additional Jackson Hewitt 

offices from Logan to Payson and recruited four children to work in 

the business. 

In 2007, Bob sold his franchise to another Jackson Hewitt franchisee. 

Bob’s children continued to work for the new owner. 

In May 2008, Bob and Carol began serving a Mormon mission in 

France. Upon their return in November 2009—still thinking they had 


etired—they visited a Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt shop their daughter, 

Shawna, and her husband had opened in South Jordan. The Scofields 

thought it would make a good retirement business for Orem and 

signed on. They leased a space between Harbor Freight and Cafe Rio 

on State Street, but two months before the scheduled opening, the person 

to whom they had sold their tax operation was bankrupt. Since he 

still owed Bob for a non-competition agreement, Bob had the right to 

assume the business again. 

Bob signed up four children, Jeffrey, Michele, Emily, and Shawna, as 

equal partners, and created Scofield Tax Service, LLC. They reduced 

the offices to Salt Lake City, Payson, and Orem. 

Bob may never retire. His daughter Emily has said that her dad 

retired once and “botched it,” so they are not letting him retire again. 

✦ 

Top: All eight of Bob and Carol 

Scofield’s children have worked in the 

family business and four of them 

remain as equal partners. The family 

includes, back row, from left, Shawna, 

Doug, Carol, Bob, Kristen and Jeff, 

and front row, from left, Sarah, Emily, 

Michelle, and Laurel. 

Bottom: Bob and Carol Scofield of 

Orem maintain the Scofield Tax 

Service and a Menchie’s Frozen 

Yogurt store. Bob began the tax 

service more than forty-five years ago 

and the couple picked up a Menchie’s 

franchise after serving a mission for 

their church from May 2008 to 

November 2009. 


SQUIRE & 

COMPANY 

More than forty-five years ago, DeLance Squire and his son, Joe, 

opened an accounting firm in Orem based on a conviction that success 

was more likely when they turned clients into friends. DeLance was a 

numbers man and loved accounting. He studied at Brigham Young 

University, passed his CPA exam, and started the business. Squire & 

Company later became the largest CPA firm in Utah Valley. 

DeLance’s vision continues within the organization. Squire & Company 

continually recruits employees with specialized skills to meet client needs. 

Squire specializes in four key areas to provide the highest quality services 

for its clients: tax, audit, advisory, and wealth management. 

DeLance was a master gardener. He loved the land he worked, and 

he worked on the land he loved, making Orem, Utah, his home. As 

Orem’s Total Citizen and former mayor from 1982 to 1986, he was 

instrumental over the years in building Orem into the city it is today. 

Former Orem Mayor Jerry Washburn fondly remembered him. 

“DeLance looked like a distinguished leader. His passion was the health 

and welfare of Orem citizens. He was a pioneer in bringing in Orem 

Community Hospital and Timpanogos Regional Medical Center. A 

dedicated, hard-working person, whatever he did, he did with zeal.” 

DeLance sat on several boards and committees and was executive 

director of the Commission for Economic Development in Orem for 

eleven years. He received several honors, including the UVSC Honorary 

Degree of Doctor of Commerce. 

With DeLance, service and work were always paired. “He had a 

capacity to work hard and always did,” Joe said. “He just wanted to be 

a good guy. He was a practical thinker and liked to look at things as 

they were and how they could become better.” 

In his history, DeLance wrote, “The opportunities I’ve had in civic 

activities and public service have shown me that one person willing to 

put in time and effort can do a great deal toward helping others. I have 

never tried to be a board chairman, president of the chamber, or things 

of that nature. For some reason, they have just come my way through 

my involvement in various organizations.” 

By 1978 the firm was using computers and helping others progress 

professionally with a nurturing internship program. By 2000, Squire had 

split into specializations, and employees developed specific areas of 

strength. Its twenty-one partners and dozens of support staff work with 

customers and companies worldwide. As a one-stop shop for personal 

and business financial needs, Squire & Company provides services in tax, 

audit, business advisory, technology advisory, payroll, accounting, and 

wealth management. In 2006, Squire expanded to its current location at 

1329 South 800 East. K. Tim Larsen, Squire partner and former managing 


partner, stated, “We needed the space to accommodate our expanding 

employee base. Economic downturns have had little impact on us, 

because our services are needed more in difficult times as our clients strive 

to manage what is happening in their financial worlds.” 

Managing partner Jonyce Bullock said, “Our clients started asking 

for additional services, and we eagerly invested time and resources by 

adding employees with specialized skills.” Their business is about onethird 

tax, one-third audits, reviews, and other attestation services, and 

one-third advisory. Their roots remain strong—they complete more than 

tax returns annually, and audit services remain a solid base. 

“We like to work with people with a product or idea and help them 

develop successful business strategies,” Bullock explains. “We are here 

to help others set and meet their financial goals.” 

Two parts of this process are critical: many people do not know how 

to set goals or why and where they are headed. Squire & Company 

helps clients by being a partner in a reciprocal relationship. 

This relationship seems to be working. Accounting Today recently named 

Squire & Company among the top “100 firms to work for” and also 

awarded as one of the top firms in the Mountain West region seven times. 

The only locally owned Utah County firm so honored. Squire & Company 

frequently receives “Best of Utah Valley Awards” as best accountant, best 

tax service, and best wealth advisors. Squire is a Top Tier reseller 

and implementer with Intuit, 

Microsoft and NetSuite. As a premier 

accounting software provider, this 

has grown into a substantial portion 

of its advisory practice. 

Partner Tim Christensen was 

elected to the Orem City Council in 

November 1992, and was the city 

representative for the Chamber of 

Commerce. After serving, Christensen 

participated on the Commission 

for Economic Development board 

as chair. Larsen, former managing 

partner, has belonged to the Utah 

Valley Chamber of Commerce Board since 2011 and was chairman of the 

board in 2016. 

Squire & Company was built on the principles and aspirations of 

DeLance and continues its business efforts today with the same philosophy. 

DeLance passed away in February 2011 at the age of ninety-one. “He 

was such an honorable, decent gentleman, someone you could count 

on for good advice,” said former Orem Mayor Joyce Johnson. “And he 

loved Orem.” 

✦ 

Opposite, far left: Delance Squire 

immersed himself in church work, 

including a mission in Finland. He 

loved Orem, and as a master 

gardener, he helped beautify it. 

Opposite, top: Since 2000, Squire has 

split into specializations, and 

employees developed areas of strength. 

Its 21 partners and dozens of support 

staff work with customers and 

companies worldwide. 

Above: DeLance Squire operated his 

company with the philosophy, "When 

you become friends with those you 

serve, you create a different, stronger 

relationship with them." 

Left: As a one-stop shop for personal 

and business financial needs, Squire 

& Company provides services in tax, 

audit, business advisory, technology 

advisory, payroll, accounting, and 

wealth management. 


VIVINT SMART 

HOME 

The best gift Todd Pedersen’s parents may have ever given their son 

was driving him to Brigham Young University, dropping him off—and 

cutting him off. 

“I had nothing—no car, hardly any clothes, and slept on a couch in 

my newlywed friend’s basement apartment,” says Pedersen, the founder 

and CEO of Vivint Smart Home, a nationwide smart home leader and 

the largest tech company headquartered in Utah. 

“I didn’t even have enough money for breakfast,” he adds. “I was 

essentially a beggar, and it was embarrassing.” 

While he was missing some essentials, Pedersen had determination. 

“I was hungry to pay my own way,” says the long-time Orem resident. 

His priority was employment. Pedersen secured a construction job 

and snagged rides from friends. He soon saw other possibilities, and he 

and a friend started a sheetrock business. After tearing his shoulder, 

however, and losing the ability to lift his left arm above his shoulder for 

several months, he needed something else. 

Pedersen began knocking on doors along Provo’s East Bench to offer 

housecleaning services. “I dominated toilets,” he says. “I scrubbed 

bathrooms, kitchens, floors, baseboards and things people never 

thought of doing. I wanted to keep those jobs.” 

It was rejection, however, that propelled Pederson toward founding 

a company. He drove to California for a summer job with a pest control 

company, but his interviewer said he did not think Pedersen was good 

enough. Back in Provo, Pedersen called him another ten times, but the 

answer was still “no.” 

So, Pedersen signed a contract with a competitor. He and twelve 

buddies traveled to Arizona’s desert and threw sleeping bags on the floor 

of a donated trailer lacking electricity or running water. 

“Without sales training, we didn’t know what we were doing, but we 

were desperate and broke. We worked from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.,” Pedersen 

explains. His goal had been amassing between $10,000-15,000 that 

summer, but he exceeded expectations and earned $80,000. 

He had his tuition covered but decided to drop out and pursue his 

own ventures. While his parents tried to convince him to stay, they saw 

his resolve, and his father told him if he gave the best service possible 

and treated his employees like gold, everything would work out. 


Pedersen founded APX Alarm (later Vivint) in 1999, which in a few 

years became one of the largest residential security companies in North 

America. In 2012, The Blackstone Group acquired Vivint for more than 

$2 billion, the largest tech buyout in Utah history. Pedersen was 

retained as CEO. 

In 2015, Pedersen was featured on the award-winning CBS series 

Undercover Boss. Wearing a long-haired wig and colored contacts, he 

checked out the inner workings of his company incognito. Guised as a 

video storeowner from Bend, Oregon, Pedersen worked with employees 

in various jobs, which involved walking along a slippery roof in Utah, 

taking customer calls in the Minnesota monitoring 

station, installing a Vivint system in a Chicago home, 

and working in a Vivint Solar warehouse. 

“After more than two decades as CEO of the 

company I co-founded, I jumped at the opportunity 

to slip into some of the everyday operations and see 

how things had changed since the early days when I 

was working multiple jobs across the company,” 

Pedersen says. “Going undercover ended up being 

such an incredible experience, I actually didn’t want 

it to end. I learned a lot about the company, our 

employees, and about myself as a leader.” 

Today, Vivint Smart Home is Utah’s top tech 

employer, with more than half of its 10,000 

employees working in the state. Fast Company 

magazine named Vivint Smart Home one of the 

World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies in 2017. The 

company also made the Forbes list of “America’s Best 

Employers” for the second time in three years. 

Through its charitable foundation, Vivint encourages 

employees to contribute time, money and talents to 

various causes throughout the communities Vivint 

serves. Since 2008, Vivint employees have provided 

more than 160,000 total volunteer hours and raised $16 

million plus to enhance the lives of children with autism 

and other intellectual disabilities. 

In 2016, approximately 400 Vivint employees 

helped create the All-Together Playground at Orem 

City Center Park in partnership with the Orem City and United Way. 

Vivint employees have also teamed up with the KidsCode organization 

to teach coding classes at Orem elementary schools. 

Pedersen has supported Utah Valley University, including a $2 

million partnership with the UVU Woodbury School of Business, the 

creation of the Vivint SMART Lab, and two sensory rooms for the Melisa 

Nellesen Center for Autism. In 2015, he and his wife, Andie, donated 

$10 million to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. The new twelvestory 

Todd and Andie Pedersen Patient Tower contains the emergency 

department, operating rooms, and larger patient rooms. 


GREEN SEED 

TECHNOLOGIES 

✦ 

Right: The Green Seed Technologies 

Executive Management Team. 

Below: CEO Mark Leck. 

When Mark Leck was in high school, he knew he was either going 

to study computers and become an entrepreneur or join the Air Force 

to become a pilot. After much contemplation and prayer, he felt the 

right path forward for him was to go to BYU to study computers and 

become an entrepreneur. He could become a private pilot later in life. 

“Life is like a river...” Leck frequently says. “It has a current and it’s 

taking you somewhere. The key is not to fight it but enjoy the ride and 

avoid the rocks. Discovery (of where it’s taking you) is part of the 

journey.” As it turned out, the currents in Leck’s life were driving him 

toward the path of entrepreneurship. 

Soon he was abandoning an academic scholarship and dropping out 

of BYU to start his first company, REDX. However, despite building a 

large and successful technology company in the real estate industry, 

fifteen years later, Leck openly admits that it is not a passion for selling 

real estate leads that drives his interest in entrepreneurship, but rather 

it is his passion for improving people’s lives by solving difficult problems 

through technology. 


Early in his career, Leck realized two important things that would 

eventually result in the formation of Green Seed Technologies. First, 

starting a new company is a contact sport, and through the bumps and 

bruises of building a successful company, Leck learned many lessons 

about what differentiates good companies from great companies–lessons 

Leck wished he knew when he first formed REDX. Second, Leck came 

to realize that REDX, a company focused on solving problems in the 

real estate industry, just could not contain all his ideas and passion for 

using technology to improve people’s lives. Therefore, early on, Leck 

set up another company, Green Seed Technologies, as a playground for 

him and his colleagues to explore other technology-related product 

concepts—other “green seeds” that could eventually mature, develop, 

and grow into full-fledged companies. 

Great leadership teams are one of the essential ingredients to business 

success, and Green Seed wanted to leverage the experience of its executives 

to help in the creation and launch of other ventures. The belief was that 

their combined startup and business experience could help reduce the risk 

of failure for future ventures they engaged in. Green Seed therefore became 

a place for all other key executives and team members of Green Seed 

companies (such as REDX) to advance and explore new business concepts, 

and to hone best business practices and methods. The goal was not just 

to incubate new businesses, but also to create an environment to put into 

place best-practices that would take advantage of the resources and shared 

experiences of all the businesses and their leadership teams. 

Leck was inspired by local entrepreneurs like Larry H. Miller and W.W. 

Clyde, who started multiple companies and formed conglomerates—and 

whose focus was long-term, rather than the short term “pump-anddump” 

business strategy he sees within Silicon Slopes and Silicon Valley. 

Green Seed is focused on building long-term businesses that are 

diversified and operate within multiple business segments and markets, 

but that also interoperate and support each other where possible. He also 

wants them to be bootstrapped as much as possible and points to Zoho 

as a model within the SaaS industry that Green Seed seeks to emulate and 

feels more U.S. entrepreneurs should emulate. 

The result is that Green Seed, while it is open to and has made 

investments into other local startups in the valley, tends to focus on 

building its own products and services. Its leadership self-funds and 

strives to bootstrap each business to profitability by going to market with 

business plans that are designed to produce cash. The year 2017 was a 

particularly busy year for Green Seed as it completed its first acquisition 

and started three new companies. Included among these companies are 

Storm LLC, a communications-focused technology company, and Data 

Laboratory, a tech company focused on data aggregation and analytics. 

Green Seed is proudly based in Orem, Utah, and found strength in 

recruiting and hiring from both Utah Valley University and Brigham 

Young University and from the talented people that live in the 

surrounding areas. 


BRENT BROWN 

TOYOTA 

✦ 

Top: Brent Brown Toyota, located 

conveniently near the I-15 freeway 

at 1400 South Sandhill Road in 

Orem, prides itself as the dealership 

that bends over backwards to please 

its customers. 

Bottom: As a leader in Utah Valley, 

Brent Brown has been a Provo/Orem 

Chamber of Commerce board member 

and past president of the Utah Auto 

Dealers Association. The Governor 

of Utah has appointed Brown to not 

only serve on the State Board of 

Regents, he also serves on the 

Governor’s Office of Economic 

Development board. 

“From the beginning, I wanted to give excellent customer service,” says 

Brent Brown. “I was the top salesman my first month at an auto dealership, 

and when I broke the dealership’s all-time sales record the second, 

third, and fourth months, I thought this might be the path for me.” 

Brown advanced in the business, and in 1992 became the general 

manager/partner of what was 

Rick Warner Toyota in Orem. 

Toyota had ranked the dealership 

in the bottom twenty out of 

1,250 Toyota dealers in customer 

satisfaction. Brown immediately 

worked to improve buyer 

perceptions. “At the time more 

than half the people in Utah 

County left the valley to purchase 

their Toyotas,” he says. 

Eager to encourage residents to 

buy locally, he developed the 

slogan, “We’ll bend over backwards 

to keep your business in 

Utah County.” 

A billboard at the Point of the Mountain used the slogan and featured 

Brown doing a backbend. It worked. Seven years later, Brown 

purchased the dealership, now at 1400 South Sandhill Road in Orem, 

and modified his slogan—“We’ll bend over backwards to be your 

auto dealer.” Since then, Brent and his employees have proven their 

customer loyalty. 

In 2016, Brent Brown Toyota was the number one volume new car 

dealership in Utah including all brands, not just Toyota. In the first 

quarter of 2017, Brent Brown Toyota became the number one Metro- 

Toyota dealership in the nation for customer retention. In other words, 

Brent Brown had more repeat buyers than any other Metro-Toyota 

dealership in the entire United States! 

Brent consistently ranks customers first, employees second, and 

profitability third. His red customer service telephone rings directly to 

his cell phone, regardless of his location. You do not even have to dial 

a number. Simply pick up the phone; he answers every time. 

As part of Brown’s service commitment, he and his wife, Mona, have 

become deeply involved with local schools. In 2003 he started The 

Easter Basket Auction to raise money for the Provo School District and 

has raised more than $2 million dollars to help children’s education in 

Provo and Orem. 


Adam Schanz is one of the most accomplished individuals in the 

alarm industry. In his earlier years in the industry, he had been 

promoted from salesman to manager to president of sales but knew 

more could be done to ensure customers received exceptional service. 

“I knew I could—and should—do something to give them a better 

customer experience,” Adam explains. 

Adam accomplished this desire by starting his own company, today 

known as Alder Holdings, LLC. It began in 2011, when Adam and a 

few individuals with a shared vision began building the new, privatelyowned 

security company. Adam tried raising capital to help fund 

growth, but banks did not take him seriously and turned him down. 

His only option was a self-funded, bootstrapped operation. 

His main desire was to create a small enterprise focusing on making 

friends, saving lives, and protecting families with security and life safety 

systems. It was not long, however, until the security, home automation, 

and life systems company had become an industry-leading, full-service 

alarm company providing world-class products and service to its loyal 

customer base. Its goal expanded into providing a system in “every home.” 

Key events include full alarm protection to 5,000 new customers in 

2011 and Bank of Utah issuing a $1 million line of credit. In 2015, the 

Alder brand was created and Bank of America issued a $60 million line 

of credit to Alder. In 2016, Alder developed its own software for its 

customers and field personnel. In addition, it built and moved into an 

award winning 38,000 square-foot facility in Orem. In 2017, Alder 

opened a 30,000 square-foot distribution facility in Memphis, Tennessee. 

Today, Alder operates in most states and its intuitive system’s designs 

are disrupting the security market. Alder has been recognized as one of 

the fastest growing companies in Utah by multiple organizations and has 

now expanded into a top ten privately held residential security company 

nationally. Alder’s rapid growth is largely due to its visionary approach 

to both customers and employees, as well as to its innovative residual 

compensation model for its sales representatives. 

Additionally, Alder has become known for its generosity and gives 

to organizations locally, nationally, and internationally. 

ALDER 

HOLDINGS, 

LLC 


BRIGHAM 

LARSON PIANOS 

✦ 

Music is all in the family for the 

Brigham Larson family. Larson has 

blended his love of mechanics with his 

love of music to create Brigham Young 

Larson Pianos in Orem, a place where 

pianos go to be rebuilt and 

refurbished. He also maintains a 

piano conservatory with up to 170 

students, and a piano tuning and 

retail piano business. 

Brigham Larson’s technical team 

brings new life to pianos by restoring 

them inside and out. The expanding 

business has taken him from his 

apartment, to his garage, to a 4,000 

square-foot structure in Pleasant 

Grove to his 23,500 square-foot store 


When Brigham Larson married his wife, Karmel, in 2000, they lived 

in a miniscule 700 square-foot apartment along with seven pianos. 

Five years earlier, Larson had blended his love of music with his 

substantial mechanical abilities to work as a piano technician. While 

he did most of his work tuning and repairing pianos in people’s homes, 

he rebuilt and refurbished pianos at home. Additionally, he maintained 

pianos in Provo for the LDS Church. 

By 2011 the Larsons had moved into a bigger home, but it was also 

crowded. Besides five (now eight) children, it contained up to twentythree 

pianos at a time. “We had eleven pianos in the garage and 

another twelve throughout the house.” They concluded they needed a 

commercial location. 

They found one in Pleasant Grove and within a year, they had filled 

it. The front of the building became available and they doubled the 

space. They also doubled their fun. On Friday nights, they presented 

concerts with such talented musicians as Jenny Oaks Baker, Alex Boyé, 

Marvin Goldstein, Peter Breinholt, and Janice Kapp Perry. They hosted 

improv comedy Saturday nights. 

The Larsons outgrew the space and moved to their present 

Orem location four years ago. They now house 150 or more 

pianos and run a piano conservatory with 170 students. They 

purchased a program from local pianist, Carol Cherry, which 

she had developed over the past fifty years where students move 

through four stations. It begins with a music theory lab where 

children think they are playing video games but are learning theory. 

They also have a technique room, a room where they pass off principles, 

and a solo room where they are assisted by teachers holding 

bachelor’s or master’s degrees in music. All rooms are outfitted with 

grand pianos. 

“It is an awesome program,” Larson says, and agrees with LDS General 

Authority G. Dale Renlund who called pianos “miracle machines.” 

“The piano represents family gathering around the piano, something 

the ten of us often do at home,” Larsen adds. “Our mission 

is to facilitate positive and meaningful music for families. I never 

dread going into work and love what I do. I’ll be doing this the rest of 

my life.” 


Gary recalls when his father needed a $200 loan. “In those early 

years, that was a good-sized loan. The treasurer pulled out the shoebox 

file and approved the money. Dad especially appreciated how respectful 

she was.” 

When the credit union was ready for its first permanent home, 

Orem High School students were invited to submit building designs. 

The winning student worked with an architect who used the student’s 

design to create the blueprint. 

A powerful connection continues with Alpine School District. The 

credit union’s conservative approach helps ensure their reputation as a 

safe place to do business. 

ALPINE CREDIT 

UNION 

Alpine Credit Union began in a shoebox stored under a bed. That is 

where a teacher kept the records for people who had borrowed money. 

This 1955 business venture designed for educators in the Alpine 

School District began with eighteen members and has grown to more 

than 22,000. Membership is now also open to residents of Utah 

County. The financial institution that initially fit in a shoebox has since 

been replaced by branch locations in North and South Orem, 

American Fork, Lehi, Highland, and Eagle Mountain. 

“Alpine Credit Union follows a people-helping-people motto and is 

oriented toward families,” says Gary Seastrand, current board member. 

“We care about long-term connections. Most of us are second- and 

third-generation members. My parents, my children, and their children 

are members. Our services include a youth program to help children 

learn money management. We like helping people, even when 

they have been rejected by other financial institutions.” 

This idea resonates with board member Boyd McAffee. “We bought 

our home in 1978, a financial stretch because I was a new teacher. When 

winter hit, our furnace died. My bank turned down my loan application. 

Someone suggested Alpine Credit Union. I didn’t belong, but when I 

walked out, I had the furnace money and a life-long financial partner.” 

Alpine Credit Union has extensive experience helping families get 

homes, purchase cars, consolidate debts, and reduce financial problems. 

If going into debt is necessary, Alpine’s goal is to give their members 

solid financial advice with lower interest rates, whenever possible. 

As not-for-profit institutions, credit unions pool members’ resources to 

help each other. 

✦ 

Top: First branch office, 1510 North 

State Street, Orem, completed 1972. 

Bottom: Board of Directors, 2018: Left 

to Right: Rachelle Bolingbroke and 

Colleen Bennett. Standing: Gary 

Seastrand. John Spencer, and 

Boyd McAffee. 


CLEGGS 

CAR CARE 

✦ 

Above: Cleggs Car Care as it looked 

in 1960. 

Below: Joyce and Vaughn Clegg. 

Vaughn Clegg grew up on a farm in Orem, Utah, where he learned 

the values of hard work, honesty, and service to others. 

As a young man, he and a friend had a chance to use an old, beatup 

service station to wash cars and do lube jobs. They once washed 100 

cars in one day for $1 per wash. 

They did well enough to buy an old Phillips 66 Station called Geneva 

Gas and Oil. It was a block away at 20 South Geneva Road, directly 

across from Geneva Steel’s administration building. It had office space 

and two bays. They began selling tires and doing small repairs. 

“One year, I sold more tires than any other Utah Phillips dealer and 

won a set of golf clubs,” he laughed. He ran the station for a few years, 

and in 1954, jumped at the chance to assume ownership of the entire 

business. He renamed it Cleggs Car Care. 

To save money for himself, as well as his customers, he began driving 

to Arizona to pick up loads of tires and driving them to Utah. Because 

of his location across from Geneva Steel, he developed a large client 

base from its employees. His business grew by word-of-mouth, and he 

was able to provide for his family of four sons and two daughters. 

Vaughn saw the power a small business can have that a big business 

can never achieve. He saw the value of caring for each individual customer. 

Vaughn ran the shop until he was sixty-five, and sold it to his son 

Kyle, who runs the shop today. 

Vaughn and his wife, Joyce, have helped build the community in other 

ways including: building Trafalga Fun Center, teaching at Lakeridge 

Junior High School, sitting on the board of Capital Community Bank, 

and serving in many callings in the LDS church. They have always had a 

special place in their hearts for the widows and fatherless. 

Vaughn and Joyce taught their family the importance of looking out 

for the underdog, giving anonymously, and thinking of others a little 

more than you think of yourself. 


producing Hollywood-quality films without objectionable content. 

While the filmmaking process is an art, the family never forgets 

that it is a business, and must be carefully managed so each film can 

help further the company’s future. Some of their movies to note are 

Singing with Angels, which features the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, An 

Hour Behind, Not Cinderella’s Type, The Beautiful Beast, Christmas Angel 

and more. 

Local film crews are a wonderful resource in making the company’s 

films, in addition to actors from within the state and from Los Angeles 

as needed. With their library of films growing over the years, they are 

now expanding into the international film market, both to extend the 

reach of Candlelight Media’s own films and that of other local filmmakers. 

When the Brough family looks back on the progress made 

since the company’s founding, they see the tremendous growth that has 

come from hard work, the support of the local community, and faith. 

CANDLELIGHT 

MEDIA GROUP, 

INC. 

Candlelight Media Group, Inc., was founded in 2000 by Orem residents 

Greg and Elisa Brough. After tiring of a corporate career, the 

Broughs moved to Utah to be closer to their children. Brian Brough, 

their son, graduated from Brigham Young University in the film program, 

and worked in the local film industry extensively. While Greg’s 

background was in international business, the family decided to pull 

together to create a company that focused on movies. Each member of 

the family (including two daughters, Jennifer Brough and Brittany 

Wiscombe) works together to make movies and distribute them. Brian 

and Brittany focus on film development, production and post-production, 

while Greg oversees the company’s financial and legal needs, and 

Elisa and Jennifer spearhead marketing efforts and distribution. 

The family’s passion for movies lies in creating a variety of meaningful 

stories, which can be told in a wholesome manner. Located in north 

Orem, the company’s involvement in movie magic is complete from 

start to finish: creating films from the story concept, producing and 

finishing the film itself, and distributing it via theaters, television, 

streaming and a variety of platforms. The company prides itself on 


✦ 

FLEXSIM 

SOFTWARE 

PRODUCTS, 

INC. 

Top: FlexSim Distributor meeting, 

September 2, 2016. 

Bottom, left: A training class at the 

company’s Orem headquarters. 

Bottom, right: A Simulation model of 

a factory floor using FlexSim ® 3D 

simulation software. 

You should not drive a nail with a screwdriver, and in today’s world, 

you should not use a spreadsheet to visualize a solution. That is the 

role of FlexSim Software Products, Inc.—commonly called FlexSim. 

This state-of-the-art simulation software allows its users to employ 

drop-and-drag 3D modeling to analyze, visualize and improve realworld 

processes. FlexSim solves problems, and its mission is to make 

simulation-generated solutions valuable, accessible, and easy to use. 

“Our software is particularly good at analyzing the flow of people, 

goods, and services, so industries ranging from manufacturing and 

healthcare to aerospace and mining have all used FlexSim to improve 

their operations,” says Bill Nordgren, CEO. 

“Our clients usually use the software themselves to model some 

aspect of their operations and then simulate different scenarios to get a 

‘crystal ball’ look at what would be the best decisions,” Nordgren adds. 

Typical questions answered through FlexSim have included, 

“Should we add a new machine?” “How can we solve this bottleneck?” 

and “Will we receive a positive return on our investment?” 

FlexSim also builds models for clients and maintains support and 

training teams to help customers succeed. 

The high-tech company began in 1993 out of Nordgren’s Orem 

basement. Joining him were BYU college friends, Roger Hillinger and 

Cliff King. They called it F&H Simulations and sold, supported, and 

conducted training courses for Taylor II simulation software, owned 

and developed by Holland’s F&H Simulation B.V. 

F&H developed the first-generation 3D objection-oriented simulation 

engine in 1998 and assisted with developing robust objects while 

continuing to sell, consult, and train. 

In 2000, F&H Holland was acquired, and F&H Simulations 

became independent. Dr. Eamonn Lavery and Anthony Johnson joined 

the team to develop FlexSim software. The company changed its name 

to FlexSim Software Products, Inc., and released FlexSim® 1.0 in 

February 2003. It boasted a modern simulation engine, a 3D modeling 

environment, and seamless integration with C++—all firsts in discrete 

event simulation. 

The business today is located at the Canyon Park Technology 

Center at 1577 North Technology Way. Twenty-five employees work 

out of Utah, and the company maintains a global customer base and 

worldwide network of distributors. 

Additional information is available on the Internet at www.flexsim.com. 


EAGLE SYSTEMS 

INTERNATIONAL 

Steve Shallenberger might have come from Vallejo, California and 

his wife, Roxanne, from Grays Lake, Idaho, but Orem is their home– 

and has been for nearly half a century. 

When they moved to Orem in 1973, Steve sold books, and the following 

year, the entrepreneur organized Eagle Marketing Corporation. 

He appreciates that his company was formally incorporated October 

18, 1976, during the bicentennial of the United States of America. 

His corporation was among the dominate companies that developed 

the summer sales model, and the company placed sales reps 

throughout the United States and Canada. 

In 1977, Steve bought two more area companies: Community Press 

and Promised Land Publications. Community Press had been a printing 

company for twenty-five years and Promised Land had produced 

the Illustrated Stories of the Book of Mormon, Church History, Bible Stories, 

the Power Tales, and the Winner’s series. These book sets are designed 

for building children and families. Both companies were located at the 

mouth of Provo Canyon on the Provo-Orem Border. 

These companies were brought under the umbrella of Eagle 

Systems International, which grew to more than 800 employees within 

a few years. Other additions are Synergy Companies, an energy services 

company based in California, and Becoming Your Best Global 

Leadership, serving clients throughout the world on every continent. 

“These companies continue to touch the lives of thousands of people 

every single day with the focus of leaving this wonderful community, 

state, and world better than when we came,” explains Shallenberger. 

With a focus on service, Steve has presided as the president of the 

Provo Area Chamber of Commerce, president of the BYU Alumni 

Association, chairman of the Utah County Republican Party, and chairman 

of the America’s Freedom Festival. He also has 

served on the Orem 21st Century Vision and Strategy 

Committee, the Cultural Arts and Recreation 

Committee and the Summerfest Executive Committee. 

The Shallenbergers are proud Orem residents 

whose six children (who have given them nineteen 

grandchildren) were Orem High School Tigers. 

“Happy 100 years Orem. We are grateful for 

you and all the wonderful citizens that have blessed 

our lives.” 

✦ 

Top: The Eagle Systems International 

board of directors in 1981 included, 

from left, Dr. Stephen R. Covey, Dr. 

Lael J. Woodbury, Steven R. 

Shallenberger, Thomas S. Monson, 

and William N. Jones. 

Bottom: Community Press at the 

mouth of Provo Canyon (circa 1951), 

became part of Eagle Systems, 

International in 1977. 


MORINDA, INC. 

✦ 

Top: Morinda’s Tokyo headquarters in 

the heart of the skyscraper district of 

Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. 

Bottom: Morinda’s state-of-the-art 

processing facility in Tahiti. 

When Kelly Olsen looked up “noni” on the Internet in 1996, he 

found it listed twice. Olsen recently searched the same word and found 

17 million references to noni, a super fruit known for its considerable 

health and nutrition benefits. 

Although the noni fruit was not a secret—it had been used among 

French Polynesia natives for more than 2,000 years as a sacred healing 

fruit with many uses—it was unknown to the world. 

That changed with the formation of Morinda, Inc. The company 

launched in July 1996 after creating the first ever fully natural product 

made from Tahitian Noni. The company was named Morinda, from the 

scientific designation Morinda citrifolia; the product was simply named 

Tahitian Noni Juice. 

Today, the noni industry has spread globally and is estimated to be 

in the billions of dollars. 

Noni juice sales skyrocketed from the beginning. The founders opened 

a small warehouse in Provo, Utah, and later opened corporate offices in 

Orem, Utah. Monthly sales for the single-product business reached over one 

million dollars after four months. At five years, Tahitian noni juice reached 

the billion-dollar mark, and two years later, total sales exceeded two billion. 

Inc., Magazine listed the enterprise twenty-sixth among fastest 

growing companies. 

“I think we did well because we marketed a single product, Tahitian 

noni juice,” explains Olsen, chief marketing officer, “It was our focus, 

and we remain the industry leader. Today, we also have patents on noni 

extracts and skin care products.” 

A bonus is that Noni can be harvested 365 days a year. A single tree 

will typically have fruit in many stages of maturation. 

Morinda collaborates with the Tahitian government, business 

community, and local villages to develop the noni industry there. “One 

amazing feature is that we have created many jobs in a brand-new 

industry and are the top agricultural export in Tahiti,” Olsen says. 

“Many people have been blessed and able to remain together in their 

villages because of the Tahitian Noni Project.” 

So, while Morinda Corporate Headquarters are in Utah, it is easy to 

see why all the Morinda family consider Tahiti their true home. 


them the styles they wanted,” Wright explains. “At the same time, we were 

eager to introduce new styles and keep up on trends for other customers.” 

Both Wright and Jones had extensive experience by the time they 

opened Escape Salon seventeen years ago. 

Wright did his mother’s hair as a young boy. His mom had frequent 

headaches, and he helped her by brushing her hair. It eventually 

evolved into hair styling, and he became the family hairdresser. 

He graduated from cosmetology school before serving a mission for 

his church and continued doing hair while he earned a bachelor’s 

degree at Brigham Young University. He considered other career 

options but found his niche with hair. In total, he has forty-eight years 

of professional work experience. 

Growing up, Jones liked working with hair but was employed as a 

book binder for several years before deciding to go to school about 

twenty-five years ago to become a hairdresser. 

What they believe that probably distinguishes them is the camaraderie 

among the hair stylists and customers. In addition to Wright 

and Jones, several other hair specialists rent space at Escape. 

“Unlike many salons, we are not particularly competitive with each 

other,” he says. “We are friendly and support each other. And if a client 

decides they want to go to someone else in the salon, we encourage their 

decision. Our goal from the beginning has been our customers’ satisfaction.” 

ESCAPE SALON 

✦ 

Left: Co-owner Matthew Wright 

began styling hair as a boy for his 

mother, and his experience is edging 

toward fifty years. He has many loyal 

customers who have been with him 

for decades. 

Below: Karrie Jones, co-owner of 

Escape Salon in Orem, gives her 

mother, Judy Park Cook, a manicure. 

PHOTOS BY NATASHA HEHUM. 

Escape Salon opened its doors in 2001 at 345 East University 

Parkway, and “escape” was the definitive word. 

Owners Matthew Wright and Karrie Jones wanted their clients to 

feel relaxed as they escaped their everyday life for colors, cuts, perms, 

shampoos, conditioners, blow outs, highlights, and manicures in a 

warm and friendly environment. 

They also wanted to escape from a salon whose new management 

insisted that unless the customer was willing to have a modern cut and 

style, they were not welcome. 

“We had clients with a wide range of ages and a wide range of requests, 

and we wanted to protect some of our older clients and continue to give 


OUT N BACK 

✦ 

As soon as customers enter 

Out N Back, helpful guides are on 

hand to guide them as they select the 

right adventure gear for skiing, 

snowboarding, camping, and other 

outdoor adventures. Customers also 

learn how to use the products, which 

Out N Back has tested in the 

wilderness, on the trail, and on 

the slopes. 

In 1988, Out N Back was an Army and Navy surplus store, and the 

business sold seventy-two-hour kits and year supplies. 

Keith Hillman was newly married and moved to Provo looking for 

work. It was not long before survival kits were in his past. The store 

moved toward camping equipment, which he had a passion for. The 

business was on its way to becoming a premiere enterprise for outdoor 

gear and supplies. 

Out N Back is an adventure haven that serves backpackers, rock 

climbers, canyoneers, and campers in summer and skiers and 

snowboarders in winter. 

The go-to retail business attracts both novices and experts. Out N Back 

recently helped a group heading to Mount Rainier and another preparing 

to climb Mount Everest. At the same time, they outfitted a young group 

for their first backpacking adventure. 

Hillman purchased Out N Back twelve years ago and was especially 

pleased when they moved to 418 North State Street four years ago. The 

building is conveniently located with easy freeway access in two 

directions and Provo Canyon around the corner. Hillman saw the owner 

putting up a for rent sign. He stopped, and within two days, had a 

new location. 

Like other retailers, Out N Back’s advantage over online shopping is 

their expertise and willingness to share it with customers. 

“What good is it to buy something online and then not know how 

or where to use it?” he asks. “We can help you with all that and help 

you get the best gear that you need, not what some author from New 

York liked. Plus, we have probably been where you are going recently 

and can help you plan your adventure.” Out N Back also matches prices, 

including online prices. 

Winter specialty is one of the advantages of the newer location. 

Out N Back has four certified boot fitters, two of whom are 

“Master Boot Fitters,” which requires at least two years of schooling. 

Out N Back has a full-service rental center year round, and a full 

service tuning department for anything from waxing or stone grinding 

to base repair. If you play in the outdoors, Out N Back can take care 

of you. 

Out N Back is located at 418 North State Street in Orem and on the 

Internet at www.outnback.com. 


In 1978, Mac Christensen started a men’s clothing store at Orem’s 

University Mall, the year The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day 

Saints built its Missionary Training Center at the north end of Brigham 

Young University. 

The 3,800 square feet of mall space has expanded to 10,000 square 

feet, and the initial 600 suit inventory now exceeds 3,000. 

Not surprisingly, many customers then and now were youthful 

church members preparing for LDS Church missions. They 

were attracted not only by the quality of the clothing but also by 

reasonable prices. 

Most customers are likely familiar with the 

company mission statement, because it is also its 

iconic advertising slogan: 

“No one buys the way we buy, no one sells the 

way we sell, no one cares the way we care...No one.” 

The statement reflects, in part, its goal of 

experienced personal service and attention with 

free alterations. 

Christensen got his start working for the 

ZCMI Men’s Department before branching out on 

his own in 1968 with Mac’s Clothes Tree in 

Bountiful. By the time he came to Orem, he 

owned fifteen stores. 

Mr. Mac has outfitted celebrities, coaches, 

politicians, and church leaders from Utah Valley 

and beyond, but a vital part of its business 

remains missionaries. In 1988, Mr. Mac dressed 

the first missionaries called from the former 

East Germany. 

Steve Winn purchased the business in 1989, 

with David Haden, a thirty-six-year employee, as 

store manager. Steve’s sons, Jason, Adam, Tyler, 

and Landon are set to become the next 

generation of owners. 

Winn remodeled in 1998, creating an outside 

entrance and adding The Boardroom, a high-end 

department. The Winn’s own the Orem, 

American Fork, and Gilbert, Arizona, locations 

with franchise headquarters in Orem. While they have a large business 

in southern and rural Utah, they also maintain a strong out-of-state 

clientele base thanks to BYU, the MTC, the LDS Church and all the 

people who come through the Orem area. 

Committed to excellent service, fashion, quality and value, Mr. Mac 

also gives back to the community through the Utah Valley Chamber of 

Commerce, SCERA, and local high schools. 

As they say, “No one does business the way we do. No one.” 

For more information, please visit www.mrmac.com on the Internet 

or call 801-224-4520. 

MR. MAC 


RUNNER’S 

CORNER 

to be the fastest marathon time for running bone-on-bone with no 

cartilage in his knee. Cheryl has also held the world record for the 8K 

road and qualified for five Olympic trials in the marathon. Running is 

as natural as breathing for the entire family. 

Their enthusiasm is also reflected at Runner’s Corner, their awardwinning 

store at 835 South 700 East in Orem. It is a go-to place where 

the staff evaluates gait and properly equips their customers with the 

gear to succeed. They provide education regarding which shoes to 

purchase and help point them toward making informed decisions. 

“Few things make me happier than seeing our customers get excited 

about running,” Hawk says. “We’re here to help and guide them toward 

healthier, and in turn, happier lives.” 

Competitor Magazine has taken notice. In the past few years, the 

national magazine recently has Runner’s Corner among the fifty best 

running stores in America. The publication, in partnership with 

Running Insight, identified and evaluated the fifty top running stores. 

They also ranked Runners Corner as number one in customer service 

in America. 

“This kind of honor just fuels my desire to share running with 

others,” Hawk explains. “I can hardly have a conversation without 

talking about running or using it as a metaphor,” Hawk explains. 

“Running and helping others fills my soul.” 

For more information, visit the Runner’s Corner website at 

www.runnerscorner.com. 

✦ 

Above: This mountain backdrop 

shows why Orem is an ideal place 

for Runner’s Corner, a full-service 

fitness store. 

Right: Each member of the Hawk and 

Cheryl Harper family is a champion 

runner. They include, left to right, 

Krystal Butler, Cheryl, Hawk and 

Summer Harper, Amber Andrews and 

Golden Harper. 

Runner’s Corner is a hidden gem in our valley that does more than 

sell shoes. It directs group runs, offers frequent seminars, and works 

with charities such as Kids on the Move. It was the birthplace of the 

national shoe brand, Altra, and has a model of friendliness that helps 

customers relax. 

Running is a passion for Hawk Harper, his wife, Cheryl, and their 

four children, but they get almost as much pleasure when they help 

others feel the same passion. 

Running seems embedded in the Harper DNA. Combined, their kids 

have raced and won twenty-two state track and cross-country titles. 

Hawk won the St. George Marathon in 1984, when he was thirty-eight. 

With a time of two hours and twenty-two minutes, this finish is believed 


Western Community Bank, established in 1991, went through a 

change of control in June 2010. With the new management, business 

plan, and culture came a new name, Rock Canyon Bank. 

The new team was fortunate to have a legacy of customers, communities, 

employees, and shareholders from which to launch. “We want 

to provide a true community bank experience,” says Park R. Roney, 

CEO and chairman of the holding company. 

“People tempted to ask where customer service has gone will find it 

at Rock Canyon Bank. Our mission is to return people to banking as it 

should be and establish trusted relationships. It’s an arm-around-theshoulder 

business where we know you—and want to help you prosper.” 

An advantage from the beginning has been Rock Canyon’s financial 

strength, security, and ability to loan money and provide services. “We 

are nimble and agile and can respond quickly to meet our customer’s 

wants and needs,” Roney adds. 

“We care. We serve. We bring the free market business model into 

banking. Where others resign to bureaucracy, we break the mold, 

striving to serve directly, with urgency and gratitude. Our employees 

are empowered and authorized to meet needs locally without sending 

you or your request out of state. You are a person, 

not a number or matrix.” 

Rock Canyon Bank maintains sophisticated banking 

technologies. Its personal services include 

accounts for checking, savings, money market, CD, 

IRA, debit/credit card services, person-to-person pay, 

online and mobile banking, bill pay, ACH, and wire 

transfers. Business banking services include operating 

accounts, checking, savings, money market, CD, 

IRA, debit/credit cards, remote deposit services, cash 

management, online and mobile banking, ACH, wire 

transfer, and merchant services. Rock Canyon Bank 

is FDIC insured and an Equal Housing Lender. 

Small business is the target, and Rock Canyon 

Bank is the top SBA lender in the state. Lending is 

what it does, and the bank’s lending expertise 

includes personal and business lending such as lines 

of credit, real estate loans, investment loans, equipment 

loans, agricultural lending, construction and 

mortgage lending, and loan brokering and sales. 

“We’d love to take care of all your banking needs,” Roney adds. 

“Join us and let us spoil you rotten.” 

ROCK CANYON 

BANK 

✦ 

Top: The Rock Canyon leadership 

team includes, from left, Cheryl Hoyt, 

EA; President/CEO Tod Monsen; 

Chairman Park R. Roney; CFO Tim 

Davies; CCO Todd Stewart; and COO 

Eric Wright. 

Bottom: Park Roney and Tod Monsen, 

founded Rock Canyon Bank with the 

goal of providing a personal, handson, 

welcome experience for its 

customers. 


UTAH 

COMMUNITY 

CREDIT UNION 

✦ 

Utah Community Credit Union began 

as a service for BYU employees in 

1955, bit it expanded throughout 

Utah County and has eight branches. 

Three are in Provo and three in Orem. 

Pictured are the North (top) and 

South (bottom) branches, which offer 

online banking, mortgage programs, 

financial planning, saving programs, 

and student, commercial and personal 

loan services. In addition, UCCU 

organizes seminars and provides Visa 

check and credit cards. 

To say that Utah Community Credit Union (UCCU) came from 

humble beginnings…would be an overstatement. 

In 1956, seven BYU employees each contributed five dollars from 

their own pockets to create something new for their community…a notfor-profit 

financial institution that would not answer to stockholders 

but, instead, would be owned by its members. 

So, with thirty-five dollars, they founded the BYU Employee’s Federal 

Credit Union on one, simple ideal: People helping people. A lot has 

happened over the past sixty years. 

Today, this credit union is called UCCU and it is the number one 

provider of mortgages in Utah Valley. Yes, a credit union. 

More and more homebuyers are discovering the big benefits of 

working with a full-service mortgage company that is also a not-forprofit 

financial institution dedicated to putting people over profits. 

A mortgage with UCCU means having your very own Home Buying 

Expert, a seasoned mortgage loan professional who is dedicated to your 

home buying experience from start to finish. 

Imagine that…a real expert as your personal home buying advocate. 

Someone ready with valuable help and assistance during every step 

of the home buying process, from ordering your home appraisal to 

locking in lowest possible interest rate and getting final loan approval 

form an underwriting. 

UCCU also moves fast, thanks no small part to big advantage of 

having full-time underwriters in house. 

Your Home Buying Expert will even be there when you close your loan, 

just to help walk you through everything and avoid any surprises. 

With UCCU as a not-for-profit financial institution, the UCCU is able 

to provide the lowest mortgage rates possible and lower mortgage 

insurance premiums than other lenders. 

This means that at UCCU, people are getting more house for the 

same payment than they would get from other local lenders. 

Simply put, a mortgage with UCCU comes with more purchase 

power. That is more money for homebuyers to put into their homes or 

back into their pockets. 

Maybe it is no wonder this not-for-profit credit union is the number 

one provider of mortgages in Utah Valley. 

Utah Community Credit Union is Federally insured by NCUA. Equal 

Housing Lender. NMLS # 407653. 


TOUR ICE OF 

CENTRAL UTAH 

Not too many people can say they started their business behind a 

local barbershop, but for the Elvin S. Harward family, that is where they 

launched their family enterprise. 

Harward established Tour Ice of Central Utah in Orem in 1972 

with four ice block machines. For two years, he, his wife, and their 

six children crushed blocks of ice and scooped them into bags 

for customers. 

It marked the beginning of a forty-six -year business that produces 

approximately forty tons of ice a day and supplies ice within a 100-mile 

radius of Orem. 

The business did well enough that the Harward’s relocated into the 

garage of their Orem home in 1974. A year later, Tour Ice acquired its 

first cuber. The business outgrew the garage, and the business moved 

to storage units on 1200 North State Street. Harward found a permanent 

location in 1988 when he moved Tour Ice to its current location at 981 

North Industrial Park in Orem. 

The business is still owned and operated by the same family. Elvin’s 

two eldest sons, Elvin L. and Ricky D. Harward, oversee the daily 

operations. Their products include 7-pound, 20-pound, and 40-pound 

bags of ice. 

Their ten pound compressed block is usually found at gas stations 

and grocery stores. They produce three sizes of frozen solid ice blocks 

to fit most shaved ice machines. Their largest block weighs 300 pounds 

and is known as the ice sculpture block. 

When the demand for ice decreases during colder months, the 

requests for 300-pound blocks goes up. Tour Ice ships 300-pound 

blocks throughout the western United States. 

Tour Ice provides ice for local gas stations and grocery stores and a 

variety of special events. The company provided most of the ice for the 

2002 Winter Olympics and has supplied ice for BYU’s athletics 

department for more than thirty years. Additionally, its ice is used for 

city celebrations such as Summerfest as well as corporate parties. 

“No matter how big or small, your event, Tour Ice will have ice for 

you,” Harward says. 

Tour Ice is located at 981 Industrial Park Drive, Orem; on the 

Internet at www.tourice.net or you may call at 801-225-5584. 


✦ 

HUISH’S 

ENTERPRISES, 

INC. 

Right: Left to right, founders John and 

Bert Huish. 

Below: Huish's Storefront. 

Since 1936, Huish's has been doing 

business in Utah County. Bert Huish saw a 

need to sew industrial fabrics into awnings, 

tents, covers, tarps, boat covers, and just 

about anything that a customer wanted. He 

did not know then, that he would be 

starting a tradition of his family following 

in his footsteps of four generations and 

beyond. His hard work and dedication were 

taught and passed on down the lineage. 

John, Bert’s son, studied and majored in 

business while attending BYU and 

graduated with honors. Bert saw a talent in 

John that would be an asset to the business. 

Under John's stewardship, he grew the 

business and added commercial work in 

draperies, and high-end patio furniture, and 

metal awnings. John was involved a lot in 

his community including Kiwanis Club and 

his wife served in the Chamber of 

Commerce. Their son, Todd, at nine years 

old, started working at the shop during 

summers. He grew up in the business, until 

later attended BYU. Todd had high hopes of 

attending medical school, but a previous car 

accident at a young age, prevented him from 

being a doctor. He then followed into his 

father's footsteps. 

Todd was a hard 

worker and his integrity bespoke how well he ran 

the business. During Todd's reign were times of 

hardship with downturns of the economy and the 

setback of an employee embezzlement. Huish's 

survived and did well through those times because 

Todd was wise with money and persevered. Todd’s 

wife, Sann, even came to work for the business 

and helped out through tough times. All of Todd 

and Sann’s children have grown up working at the 

shop. They all learned hard work, and good public relations skills. Todd 

retired at sixty-five after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and passed 

away in 2017. Today, Jason and Mac still run the business alongside their 

mother. Their sister, Heather, does the accounting too. Hard work, great 

service and providing quality products will keep Huish's going strong. Jason 

and Mac have all the same qualities of their dad, grandpa, and great grandpa 

and they will keep Huish's going in the right direction. 

Huish’s is located at 1767 South State Street in Orem and on the 

Internet at huishenterprises.com. 


Since its origins in 1973, as a small regional publishing company 

based in San Antonio, Texas, Lammert Inc. has been in the business of 

helping its customers tell their stories in the most compelling and 

powerful ways possible. Working with a wide variety of clients—from 

corporations to civic organizations to individuals and families, Lammert 

Inc. emerged as a force in the publishing industry. 

The company initially produced specialty publications, such as an 

office building directory for the North San Antonio Chamber of 

Commerce, and a pictorial roster for the San Antonio Bar Association. 

Over the last four decades, Lammert published hundreds of directories, 

maps, and magazines for chambers of commerce and civic groups across 

the country. 

In the mid-1990s, Lammert created a new division, Historical 

Publishing Network (HPN), and focused on producing hardcover coffee 

table-style history and cityscape books. The first of these was Fire and 

Gold: The San Francisco Story. In the ensuing years, Lammert perfected 

the sponsored-book model of publishing. 

Conceived around the idea of an ultra-high quality hardcover 

chronicle of a city or county’s past, these exceptional books were 

also designed to raise funds for a sponsoring organization—typically 

a chamber of commerce or a historical preservation group. They 

utilized a unique advertising mechanism, known as company profiles—business 

and institutional histories, which were purchased 

by organizations wishing to tell their individual stories, and placed 

in special sections of the books. 

As of 2018, Lammert had published more than 140 titles 

using the sponsored-book model, while raising hundreds of 

thousands of dollars for its many sponsoring groups. 

Having carved out its position in the market for turnkey design, 

production, and marketing of photography-rich coffee table books 

through HPN, in 2018 Lammert Inc. signaled a new focus with the 

launch of its new division, HPN Custom Media & Publishing 

(HPN-CMP). 

HPN-CMP remains a one-stop source for custom media, 

including turnkey book design, writing, editing, and production, 

as well as offering an enhanced range of customized services, 

including print, digital, and photo and video media solutions, as 

well as related website design and events management services. 

Employees, customers, partners, and shareholders all value a credible 

story which unites the organization’s past to its present and to its future, 

enhancing its community standing and brand reputation, or celebrating a 

significant anniversary, milestone, or similar event. 

The unique mix of talents and expertise brought to bear in a HPN 

project culminates in a remarkable creation—a breathtaking, photorich, 

coffee table book. 

The book may be complemented by a dedicated website, digital “flipbook,” 

and/or by related events to commemorate a historical milestone, 

introduce or promote a product or brand, or to present an organization’s 

annual report with more impressive visuals. As a gift to associates, 

partners, current and prospective employees, clients, and civic officials, 

the book serves as a powerful marketing tool. 

For more information, or to inquire about producing your own 

publication, please visit www.hpncustommedia.com. 

LAMMERT INC. 

DBA 

HPNBOOKS & 

HPN CUSTOM 

MEDIA & 

PUBLISHING 



QUALITY OF LIFE 

Healthcare providers, schools, charities, and other institutions 

that contribute to the quality of life in Orem 

Alpine School District ..............................................................................................................138 

Bruce Bastian Foundation .........................................................................................................142 

Utah Valley University .............................................................................................................146 

doTERRA ...............................................................................................................................150 

Kids on the Move.....................................................................................................................152 

Orem Community Hospital ........................................................................................................154 

Timpanogos Regional Hospital ...................................................................................................156 

United Angels Foundation .........................................................................................................158 

Center for Women & Children in Crisis.......................................................................................160 

Bristol Health .........................................................................................................................161 

Crawford Leishman Dental Group...............................................................................................162 

Chrysalis ...............................................................................................................................162 

Family Support & Treatment Center ...........................................................................................164 

Mountainland Technical College.................................................................................................165 

Habitat for Humanity of Utah County.........................................................................................166 

Provo Canyon Behavior Hospital ................................................................................................167 

Dr. Norman G. Jorgensen..........................................................................................................168 

Telos .....................................................................................................................................169 

Utah County Academy of Sciences (UCAS) ...................................................................................170 

United Way of Utah County ......................................................................................................171 

SHARING THE HERITAGE ✦ 137

ALPINE SCHOOL 

DISTRICT 

✦ 

Above, left: The Provo Bench School 

District #18 purchased three acres 

from William Roberts on 800 South 

and State Street for forty-eight dollars 

to construct Spencer Elementary 

School. It was the first school built on 

the Bench. 

Above, right: Sharon School 

classroom, 1920. 

Right: Windsor Kindergarten, Class 

of 1959. 

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OREM HERITAGE 

MUSEUM, SCERA. 

School mission statements vary from school to school and may 

change over time. But the purpose of public education in the Alpine 

School District remains the same—to provide education for all so 

that young people develop the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to 

participate fully and productively in society. 

Early settlers realized this, and even though Orem did not become 

a city until 1919, families wanted their children to be educated. They 

also needed their children to work on family farms, but whenever 

possible, their desire was to have them attend school. 

The first home school opened in the McKinsey-Otto Poulson adobe 

house in northeast Orem in 1880. 

By 1883, the Provo Bench had a grade school, Spencer Elementary 

on the southeast corner of 800 South and State Street. The twenty by 

thirty-foot log cabin featured a wood-burning stove in the center, and 

long benches flanked each side. 

The structure had floor problems, because its ten-inch unplaned 

boards were put down before the wood was sufficiently aged. They 

shrunk, which made wide cracks. 

Logs gathered from Provo Canyon during the summer heated the 

school, and light came from oil lamps. The school was also used for 

church and other meetings, but in those instances, the people using 

the building brought their own logs and oil. 

Edward Partridge added a two-room brick addition in 1890. Twelve 

years later, the log cabin had been removed and the brick structure 

expanded into a two-story, eight-room building. Orem’s first school 

stood until 1992, when it was demolished. 

Students learned reading, writing, arithmetic, history, drawing, nature, 

study and spelling. The narrative in It Happened in Orem (page 95) 


indicates that many students were poor and had a hard time getting school 

supplies. Nora Young, an enterprising teacher, had each child bring a 

nickel to school. She then bought them notebooks at a Provo bookstore. 

Because of the large size of her order, she received a few extra notebooks. 

She gave these to the children who could not afford to purchase one. 

The second public school, Sharon School on 300 North State Street, 

was built through the generosity of John S. Park, who donated the land. 

Park and Elliott Newell each contributed $100 to help with 

construction costs. The name of the 1894 structure came from Sharon, 

Vermont, where Joseph Smith, Jr., the first president of the Mormon faith 

was born. An east room was added in 1909, and after the 1954-1955 

school year, it was torn down and replaced by a new building, also called 

Sharon School. 

Other elementary school classes took place at Union School at 140 

North 1600 West. The four-room classroom was built in 1894 by the 

Vineyard School District, a neighboring district. It was called the 

Vineyard School. In 1912, the school became part of the Lincoln (now 

Alpine) School District and a larger two-story, six-room building 

replaced the four rooms. In 1939 its name changed from Vineyard to 

Union because the school was consolidated with the Lakeview School 

and represented two communities. The school closed in 1965. 

Other Orem elementary schools were completed in 1948, 3 more 

opened in the 1950s, 3 new schools were built in the 1960s, 3 in the 

1970s, and 3 more in the 1980s. The last elementary school is Foothill 

Elementary, built in 1999, next to the former Cascade Golf Course in 

northeast Orem. The area also has three junior high schools. Orem 

High School operated from 1956 until it was razed to accommodate a 

new high school in what was the former school’s parking lot in 2010. 

Other high schools include Mountain View and Timpanogos. 

Until 1912, if a student wanted to attend classes beyond the eighth 

grade, he or she had to travel to either Pleasant Grove or Provo. It was 

time-consuming and expensive, and 138 citizens sent a letter to the 

Alpine High School Board on January 6, 1913, requesting a high 

school with laboratories, more teachers, and a larger curriculum. They 

also made a financial plea: 

✦ 

Above: Scera Park singers, 1974. 

Below: Orem El Dance Festival, 1981. 

Many of our students are attending at Provo and some are going 

to Pleasant Grove. Many are denied schooling altogether because 

they cannot afford to go to these places and our own school does 

not furnish the work they wish to take. Under these conditions, we 

feel that we have made an excellent showing in our forty students. 

Ours is a community of young and growing families, and new 

homes are being built continually. Therefore, our future needs will 

far exceed our present needs. And finally, if the board cannot 

supply our students with the things they need, can we not justly 

ask that they be given their tuition and transportation to the nearest 

high school that can supply their requirements? 


140 ✦ THE CITY OF OREM: A Centennial Benchmark 

The answer was a compromise. The school district allowed grades 

nine and ten to be added at Spencer. From 1912 until 1921, the two 

grades were taught in the two rear rooms of the school. This resulted 

in an overflow, which was solved by having students attend school at 

the nearby Timpanogos Church. 

With the completion of Lincoln High School at 800 South State Street 

in 1921, the ninth and tenth graders moved to the school, and for the 

first time, eleventh and twelfth graders could attend school in Orem. 

From 1921 until 1956, when Orem High School was constructed, 

Lincoln Junior High students met in both Lincoln High School and 

Spencer Elementary, depending on the number of students. 

Schools continued to be built as Orem grew. A new two-story 

elementary school is under way at 450 South and 400 East and will open 

in 2019. The yet-unnamed school is being built on the Scera Park 

Elementary site and will house students from the current Scera Park and 

Hillcrest Elementary School boundaries. 

Ensuring that all students acquire essential knowledge, skills, and 

dispositions lies at the center of the Alpine School District’s vision for 

student learning. As young people understand and use academic knowledge, 

they develop the capacities of collaboration, communication, creativity, 

and critical thinking, as well as the attributes of citizenship and 

character—all of which helps them become lifelong learners. 

The school district is also dedicated to finding the finest teachers 

to instruct their youth. One of them was Don Tittle, who joined the 

Scera Park faculty when the school opened in 1962 and remained there 

until he retired in May 1996. In thirty-five years, he taught more than 

1,000 fifth and sixth graders. Although he had opportunities to leave 

teaching to administrative positions, Tittle thought the way he could 

best influence the lives of the students was to be in the classroom. 

“I believe two things are very important for that age group,” he said. 

“First, it is extremely important for children to realize they have great 

potential. They need to believe in themselves. Second, they need to 

realize they can be successful if they work hard. Self-esteem is so 

important at that age. So, prompting good habits is critical, because 

then kids will look for positive things instead of negative things to 

make them feel good.” 

Tittle was twice named Teacher of the Year in the State of Utah and 

was also nominated for National Teacher of the Year in 1975.

✦ 

Opposite, top: Mountain View 

students, 2014. 

Opposite, bottom: Timpanogos 2013 

Spirit Bowl. 

Left: Orem High School football, 2017. 

A TIMELINE OF THE SCHOOLS IN OREM 

The City of Orem’s first school was the Spencer School at 811 

S. State Street. It opened in 1883 and closed in 1965; it was 

reopened in 1977 and 1978 and again from 1980 to 1986. It has 

since been razed. 

The city’s second school, Sharon, built in 1884, was open at 300 

N. State Street until it closed in 1955. 

Vineyard’s original schoolhouse was built in 1894 (location 

unknown). It opened in 1912 at 140 N. and 1600 West. Its name 

changed to Union School in 1919 and closed in 1965. In 1978 

Vineyard relocated to 950 West 800 South and sold the building to 

UVU in 2004. It is now at 620 E. Holdaway Road. 

Lincoln Grade School, which opened in 1908 at 400 E. and 800 

South, closed in 1935. 

In 1921, Lincoln High School opened and in 1948, the city 

added Geneva Elementary. 

Schools built in the 1950s include Westmore Elementary, 

Hillcrest Elementary, Orem High School, and Windsor Elementary. 

In the 1960s Orem added Scera Park Elementary, Orem Junior High 

School, Cherry Elementary, and Orem Elementary. 

Lakeridge Junior High opened in 1975, Bonneville Elementary in 

1977, and Northridge Elementary in 1979. 

Additions in the 1980s include Mountain View High School, 

Aspen Elementary, Orchard Elementary, Canyon View Junior High 

School, and Suncrest Elementary. 

Construction in the 1990s were Oak Canyon Junior High School, 

Timpanogos High School, and Foothill Elementary. 


BRUCE W. 

BASTIAN & 

B.W. BASTIAN 

FOUNDATION 

When Bruce W. Bastian left his Idaho hometown with a four-year 

scholarship to attend Brigham Young University in the 1970s, he had 

no idea—and neither did anyone else—that he and one of his professors 

were going to set the world aflame. 

Nor did he suspect he would become a substantial donor 

whose generosity extended to universities, the arts, the needy, and 

the LGBTQ community. 

Bastian and Alan Ashton co-founded WordPerfect, a computer 

application that, at its peak, employed a staff of 7,000 worldwide, 

offered generous salaries and benefits, and became the dominant player 

in the word processor market. 

Earlier in his life, Bastian believed his career would include music. 

For five years, he directed the Cougar Marching band, oversaw music 

selections, created instrumental arrangements, developed configurations, 

and produced shows. His favorite performance featured Stevie Wonder’s 

music. “I absolutely love his music and even got to meet him,” he says. 

To improve the band, Bastian approached the computer science 

department for help creating a computer program where students could 

see his intricate band formations. 

And then he was fired. 

“The music department said I needed a PhD,” he explains. “The 

university didn’t have a program where I could get the doctorate I 

needed, and I was devastated. More than that, I was heartbroken. I had 

put everything into the band.” 


Like many disappointments, however, the loss became an 

opportunity. He switched his major to computer science using the music 

program as his thesis. Professor Ashton hired Bastian as a teaching 

assistant and became his faculty advisor. 

Upon graduation, Bastian received job offers from major companies, 

such as IBM, Texas Instruments, and Hewlett Packard. 

“I thought HP might be the best option and I visited Palo Alto,” he 

explains. “As I looked at the high-cost housing market there, however, 

I wondered how people could buy a home. It was an exceptionally 

expensive market even then. Melanie (his late, former wife) and I had 

a couple of children by then, and I decided if we wanted a home, maybe 

we should turn down the offers.” 

Bastian chose to work with Ashton, who had a firm customer (Hill 

Air Force Base) plus a friend in California who promised to provide 

financing and marketing. Bastian wrote code for Hill and sat in a rented 

Provo office waiting for a computer and paycheck while memorizing 

computer manuals. He finally called Ashton, who subsequently called 

California and discovered their investor had no money. 

Ashton still had his university position, but Bastian needed work. 

After a month, Bastian keenly felt the money crunch. “Had Melanie not 

pitched in and gone to work making drapes, I would never be where I 

am today,” he says. 

Ashton helped Bastian secure a job at Eyring Research Institute in 

the translation department, and Bastian chugged to work in a $200 car 

missing several features, including a heater. When his neighbors scraped 

the outside of their windows, he also had to scrape the inside. 

His work with Eyring led to a contract with Orem City to produce a word 

processor for the city’s mini-computer. Bastian had Eyring bring in Ashton 

and together they created WordPerfect in the Orem City office basement. 

With Ashton on board, they designed a word processing system for 

Orem's Data General mini-computer system in 1979. The duo retained 

the rights to WordPerfect. Later, when the would-be California investor 

tried to sue them for one-third of the profits, they could prove his claim 

was spurious. 

“The smartest thing I ever did was let Eyring know that when the 

project was done, we would own WordPerfect,” he explains. “We filed 

a legal one-page document that helped tremendously when our phony 

investor came after us.” 

✦ 

Opposite, top: Arlon and Una Bastian 

were great influencers in Bruce 

Bastian’s life. 

Opposite, bottom: Bruce Bastian 

donated dozens of pianos to the 

University of Utah. Music has 

been a lifelong joy for the 

generous benefactor. 

Left: For five years, Bruce Bastian 

directed the Cougar Marching Band at 

Brigham Young University. 


✦ 

Bruce Bastian. 

Bastian wishes he had had the foresight to patent WordPerfect 

inventions such as the merge and macro features. “Sadly, we didn’t 

patent anything,” he says wryly. 

With the project completed, Eyring reassigned Bastian to the 

translation department, but Bastian was not having it. He quit and 

received a $3,000 loan from his father to help him pursue WordPerfect. 

Bastian and Ashton sold their first copy of WordPerfect to Hill Air 

Force Base, and Bastian and his family ate out of their garden pickings. 

“Every single sale was vital,” he says. 

Those first few years, they struggled. “Three times Alan just wanted to 

shut it down,” Bastian says. “It didn’t seem worth the headaches and 

stress, and we worked long, long hours. Alan was getting no money, and 

I was only getting a little. But it was getting easier to sell. It was obviously 

a really good product, and the people who used it really liked it.” 

When personal computers came on the market, Ashton and Bastian 

regrouped in order to put WordPerfect onto the IBM PC. They brought 

on a brilliant student, Alan Brown. To get him desk space, they took 

two piles of boxes, removed their office door from its hinges, placed it 

atop the boxes, and put the PC on top. Brown made it work. 

Besides a great product, their biggest selling point was a twenty-four 

hour 800 line for computer support. 

WordPerfect revolutionized word processing and documentgenerating 

features still used today in any word processing or email 

application. “It was fun and exhilarating until Microsoft started giving 

away Word and Excel,” Bastian explains. “Both Lotus and WordPerfect 

took a huge hit. The playing field was no longer even.” 

WordPerfect was sold twice, to Novell in 1994 and to Corel in 

1996. Bastian left, and although he received substantial offers from 

other major corporations, he wanted to focus his life on the Bruce 

Bastian Foundation. 

Bastian’s goal was to accomplish things that mattered to him and that 

he believes have value. 

“WordPerfect provided a springboard to do what I wanted to 

accomplish in life and it’s firmly in my past.” Through his foundation, 

the philanthropist has generously supported programs for Westminster 

College and the University of Utah for several decades in a variety of 

areas ranging from the humanities to medicine. He even provided fiftyfive 

Steinway pianos for the University of Utah. 

Bastian became a dedicated arts patron, especially in Utah, and 

President Obama appointed him to the Presidential Advisory Committee 

of the Arts in 2010. 

The philanthropist has become involved in international projects for 

poor and suffering people worldwide where “even a thousand dollars 

can change a life.” 


His reach extends to the struggle for equality and dignity for all people. 

His first contribution to a struggling LGBTQ group was anonymous, but 

he was persuaded that more donors would come forward if they knew 

he was involved. He champions the LGBTQ community and supports 

equality, authenticity, and acceptance of all people. 

After many years of feeling different, Bastian is proud to be a gay 

man. He serves on the board of directors for the Human Rights 

Campaign, America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve 

lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer equality. Bastian is proud 

of HRC’s leadership in making marriage equality the law of the land and 

their continued work to erase discrimination in all walks of life for the 

LGBTQ community. “Every human deserves the right to live an 

authentic life, free of prejudice and oppression.” 

“I got those traits from my dad,” he says. “From my mom, I 

developed a keen desire to do things well. I believe the strongest force 

in the universe is love, and its opposite is fear.” 

True to his personal vision, Bastian’s goal is to support diversity, the 

underserved, and the fine arts. 


UTAH VALLEY 

UNIVERSITY 

✦ 

PHOTO COURTESY OF UTAH VALLEY UNIVERSITY. 

Soon after his appointment as the president of Utah Valley University 

in 2009, Matthew S. Holland visited one of his most distinguished 

predecessors: Wilson W. Sorensen, the institution’s first president. 

Sorensen had an important message for Holland: “Don’t forget the trades.” 

Vocational and technical training has always been a key part of UVU’s 

mission. When Sorensen became president, the institution was called 

the Central Utah Vocational School, founded during World War II to 

provide key workforce training to civilians during a time of war. 

A lot has changed since then, both for UVU and its service region. 

Population in Utah Valley exploded. Enrollment at UVU skyrocketed. 

The institution continues to add in-demand bachelor and master 

degrees, as indicated by community need. But Holland also heeded 

Sorensen’s advice not to abandon UVU’s roots. The result is what 

Holland called UVU’s “dual-mission model”—the practicality and 

accessibility of a community college, combined with the rigor and 

seriousness of a four-year teaching institution, including athletics. 

“There just aren’t that many universities that do it the way we’re doing 

it,” Holland said. “People tend to specialize and focus—they either focus on 

bachelors, masters, and doctorates, or they focus on certificates and twoyear 

programs as more of a community college. We combine these into one.” 

As the pathway into America’s middle class continues to shift, formal 

higher education has become more important than ever, Holland said. 

He argued that even getting an associate degree or certificate requires a 

more rigorous approach than in the past. 

“My view is that we really do have some challenges in higher ed 

today,” he said. “Degrees are becoming more expensive, but they’re also 

seeming to become less relevant. They’re more theoretical, more tied to 

what’s on the research agenda. And yet they’ve never been more needed 


for survival. The world is complex, it’s technological, it’s filled with 

diversity of culture and opinion and language. And to navigate that, 

you need the sophistication of a college degree. It’s not enough to have 

a high school diploma anymore.” 

Part of UVU’s mission is to provide those pathways for a broader 

student population, including underserved and lower-income 

communities. UVU’s enrollment is open to all, but to help those who 

might not be prepared to jump straight into a four-year college program, 

the institution uses a system called structured enrollment. Students who 

need more preparation can qualify for one-year certificate programs, 

with full support and resources from the university. If they succeed, 

they can move into other degree programs. 

“Everybody’s welcome,” Holland said, “but we also send a message 

of seriousness. You can’t just stroll into class and expect to survive 

in a university environment. If you’re not ready, we’ll get you ready. 

But if you are ready, by all means, start going forward. So, people 

in upper-division courses are prepared, and those who aren’t are still 

welcome here, and there is a path for them. Anybody willing to work 

and apply themselves gets a shot here. And they’re excellent 

opportunities. We accept anybody, but we’re not just some low-budget, 

non-demanding kind of place. We’ve got national award-winning 

programs where students can be part of transformational activities. 

That’s what I think is so unique—pulling those two things together 

under one roof.” 

Holland maintained throughout his presidency, from 2009 to 2018, 

that UVU is not trying to be a one-size-fits-all platform—“I think there’s 

a great role for the research institutions,” he said, but that UVU is 

perfectly situated to answer the needs of Utah Valley. 

✦ 

PHOTO COURTESY OF UTAH VALLEY UNIVERSITY. 


148 ✦ THE CITY OF OREM: A Centennial Benchmark 

“I think what we’ve got in Salt Lake City works very well, with Salt 

Lake Community College and the University of Utah. But in our valley, 

where we would have to create another institution to replicate that, our 

model is the most cost-effective way to create the best possible range of 

opportunities for our students. And that’s why I think UVU is an 

institution for our time, certainly here in Utah Valley, and increasingly 

in many other places around the nation.” 

During the summer of 2017, Holland took a sabbatical at the University 

of Oxford, studying the writings of early American leaders, Thomas 

Jefferson and James Madison. But as he spoke to higher-education leaders 

in England, Holland found himself asked more and more frequently about 

UVU’s dual-mission model. Before he knew it, Holland was asked to give 

a presentation to members of Parliament at the Palace of Westminster— 

not on his scholarly research, but on Utah Valley University. 

“They were sometimes more interested in the higher-ed things I was 

discussing than the American political history," Holland said. 

Baroness Emma Nicholson of Winterbourne, a member of Parliament 

who co-sponsored Holland’s presentation, said the presentation was 

especially timely as the United Kingdom faced a “gulf between 

vocational and academic education,” similar to America’s. 

Again, Holland emphasized that UVU is not trying to replace traditional 

higher education, but rather adapt it to current social and economic needs. 

“No one heard me present at Oxford and said, ‘Oh my gosh, Matt’s 

figured it out—let’s get rid of our model and let’s do the dual mission 

here at Oxford,’” he said. “People are going to keep that storied Oxford 

tradition going, and it’s a good thing for the world that they will do that. 

But people at Oxford said they could see, even in England, that they 

need some institutions that look like UVU. And I’m enthused that more 

and more people are responding that way.” 

Higher-ed publications have taken notice, too. Features on UVU’s 

dual-mission model have appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education, 

Public Purpose magazine, and Inside Higher Ed in the past year. 

“This [model] is the next step in the evolution,” Joe Garcia, president of 

the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, told Inside Higher 

Ed. “The results speak for themselves. They’ve been able to do both.” 

As UVU continues to grow—enrollment is expected to rise to more 

than 46,000 students by 2025—new certificate and degree programs 

will be added to meet the needs of the region. For example, in 2016,

the institution added five new master degrees in specialized, in-demand 

fields like computer science, accounting, and public service. Three new 

bachelor degrees in engineering were added in 2018. As new property 

is developed in Vineyard and at satellite campuses throughout Utah 

Valley, more students will have more options than ever. 

“We’ve noticed this growing national and international sense that this 

dual mission is needed in today’s world, and a powerful way to respond 

to growth,” Holland said. “Our greatest growth rate comes in our junior 

and senior classes. And I think that’s significant in what it says about our 

attention to completion and graduation, but also our attention to drawing 

students in who may not even have thought they could go on to degrees 

like that. They’re coming here and discovering that they can.” 

Holland’s successor, Astrid S. Tuminez, who took the presidential reigns 

in fall 2018, agreed on the validity of, and the need for, the dual mission: 

“I think the whole approach, where you take both the technical-vocational 

trades, as well as the humanities and social sciences, is the combination 

that is necessary to meet the workforce needs of the future. You need the 

interaction between those fields.” 

✦ 

PHOTOS COURTESY OF UTAH VALLEY UNIVERSITY. 


dôTERRA 

✦ 

Top: dôTERRA seeks to reduce 

poverty and support communities 

through its sourcing and 

humanitarian initiatives. 

Bottom: Every batch of essential oils is 

tested to ensure that it complies with 

dôTERRA’s meticulous standards. Its 

testing uses the support of experts in 

chemistry, botany, research science, 

physiology and nutritional science. 

dôTERRA, meaning “gift of the Earth,” is the name of a ten-year-old 

Utah-based company that has gone from a kitchen table operation to 

the verified leader in the Global Aromatherapy and Essential Oils market, 

taking much less than a decade to get there. 

In 2008 a group of healthcare and business professionals who had 

experienced the life-enhancing benefits of essential oils, met with a 

vision to bring a new standard of essential oils to the world. Each 

founder wanted to introduce a pure, potent, high-quality product that 

would be easy to use and share. 

The dôTERRA founders—David Stirling, Emily Wright, Gregory 

Cook, Dr. David Hill, Robert Young, Corey Lindley, and Mark 

Wolfert—funded the company without outside assistance. To outsiders, 

it seemed like a long shot that required them to leverage everything 

they had, including homes and retirements and by cashing out their 

401(k)s. The founders, however, knew the power of pure essential oils. 

Accordingly, they worked for the first thirteen months without income 

and their hard work paid off. By refusing outside investors, they were 

free to pursue their original mission without compromise and could 

work toward their dream of bringing oils to every home in the world. 

In the beginning, dôTERRA founders bottled essential oils around a 

table and used homemade labels. The first offering of twenty-five single 

oils and ten oil blends were introduced for sale on April 25, 2008. By 

October, dôTERRA had its first convention with 350 attendees, and by 

the end of the year had reached $1 million in sales and established CPTG 

Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade® as a standard of quality control. 

Early on, a Utah State health inspector visited the company, concerned 

about incomplete labeling. He insisted that dôTERRA would 

have to stop shipping products unless they listed all product ingredients. 

Founding executive and dôTERRA General Counsel, Mark Wolfert, 

asked the inspector if he wanted to know what dôTERRA Peppermint 

contained. The health inspector said, “Yes,” and Wolfert replied, “Do you 

have a pencil and paper?” The inspector sat down and prepared to list 

the ingredients. Wolfert said, “Okay, first is Peppermint.” The inspector 

wrote that down and said, “Okay?” Wolfert replied, “That’s it, and it’s on 

the label.” dôTERRA received approval to continue. 

Today, dôTERRA continues its quest for quality essential oils through 

its Cô-Impact Sourcing®, an initiative that develops long-term, mutually 


eneficial supplier partnerships while creating sustainable jobs and providing 

reliable income in underdeveloped areas. Adding to the povertyreducing 

Cô-Impact Sourcing model, the dôTERRA Healing Hands 

Foundation® brings healing and hope to the world by providing local 

communities with the resources and tools needed to become self-reliant. 

After careful harvesting and distillation, each batch of essential oil 

is sent to dôTERRA’s state-of-the-art lab to be tested. In addition to the 

most rigorous testing standards, dôTERRA uses the knowledge and 

expertise of a scientific advisory board that is comprised of experts in 

chemistry, microbiology, botany, research science, physiology, and 

nutritional science. This board helps dôTERRA remain at the forefront 

of cutting-edge essential oil research and testing. 

dôTERRA is also leading the way to the future of healthcare where 

medical providers will offer integrative approaches to health and wellness. 

dôTERRA has enlisted a team of expert healthcare professionals 

and partners with world-renowned medical facilities, clinics and universities 

to further research and provide users with safe and effective 

ways to use essential oils as a counterpart of modern medicine. 

After ten years of business, dôTERRA is the verified leader in the 

global aromatherapy and essential oils market. Today, the company is 

located in Pleasant Grove, Utah with over 2,600 employees locally and 

600 internationally. dôTERRA has offices in fifteen countries with 

more in the works. The privately-held company has more than five 

million customers around the world and continues to be honored as 

one of America’s Best Midsize Employers by Forbes. 

These and other achievements are possible because of the quality of 

dôTERRA’s products and the generosity of its outreach. As it turns 

out, dôTERRA is a perfect name. It is a gift of the earth. 

For additional information on dôTERRA, to including the various 

oils, please visit www.doterra.com on the Internet. 

✦ 

Above: What began as a business 

around the kitchen table in 2008 has 

grown into privately-held company 

with more than five million customers 

worldwide. 

Bottom: Approximately 3,000 

dôTERRA employees and their 

customers are educated in the use of 

essential oils as a counterpart of 

modern medicine. 


✦ 

KIDS ON 

THE MOVE 

Above: Kids on the Move founders 

Karen Hahne and Brenda Winegar. 

Right: COO Sharon Edvalson, CEO 

Scott Bean, and Vice President of 

Development Ruby Haddock. 

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF KIDS ON THE 

MOVE. 

As a toddler, Risa Bean was prone to intense, uncontrollable 

tantrums—ten to twelve a day. Her beleaguered parents pressed their 

pediatrician for help, who eventually recommended they reach out to 

a nonprofit called Kids On The Move (KOTM). 

Several months later a pediatric psychiatrist diagnosed Risa with 

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Scott and Lisa Bean learned the 

ideal time to intervene is in the early years when the brain is forming, 

and they embarked on an aggressive program of speech and occupational 

therapy. 

“I lacked vison of what Risa could become or where her life would 

go when she was diagnosed at age three,” says her father, Scott Bean, 

who changed his career and became the Kids On The Move CEO 

in 2013. 

Risa is a success story. She learned to communicate, attend college, 

become an excellent cellist—and she married. 

“Risa continues to exceed my expectations,” Bean says. 

Bean heads a comprehensive center for child services helping more 

than 2,500 children each year. KOTM’s roots come from two mothers 

whose children have Down syndrome. Karen Hahne and Brenda 

Winegar found little community support, and one professional 

advised Karen to love her son but not expect much. 

Fortunately, the mothers ignored such advice, and in 1984 

started the Up With Downs Early Preschool. Interest in the volunteer, 

parent-run program attracted parents statewide. At the first 

meeting in January, ten families braved a winter storm to fly from 

Southern Utah. 

“Desperate parents want something that recognizes their child’s 

potential,” explains Ruby Haddock, vice president of development. 

“We give parents needed skills and tell them to expect miracles.” 

Even getting started included a miracle of sorts. Karen and Brenda 

wrote a grant to the Utah Department of Social Services seeking funding 

for family services. With a firm deadline, they drove 

to Salt Lake City to deliver the grant and ran out of gas 

near American Fork. As they opened the doors, the wind blew the 

application from the car and spread papers along the side of the freeway. 

They hurriedly gathered pages, and as Karen collated them, she 

examined them and asked Brenda, “Have you read what we wrote we 

would do?” It seemed overwhelming, but they persisted, got gas, and 

delivered the grant a few minutes before deadline. This is how Kids 

On The Move began. 

Since then, KOTM has consistently applied the principle of supporting 

healthy development of young children and their families. 


Recognizing that eighty-five percent of brain development occurs 

before age three, KOTM offers five pillar programs: 

• Early Head Start 

• Early Intervention 

• Autism Center 

• Respite Care 

• Child and Family Mental Health 

Kids On The Move uses a grant to provide Early Head Start services 

to Utah County. This grant enables KOTM to serve low-income 

families with children from the time they are born until age three, as 

well as pregnant women. 

Early Intervention provides infants and toddlers with disabilities or 

developmental delays the chance to acquire key skills that typically 

develop during the first three years of life. “Early Intervention is 

incredible! It alters the trajectory of a child’s life in a way nothing else 

can,” Bean explains. “We empower families one kid at a time.” 

The KOTM Autism Center is vital in Utah where one child in every 

fifty-eight has Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). KOTM employs Board 

Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) to deliver evidence-based therapies. 

Forty-seven percent of autistic individuals receiving intensive therapy 

achieve normal intellectual functioning. Without that intervention, only 

two percent on the autism spectrum achieve that benchmark. KOTM 

begins treatment following a diagnosis—as early as eighteen months. 

In February 2017, KOTM launched telehealth technology that 

allows the Autism Center to provide autism therapy to Utah’s rural 

areas. If individuals continue to meet the criteria for an autism diagnosis 

into late adolescence, KOTM provides a highly acclaimed 

PEERS program that helps teens learn social skills. 

In 2016, KOTM began a Respite Care service, providing parents of special 

needs children a brief chance to relax from their 24/7 care responsibilities. 

Once or twice monthly volunteers take care of special needs children, 

giving parents essential time for rest, stress relief, and alone time. 

Marriages are saved and families stay together because of Respite Care. 

Mental Health is our most recent pillar program at KOTM. We help 

parents, children, families and individuals address a wide range of 

important mental health issues with our certified clinicians. 

Before dedicating a building in September 2003 at 475 Hospital 

Drive in Orem, KOTM met many places: pizza parlors, Orem’s 

Spencer School, and the former Utah Technical building near BYU. 

Someone once observed that these families were really on the 

move, and that became the inspiration for KOTM. However, the name 

serves a higher purpose, as it highlights the positive expectations a 

community should have of children with special needs. 

“Never give up hope,” advises Risa. “Kids are capable of amazing things.” 

To become involved with KOTM, visit www.KOTM.org or call 

(801) 221-9930. 


OREM 

COMMUNITY 

HOSPITAL 

✦ 

Above: Orem Community Hospital is 

part of Intermountain Healthcare, a 

not-for-profit healthcare system that 

provides care to residents of Utah and 

southern Idaho. 

Opposite, top: Registered Nurse 

Karleigh Stinson cares for a newborn 

baby in the Level II Nursery at Orem 

Community Hospital. Orem 

Community began as a maternity 

hospital and has since expanded 

services to include a strong same-day 

surgery program and a fully staffed 

emergency department. 

Opposite, bottom: Orem Community 

Hospital added a LiVe Well Garden in 

2014 as a way to promote healthy 

eating. Intermountain Healthcare 

sponsors several other gardens at 

various hospital locations across Utah. 

In 1975, the largest healthcare provider in the Intermountain West 

purchased thirty-nine acres in Orem for a local hospital. Even at first 

glance, it is clear Orem Community Hospital lives up to its name. Its 

community focus is evident both inside and outside the medical facility. 

As you drive toward the parking lot, you are surrounded by a 

beautiful campus with several acres dedicated to soccer fields, a onemile 

walking path, and picnic areas. Four years ago, the hospital started 

an on-site LiVe Well Garden where community members and hospital 

employees can apply for a raised bed garden plot. The hospital supplies 

the water and soil supplementation. Orem Community annually 

celebrates a Harvest Good Health Day in partnership with Orem City 

to honor the city’s orchard and garden roots. 

Once inside the building, it is easy to see that Orem’s first hospital 

comes with highly-qualified caregivers and telehealth services 

supported by the entire Intermountain Healthcare network. It offers 

both generalized and specialized care and follows a mission of helping 

people live the healthiest lives possible. 

“From the beginning, Orem Community has been an outstanding 

obstetrics hospital,” says Merrill Gappmayer, a local, regional and 

national advocate for healthcare who began his service on the governing 

board of Orem Community in 1976. 

“Without sacrificing the special attention patients can receive from a 

caring hometown hospital, Orem has become a top-rated facility for 

obstetrics and same-day surgeries,” he adds. 

Small in stature and footprint–but not in mission–Orem Community 

is a bedrock in the city. Since opening as a maternity hospital in 1981, 

the hospital has excelled in labor and delivery and has expanded to 

provide other needed services. The labor and delivery program is 

nationally recognized for patient satisfaction and care. With the 

expansion of the delivery suites and addition of a Level 2 nursery in the 

last several years, Orem Community is a favorite hospital for doctors 

and their patients. 

Other services available to the community include the mother/baby 

services, a twenty-four-hour emergency department with full-time, 

board certified emergency doctors, same-day surgery, the only 

Intermountain pediatric rehabilitation program between Point of the 

Mountain and St. George, physical therapy, lactation, laboratory and 

imaging services, including MRI and mammography. 


While Intermountain acquired the hospital land in 1975, a few 

challenges needed surmounting. During the period Intermountain wanted 

a hospital in the rapidly-growing Orem area, another health organization 

also filed an application for a large acute-care hospital. Both applications 

were reviewed concurrently but were delayed awaiting completion of an 

expansion at Utah Valley Hospital in Provo. Because of the holdup, both 

applications were withdrawn, but a board for the future community 

hospital was organized in September of 1977 to develop a new bid. 

This time, after the Orem City Council carefully reviewed the 1978 

request for a medical facility, they endorsed Intermountain’s proposal 

and entered into an agreement to develop an Orem hospital. Over the 

course of a year and a half, Intermountain and Orem prepared for the 

upcoming facility. 

As part of a not-for-profit health system, Orem Community provides 

residents with high quality care, regardless of ability to pay. In recent 

years, the hospital has provided charity care to more than 1,500 patients 

each year, with a total value exceeding $1 million. 

In addition to being involved in helping with expenses, Intermountain 

conducts a community health needs assessment every three years to 

identify the greatest health challenges facing people served by their 

hospitals. As part of the most recent assessment, (completed in 

collaboration with the Utah County Health Department and other local 

organizations), Intermountain identified prevention of prediabetes, high 

blood pressure, depression, and prescription opioid misuse as priorities. 

Patients at Orem Community benefit from Intermountain’s extensive 

telehealth services. These services allow emergency department teams 

to consult with a neurologist face-to-face through TeleStroke. Highlyspecialized 

physicians are also available for consultation through 

Neo-Natal TeleMedicince every hour of the day. These services help 

babies avoid unnecessary transfers and patients can have life-saving 

medications administered at the right time. 

The hospital had the support of the City of Orem when it opened 

doors and has its support today. The initial phases of the LiVe Well 

Garden, for example, received great support by Mayor Richard Brunst 

and the city council and benefitted from a generous donation to kickstart 

the process. 

For additional information, please visit www.oremcommunity.org on 

the Internet. 


TIMPANOGOS 

REGIONAL 

HOSPITAL 

✦ 

Above: The media was on hand to 

mark the groundbreaking for 

Timpanogos Regional Hospital in 

1997. The hospital has become 

distinguished for its Labor and 

Delivery services, Newborn Intensive 

Care Unit (NICU), Pediatric Intensive 

Care Unit (PICU), emergency care, 

and expert stroke care. 

John Girtman is a staff sergeant serving in the U.S. Airforce overseas. 

After spending three weeks in intensive care elsewhere, his premature 

infant son’s home became the newborn intensive care unit 

(NICU) at Timpanogos Regional Hospital. 

While Girtman was not able to hold his newborn, the deployed dad 

could see baby John every day thanks to a camera in the NICU that 

gave him access to live footage of his child. 

The camera, one of twenty-four installed in the NICU in 2017, is 

part of the hospital’s commitment to providing better healthcare experiences. 

Parents can see their baby anytime and from anywhere right 

from their smartphones. Nurses even write notes that appear on the 

parents’ screens to give them updates on their infants, and the cameras 

help reduce stress when parents cannot be there in person. 

The NICU has the capacity to care for critical babies as young as 

twenty-four weeks and as small as one pound. 

“We have a focus on treating every member of the family, no matter 

how small,” says Kimball Anderson, CEO at Timpanogos Regional 

Hospital. “We provide Utah County’s first pediatric intensive care unit 

(PICU). We have also become known for our fast emergency care, 

especially with children.” 

Top: Timpanogos Regional Hospital 

was built in 1998 in North Orem and 

is dedicated to serving patients in 

Utah County. Its dedicated staff puts 

patient care at the top of its priorities. 

Right: Timpanogos Regional Hospital 

connects with the community through 

Teddy Bear Clinics that allow children 

to learn the hospital does not have to 

be a scary place. Kids care for their 

stuffed animal thoughtout the hospital. 


Timpanogo’s commitment to Utah County families is reflected in 

many ways. The hospital has a teddy bear clinic, for example, that 

brings approximately 2,000 people—mostly kids—and their stuffed 

animals to Timpanogos Regional Hospital for a hands-on tour to learn 

that hospitals are a safe place to be. 

Since January 1998, Timpanogos Regional Hospital has served Utah 

County residents. Growing from a forty-five-bed community hospital 

to a 122-bed regional hospital allows patients to receive the personalized 

care they need to thrive. However, it also provides medical 

services not commonly found in a hospital of its size. Some of these 

services include a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), a Level III 

Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), expert heart surgery and cardiology 

care, and a full list of healthcare services close to home. 

The hospital also provides expert stroke care, full-service emergency 

care, the latest imaging techniques, advanced surgical suites, 

oncology services, diagnostics and rehabilitation and minimally invasive 

surgical techniques among others. Timpanogos Regional Hospital 

is always looking for new opportunities to expand services and better 

serve the community, so patients do not have to leave Utah County. 

The hospital’s commitment to maintaining high quality and service has 

earned Timpanogos the nation’s Watson Health® 100 Top Hospital 

designation multiple times. Among others, the hospital has earned A 

grades for hospital safety from the Leapfrog Group, multiple Gold Plus 

Awards from the American Stroke Association, a ranking among the 

top five percent in the nation for maternity care from Healthgrades and 

received five stars for its treatment of heart attacks. 

“At the top of every list is our commitment to patient care,” 

Anderson adds. This is evidenced by Rambinina Randrianirinaniarivo, 

a young father from Madagascar better known as Nambine, who was a 

patient in early 2018. 

A knee injury crippled Nambine as a child. Over time his knee 

worsened, and the thirty-year-old faced the possibility of amputation 

if surgery was done in Madagascar. Thanks to the charitable efforts of 

Mormon missionaries, Greg and Jane Cloward of Provo, Dr. Brady 

Barker of Revere Health, and many others, Nambine traveled to Orem 

for surgery at Timpanogos Regional Hospital. 

“As with all our patients, we were happy for the opportunity to help 

improve Nambine’s quality of life,” Anderson adds. “Our goal is to do 

what is right for our community and every patient that walks through 

our doors. Helping provide this surgery was just the right thing to do 

for this young father.” 

The history of Timpanogos Regional Hospital is one of continuous 

change and opportunity, but the medical team’s commitment to the 

highest level of care is constant. As Utah County grows, Timpanogos 

Regional Hospital will be here as it has from the beginning to meet the 

healthcare needs of the good people in this community. 

Timpanogos Regional Hospital, 750 West 800 North in Orem, 

Utah 84057. 

✦ 

Above: Nambine traveled to Orem 

from Madagascar to receive a total 

knee replacement at Timpanogos 

Regional Hospital. 

Left: A medical team at Timpanogos 

Regional Hospital during a procedure 

in the hospital’s state-of-the-art hybrid 

operating room. 


UNITED ANGELS 

FOUNDATION 

✦ 

Right: Riding to new heights. 

Below: Walk With Angels, 2018. 

When their daughter Aubrey was born, Mark and Amber Leck 

were only in their early twenties and had every reason to expect 

a perfectly healthy firstborn child. Despite having routine prenatal 

examinations and tests, no one detected that their baby was going 

to have a genetic disorder. 

The day Aubrey was born, the Lecks were shocked to discover she 

had Down syndrome. This unexpected news was difficult, but the 

parents received much needed support from Kathy, a caring nurse who 

visited them while their daughter received care in the newborn intensive 

care unit. Kathy understood what they were experiencing because she, 

too, had a child with Down syndrome. As she answered key questions 

geneticists and other specialists could not answer (because they were 

not parents of children with Down syndrome), Kathy also assured them, 

Aubrey was going to be a great blessing. 

Inspired, the couple shifted their perspective, embraced their 

newborn, and looked for ways to support others. 

“We realized not all parents of children with special needs are 

fortunate enough to meet their own Kathy,” Mark says. “So Amber and 

I decided to start a foundation to help others.” 

The result is United Angels Foundation. UAF is a nonprofit parent-toparent 

support group for parents and families of individuals with special 

needs. The Lecks realized the foundation needed to be large enough to 

help all families, regardless of their family members’ special needs. 

“We discovered many special needs children have multiple 

conditions, like Down syndrome and autism, and that some families 

have multiple children with special needs, but with different 

conditions,” adds Mark. “With United Angels, they all belong.” The 

Lecks readily admit that United Angels would not be what it is today 

without incredible volunteers. Their first executive director, Jill Austin, 

whose daughter, Joby, has Down syndrome, is typical of the amazing 

volunteers that make the foundation successful. 

“We had no idea how much there was to learn from each other,” Jill 

says. “Parents of children with Down syndrome benefit from behavioral 

research occurring within the autism community, and we see the 

community leveraging reading techniques originally developed within 

the Down syndrome community. Also, therapies and technologies 

originally adapted for the deaf are helping all children with special 

needs. It’s amazing!” 

The foundation supports families through interaction, education, 

and resources, including newborn visits, parents’ lunches, online chat 


forums, youth and family activities, and parent education seminars. As 

of 2018, United Angels actively supports more than 1,500 families. 

United Angels prides itself on being entrepreneurial. A great example 

was the launch of iPads4Angels in 2013. Inspired by feedback from 

family members, the foundation sought a way to provide iPads’ 

powerful technology aides for special needs children. 

Since the 2013 launch of the iPads4Angels technology grant programs, 

209 special education classrooms in more than seventy schools have 

received iPads, which affects more than 2,800 Utah students. 

Shortly after launching, Apple® reached out to United Angels and 

invited them to its headquarters in Cupertino, California, to discuss the 

program and ways to work together. Since 2015, they have collaborated 

on multiple adaptive technology trainings for Utah Special Ed educators. 

United Angels has provided more than fifty educational seminars 

that address parents’ concerns and struggles. Examples include estate 

planning, IEP training, occupational and physical therapies, behavioral 

interventions, ASL training, marriage classes, and leveraging technology 

when educating children with special needs. 

Hundreds of parents have received home or hospital visits upon 

diagnosis of their child’s condition. United Angels sends a parent of a 

child with the same condition to offer support, mentoring and 

information. More than 700 families have received support phone calls 

from another special needs parent. Dozens of families have been 

supported through UAF’s annual Sub4Santa program. In one instance, 

their Sub4Santa gift helped a single mother move her family from a 

friend’s spare bedroom by locating an apartment and making a deposit. 

Another family received much needed dental work, while another 

received therapy for their son. 

The foundation offers more than forty networking family and educational 

events annually. Families learn from one another and gain access to 

information and resources to better serve their child. Since organizing in 

2007, more than 20,000 people have attended events. Intermountain 

Healthcare recognized United Angels in 2010 as part of its Select 25 Awards 

and Red Cross named UAF as Community Heroes in 2014. 

UAF headquarters is located 1411 West 1250 South, Suite 310, in 

Orem and on the Internet at www.unitedangels.org. 

This page, dedicated to the United Angels Foundation, has been contributed by Green Seed 

Technologies in recognition and thanks for their service to the Orem Community. 

✦ 

Top: Jill Austin, executive director. 

Bottom: The Leck Family. 


CENTER FOR 

WOMEN AND 

CHILDREN IN 

CRISIS 

✦ 

Above: The Center for Women and 

Children in Crisis is the only domestic 

violence shelter serving Utah and 

Juab Counties and the only rape 

intervention and prevention program 

in Utah, Juab, and Wasatch Counties. 

In 2017, the center provided domestic 

and dating violence aid to 987 adults 

and children, providing shelter and 

transitional housing totaling 12,317 

bed-days. 

Right: Facilities for CWCIC are 

inadequate. For several years, the 

center has had to turn away as many 

residents as they were able to shelter. 

The Board of Trustees is seeking ways 

to increase bed size from twenty-five 

to seventy-six and to fund an $8 

million-plus project that would 

provide another transitional 

apartment, improvements, and a new 

site. This is a Herculean task! 

Before the Center for Women 

and Children in Crisis center 

opened January 31, 1984, Provo 

Police officers had to rent 

nursing home rooms to aid 

domestic violence victims and 

their children. 

It was clear the area needed 

to provide a safe, caring, 

therapeutic, and educationallybased 

environment for victims 

enduring domestic violence, 

rape, sexual assault, and stalking. 

With an objective to decrease 

violence against women and 

children, self-sufficiency training 

was also necessary. 

Dennis A. Hansen, president and CEO, says an original founder 

visited United Way and secured permission to begin a shelter. He 

formed a 501c, recruited a board, found a facility, and hired the director. 

United Way diverted funds from Boy Scouts of America. Because the 

LDS Church supported scouting, United Way Executive Director Jack 

Homes determined the scouts could function on their own, and UW 

could help women in trouble. 

The first shelter, a Provo townhouse among several townhouses, lacked 

sufficient security and secure fencing. The focus was keeping its location 

secret. Provo provided HUD funds for office space in the townhouse. 

Because the center sat somewhat unprotected, abusers would leave 

dead animals, break car windows, or find other ways to threaten their 

targets. Some attempted to enter the shelter, and once, a bomb threat 

led to an evacuation and involved the FBI. 

Bill Hulterstrom, United Way of Utah County president and CEO, 

played a key support role and secured the original center. After going 

through several directors, Kim Kowallis Smith held things together, and 

Hansen, who had been directing another nonprofit, agreed to help. He 

has been at CWCIC for twenty-three years. 

When Hansen took over the operation, CWCIC was between 

$30,000-$40,000 short in the cash account. Through the generosity of 

the late Melanie Bastian, they were able to make payroll. Today, annual 

revenue approaches $2 million with designated funds of $1 million held 

for land and a larger shelter, which is desperately needed. 

The shelter and transitional apartments are at a confidential location 

in Provo, and its administrative and outreach office, which houses the 

sexual assault therapist, a sexual assault services program director, 

volunteer coordinator, CEO and CFO are in Orem. 

For additional information, please visit www.cwcic.org or on 

Facebook as Center for Women. 

This page, dedicated to the Center for Women and Children, has been contributed by an 

anonymous donor in recognition and thanks for their service to the Orem Community. 


Within seven years of becoming a nurse practitioner in 2003, 

Kelly Wosnik became interested in developing her own business 

and opened an office in Spanish Fork to provide medical services 

for employees of companies with whom she partnered. 

By 2014, she wanted to expand but was unsure what direction 

to take. Her answer came from some mental health therapists 

renting space who kept sending their patients for additional help. 

“I knew that if I were to continue down that road, I would 

need a clinic with a mental health focus,” Wosnik explains. She 

purchased an office in Orem’s Bristol Park (935 South Orem 

Boulevard) and launched her venture in 2015. 

“Utah County is short on mental health providers, and I was 

seeing many mental health patients in family medicine,” she 

adds. She received some inspiration after googling “Bristol,” the 

name of her building, and saw it meant “the place for a bridge.” 

Wosnik envisioned her clinic as a bridge between the family 

practice office—where there was not always the necessary time to 

spend with depressed or anxious patients—and the psychiatrist 

office—where an appointment was a three-month wait. And she had a 

name: Bristol Health, Your bridge to a better life. 

Wosnik spent most of a European vacation that May considering the 

business change, and by the time she returned home in June, her goal 

was to remodel one-fourth of the building with her friend, Aubrey 

Manhart, and open by August. 

She designed a logo, established a website, and set 

an August 4th opening. Patients started coming two 

weeks earlier. Wosnik added nurse practitioners, 

Anna Kirby and Jessica Parker, with Manhart, became 

the entire front office staff. 

The results were gratifying, including her first 

client, a man who had been her patient several 

years earlier. After they left, his wife texted, “Thank 

you from the bottom of my heart for all your love 

today... it was so fun to be your first patients. We love 

you and congrats.” 

Business has grown, and in 2016, Wosnik added 

mental health therapists and another medical 

provider. A year later, a pediatrician and a psychologist 

joined the team. 

True to the name, Bristol Health is providing that 

bridge for better lives. 

BRISTOL 

HEALTH 

✦ 

Top: Bristol Health cares for children, 

adolescents and adults, and treat 

depression, anxiety, OCD, 

ADD/ADHD, bipolar disorder, autism 

and more. 

Bottom: January 2017, the medical 

and support staff includes: Back row: 

Kris Jennings; Todd Seamons, PA-C; 

Shellee Hyde; and Paul George, 

LCSW/MFT. Middle row: Tana 

Bagley; Kelly Wosnik, DNP, 

NP-C; Alex Peterson; and 

Dr. Frances Liu, DO. Front row: 

Cheryl McBride, LCSW; and 

Sarah Ingerson, DNP, NP-C. 


CRAWFORD 

LEISHMAN 

DENTAL 

✦ 

Crawford Leishman Dental is located 

at 265 West Center Street in Orem. 

A former first runner-up to Miss America who visited Dr. Chris 

Crawford’s Orem dental office for several years repeatedly declined his 

request to repair a small chip. Her typical response was, “No, I’m fine.” 

“One day I couldn’t stand it, and offered to repair the tooth at no 

charge,” he said. “When I finished, she was happy and in tears. She 

never realized how much better it could look.” 

Dr. Crawford does that kind of service frequently, and while he 

enjoys clinical work, he has a real passion for improving someone’s 

smile. The cosmetic work helps fill his artistic side. 

“For thirty-five years, I have had some patients who are so self-conscious 

about their teeth, that they put their hands over their mouths,” 

he explains. “Then I redo their smiles and its life-changing. They start 

smiling and laughing.” 

Starting a practice was challenging when Dr. Crawford opened his 

doors July 5, 1983. “I had one assistant, and the two of us did everything.” 

To get out the word, he created fliers and went door-to-door 

within a six-block radius offering a ten percent discount to anyone 

who brought the flier to his office. 

Dr. Crawford and Dr. Richard Leishman, his partner since 2005, 

have built a thriving practice with repeat patients who appreciate 

the excellent dental care they receive. As a bonus, they offer a 

family-friendly environment reflected, in part, by the fact that several 

employees have worked there from ten to more than thirty years. One 

such employee, Donna Gutierrez, has been with the practice thirty-five 

years. Today, Crawford Leishman Dental has fifteen employees 

About his staff, Dr. Crawford says, “We treat them like family, and they 

treat our patients as the special persons they are. We have found a niche 

that works,” he says. “We call every patient who has had numbing, for 

instance, to see how they are doing. Ours is a real hands-on practice.” 

That personal attention just might be a reason the practice has 

received the Award for Best Dentist every year since the Utah Valley 

awards began in 2004. 


In 1985, a special education teacher in the Alpine School District 

founded Chrysalis, a program with a mission to improve the lives of 

people with intellectual disabilities and acquired brain injuries. The 

program started with fourteen people in a sheltered workshop and 

small group home in the quaint town of Heber City, Utah. Given this 

simple beginning, who would have anticipated the monumental 

growth throughout Utah over the next three decades! 

With support from the State of Utah, Chrysalis’ goal was—and is— 

to provide residential, day, behavior and clinical services to people 

with intellectual disabilities, autism, and acquired brain injuries. 

Breaking the trend of institutional models, Chrysalis’ primary objective 

is to integrate people with their local communities. 

From a single home, Chrysalis has become the largest provider of 

services for people with disabilities in Utah. Moreover, their reach has 

expanded into Nevada. With approximately 250 homes in the three 

states, Chrysalis employees are making a difference. Chrysalis’ corporate 

headquarters are located in Orem, Utah, and offices are statewide 

in Logan, Riverdale, Murray, Park City, Provo, Price, Nephi, Cedar City, 

and St. George. Nevada offices are located in Reno, Carson City and 

Las Vegas. 

Chrysalis’ 2,400 employees provide services to more than 900 

individuals every day. 

Services are tailored to each individual’s needs and wants and 

are typically provided in homes with one to four individuals and/or in 

day programs. 

Chrysalis is aptly named, because much like the chrysalis, or hard 

shell spun by a caterpillar in which the transformation into an appealing 

butterfly takes place, this organization changes lives through transformative 

processes. Its mission is to make a difference daily, a charge 

Marc Christensen has guided for more than twenty years. Just like the 

individuals are in the process of becoming, so is the company. It has 

enjoyed consistent and steady growth for years, an indicator of accomplishing 

their goal to improve people’s lives. 

“We plan to continue making a difference every day in Utah for 

decades to come,” Christensen says. In the past few years Chrysalis has 

expanded its services to include early intervention services for children 

with autism and their families. With their fun and exciting programs 

the company is seeing huge strides with children. 

“Our team of employees does amazing things for people every day 

and is the backbone of our agency!” Christensen states. They seek to 

enrich the lives of individuals with disabilities by providing support 

and opportunities where they can live, work and participate more fully 

in the community. Their programs are wrapped around core 

values embodied by mentoring, accountability, respect, safety, and fun. 

“Everything we do is designed to make the lives of people with disabilities 

better,” Christensen adds. 

CHRYSALIS 

✦ 

Top: Chrysalis works hard to improve 

the lives of people with special needs. 

Bottom: Through early intervention, 

Chrysalis is making substantial 

inroads helping children with autism. 


HOME OF HOPE 

AND HEALING 

✦ 

Top: Many employees, volunteers, and 

leaders have helped the Family 

Support & Treatment Center succeed. 

The Board of Directors dedicates this 

profile to one of them: Niles T. 

Elwood, board member and great 

friend to the agency and its clients for 

twenty-three years. He died in 

February 2018 after serving on the 

board since December 1994. “We miss 

Niles’ tender heart, his loving support, 

and his gentle but firm manner,” says 

Executive Director Joy A. O’Banion 

(after whom this building is named.) 

Bottom: An average of twenty-five 

children use its Crisis Respite Nursery 

every day, and in 2017, the Family 

Support & Treatment Center provided 

18,432 hours of service to 970 

different children. Its reach is even 

deeper, with 6,350 therapy sessions in 

the same year, and 8,000-plus people 

receiving parent education and schoolbased 

prevention education. 

. 

Concern for at-risk children and families has 

dominated Orem’s Home of Hope and Healing 

since the nonprofit organization first opened its 

doors in July 1984. 

The Utah Valley Family Support Center, dba 

Family Support & Treatment Center, offers tools 

that help prevent and treat child abuse, neglect, 

trauma, and other family concerns—and the dedication 

of its employees is fueled by the belief that 

everyone deserves to grow up happy and healthy. 

“Children are our most vulnerable and most 

promising population,” says Executive Director 

Joy A. O’Banion. 

For its first five years, the agency focused solely 

on child abuse prevention services, but merged 

with another agency in 1989 to add therapy. The 

Center quickly outgrew its Provo facility and 

moved to its present location at 1255 North 1200 

West in Orem in March of 1995, a site initially 

made possible by an anonymous donation. Here, children and families 

can heal from the difficulties they experience. 

The Family Support & Treatment Center works to break the 

cycles of abuse and trauma. The Crisis Respite Nursery gives parents a 

safe place to bring their children. Adoption Respite services, parent 

education, and prevention education to help children avoid abuse are 

also offered. 

In addition to prevention, therapeutic services are provided for 

children as young as eighteen months through adulthood. Agency 

therapists have expertise in working with children and trauma, 

which is vital when working with children and families who have 

experienced abuse. 

With its emphasis on children and families who have experienced 

trauma, the agency has also made an extensive effort to provide quality 

services regardless of an individual’s ability to pay. During the 2016- 

2017 fiscal year, the agency served more than 12,000 individuals 

across all its programs. 

“As Orem City and Utah Valley continue to grow, so does the need 

for services,” O’Banion adds. “Getting professional help can change the 

path of life many walk as they feel support and encouragement from 

those who metaphorically walk beside them.” 


Mountainland Technical College (MTECH) knows that education is 

far more than studying from a textbook. Students learn invaluable 

professional skills by practicing what they learn in laboratories, 

classrooms and industry sites. 

As part of the Utah System of Technical Colleges, MTECH is 

accredited and provides fast-track opportunities in education leading 

to financial improvement, and self-development. With most programs 

designed to be completed in less than a year, MTECH helps individuals 

quickly increase employability and work quality through hands-on 

training and focused career skills. 

The MTECH Orem campus, located at 1410 West 1250 South, 

provides flexible class scheduling, one-on-one interactions with 

instructors, and an agreement with Utah Valley University that allows 

the smooth transfer of credits from many programs. 

A benefit for students who select the MTECH route is they are not 

required to take courses that do not advance their career objectives. The 

end goal is employment, and a job skills are the focus. 

The MTECH mission is to increase the number of quality employees 

in the Mountainland region. The results are worth noting! Ninety-two 

percent of MTECH students finish their program, 98 percent of those 

taking licensure exams pass, and 87 percent of students get placed in a 

job in their field of study. 

With more than forty career paths available, individuals may 

blend what they need with what they like. Among the choices are 

healthcare, service trade professions, Manufacturing, Computer 

Systems, Culinary Arts, Practical Nursing, Cosmetology, transportation, 

and apprenticeship professions. 

Students learn right away that their instructors offer more 

than textbook teaching, because the teachers are experienced industry 

professionals. This practical learning approach allows students to 

learn in a way that gives them work skills and practice well before 

they graduate. 

Another benefit is cost. Adults who enroll at MTECH find some of 

the lowest tuition rates in the State of Utah. Even better, local high 

school students attend tuition-free. Ninety-eight percent of students 

graduate with no student loan debt. 

It is clear that MTECH is dedicated to getting students an education 

they can afford—without burdensome debt. 

MOUNTAINLAND 

TECHNICAL 

COLLEGE 

✦ 

Left: As part of the dental assistant 

program at Mountainland Technical 

College, students learn chairside and 

laboratory procedures, sterilization, 

instrument preparation, charting, 

medical emergency schools, and 

obtaining dental x-rays. 

Below: Mountainland Technical 

College invites students to learn their 

futures by selecting from forty 

different skills programs. 


HABITAT FOR 

HUMANITY OF 

UTAH COUNTY 

Today, Habitat for Humanity of Utah County has helped hundreds 

of people by giving them a “hand-up, not a hand-out” by providing 

affordable housing. Stable housing allows for families to gain 

independence, security, and even equity. 

Habitat for Humanity of Utah County runs two ReStores in the 

valley—one in Orem—which accepts donations of gently used 

furniture, appliances, and building supplies. These ReStores have kept 

millions of pounds of waste out of landfills. 

They have also undertaken community and revitalization projects in 

Orem and throughout Utah Valley such as the All-Together Playground, 

and multiple critical home repair and beautification projects. 

Habitat for Humanity has made a big splash over the last twentyseven 

years, helping hundreds of people and providing the opportunity 

for thousands to volunteer and get involved in the community. 

This page, dedicated to Habitat for Humanity of Utah County, has been contributed by an 

anonymous donor in recognition and thanks for their service to the Orem Community. 

In 1991, twenty percent of the population in Utah Valley lived below 

the poverty level. Frank Flake, a retired Air Force Colonel, and George 

Barrus, a BYU professor, saw a need for affordable housing in Utah 

County. They organized the Utah County Habitat for Humanity affiliate 

and quickly found other like-minded individuals to join them. 

However, money was tight, and they needed someone to donate a 

plot of land in order to begin their mission of providing safe and 

affordable housing to those in need. They approached several 

corporations and individuals, but it was the City of Orem, under the 

direction of then Mayor Stella Welsh, that gave Habitat their first chance 

by giving the group a surplus lot to build on. 

Welsh was convinced Habitat would be a force for good in 

her community. She saw Habitat’s potential and felt an organization 

that sought to improve the lives of families in her community was a 

good thing. 

“When you see their living situation before and then afterwards, it’s 

very rewarding,” said Welsh, former Orem mayor and Habitat president. 

“It gives children a stable place to call home and makes the family more 

a part of the community.” 


services continued until 2011, when it became apparent that the community 

needed more mental health services. Answering the demand, 

Provo Canyon expanded its services to include adults and seniors. 

Provo Canyon Behavioral Hospital is proud to serve our community. 

Over the last seven years, more than 10,000 patients have benefited 

from inpatient care and many more have received assistance in our 

outpatient programs. The hospital is committed to quality care and 

providing much needed mental health services to our community and 

the State of Utah. 

Through the vision of Jeremy Cottle, PhD, and his founding team, 

Diann Decker, MPA and PJay Frayser, MSN, Provo Canyon fulfills its 

mission to improve mental health and care in the region. Today, Provo 

Canyon Behavioral Hospital is one of the largest mental health facilities 

in Utah. The hospital provides more than 200 jobs and brings highly 

qualified medical personnel to Orem. 

A more recent highlight for the hospital was participating in a suicide 

educational program, “The Silent Epidemic,” with KSL Channel 5 

Televisions news team on April 25, 2013. 

KSL devoted the majority of its 10 p.m. news slot to suicide, and 

Dr. Cottle and Dr. Derry Brinley were featured speakers. KSL reported 

80,000 viewers with 20,000 views occurring on KSL.com shortly after 

the program aired. Subsequent airings on the following Saturday and 

Sunday brought in an additional 19,000 viewers. 

PROVO CANYON 

BEHAVIORAL 

HOSPITAL 

Provo Canyon Behavioral Hospital is located in the foothills of the 

Wasatch Mountains, near the entrance of the majestic Provo Canyon. 

The hospital proudly sits atop a century’s old apple orchard on five 

acres; apple trees still visibly align the property today. 

Originally built in 1985, Provo Canyon served the local community 

by providing mental health services to all ages. This continued for ten 

years, but in 1995, recognizing the need for residential services, Provo 

Canyon filled that need by focusing on adolescents. These adolescent 


DR. NORMAN G. 

JORGENSEN 

✦ 

Dr. Jorgensen married June Scott in 

the Idaho Falls LDS temple August 

16, 1962. They are the parents of six 

children (Stephanie, David, Stacey, 

Leslie, Gary and Jana.) All graduated 

from Orem High School and worked 

in the Orthodontic practice. 

Dr. Norman G. Jorgensen came to Brigham Young University more 

than sixty years ago planning to become an engineer. But he played on 

BYU’s golf team, got a bit behind, and decided he did not much like 

engineering, anyway. 

After serving a mission for the LDS Church in Finland, his dentist 

brother suggested he try dentistry. Jorgensen found his niche. 

He graduated from BYU in 1963 and moved to St. Louis, where he 

received his doctorate in dentistry in 1967. He used his newfound 

skills almost immediately when he spent two years in Fort Hood, 

Texas, providing dental care for soldiers heading to Vietnam. 

Following his war service, he returned to St. Louis and earned a master’s 

degree in orthodontics. 

Dr. Jorgensen began his practice in south Orem in September of 

1971 by working out of two basement rooms below a dental practice. 

It marked the beginning of a forty-year career where he improved the 

smiles of more than 10,000 people. 

It was considered unethical to advertise beyond a small newspaper 

notice, so his practice grew from word-of-mouth. He met Dr. Mervyn 

Gardner, John Bench, and a few others who found a property on 560 

South State Street. 

Jorgensen’s practice grew, and within ten years he needed to move 

to a suite near Orem Boulevard behind the dental practice. He stayed 

thirty years. 

For twenty-five years, Jorgensen was the only orthodontist in Orem 

and says having a practice in the town was a great experience. 

“I liked working with young people and found it satisfying 

to see their attitudes change,” he says. “Some wouldn’t look 

at me, because they were scared the work was going to hurt, 

but they came in wanting to smile. The practice began to 

include adults, who, after helping their children, said it was 

their turn. “ 

Although Dr. Jorgensen turns eighty this year, he still practices 

orthodontics. He sold his practice to Dr. Wade Thompson in 2012 

but still works a few days each month. 

“I still like helping the children and grandchildren of some of my 

original patients,” he explains. 


Children deserve much better was the sentiment of five 

young Utah therapists unhappy with the “harsh treatment 

styles of the day” for youth mental health services and were 

convinced there had to be a better system. 

Craig LaMont, Tony Mosier, Tony Hansen, Greg Rush, 

and Dr. Sam Coats in 2004 embarked on a journey that 

resulted in the founding of Telos (te’-los), - - a premium mental 

health treatment center focused on kindness, love, belonging 

and student success. CEO LaMont said this is a place he 

would be willing to send his own children, if they needed it. 

The first of three campuses Telos owns is the historic city 

hall building formerly situated at the corner of State and 

Center. The structure made the news when it was salvaged 

and moved a short distance to 870 West Center. Each of the Telos 

campuses deliver proven mental health services to adolescent boys and 

young adult women and men ages thirteen to twenty-six. 

The “arm around the shoulder” culture is a key attribute the 

founders foster where students dealing with depression, anxiety, social 

problems, and learning differences, develop new skills to live happy 

productive lives. 

The opportunity to “belong” to a group or team is powerful 

and students are organized in team/family-style settings for work, 

learning, and play. Additionally, an integrated component to success, 

is the robust recreational therapy providing high-adventure activities 

like sailing, camping and triathlon training. Many youths are engaged 

gamers upon arrival and slowly learn to change a gaming lifestyle for 

an active lifestyle. 

Students see much improvement athletically 

and academically at Telos as the program wraps 

around them in a highly individualized and 

personal way to bring out their best. Or rather 

their “ultimate potential,” which is what the 

word Telos means. 

Family involvement is imperative. Five times 

a year, Telos families visit the campus for hikes, 

picnics, and therapeutic meetings. Combined 

with powerful aftercare services to ensure the 

skills learned not only stay with them but transitions 

to the family. It is not just the student’s 

ultimate potential Telos cares about, but also 

the family’s ultimate potential with healthy and 

productive children. 

This page, dedicated to Telos, has been contributed by an 

anonymous donor in recognition and thanks for the care they 

provide to the Orem Community.. 

TELOS 

✦ 

Telos maintains three campuses to 

help children and young adults from 

thirteen to twenty-six deal with 

depression, anxiety, substance abuse, 

social problems, and learning 

differences. Participants receive highly 

individualized care, and as they 

progress, portions of their day will 

be spent mingling with the larger 

population. This allows them to “road 

test” their skills in a setting that 

more fully prepares them for life 

outside treatment. 


UTAH COUNTY 

ACADEMY OF 

SCIENCES 

✦ 

Above, right: Graduates from the 

UCAS Class of 2017 are well on their 

way to achieving their educational 

goals. A respected educational 

institution, the academy ranks among 

the top two high school in Utah. 

Right: This hot air balloon holding a 

Utah County Academy of Sciences 

teacher represents how the academy is 

flying high as a progressive high 

school helping students in a safe, 

supportive, dual-campus environment. 

Housed on the Utah Valley University 

campus, students receive personalized 

attention with a small student/teacher 

ratio in a program that offers a 

rigorous science, technology, 

engineering, science and math focus. 

High school students interested in science, technology, engineering 

and mathematics (STEM) received a substantial boost toward achieving 

early-college educational goals when the Utah Academy of Sciences 

opened its doors May 2004. 

As one of six Century High Schools approved by the Utah State 

Legislature, its campus benefitted from the Bill and Melinda Gates 

Foundation and the Utah Partnership for Education as well as Utah 

Valley superintendents and William Sederburg, president of Utah Valley 

State College. 

Clark Baron was selected from the Provo School District as 

the school’s principal. Utah Governor Michael Leavitt appointed an 

advisory board representing school districts, UVSC representatives, and 

parent representatives. 

Under Baron’s leadership the academy experienced success as eighty 

percent of students earned an associate degree from Utah Valley 

University and 100 percent received high school diplomas. 

An original founder, Anna Trevino, PhD, became the next principal. 

During her tenure, she maintained the same graduation statistics with 

UCAS being recognized as one of the top academic high schools in the 

State. As UCAS grew, Dr. Trevino became superintendent with Jennilyn 

Derbidge and Jared Ferguson as principals. UCAS has grown from 180 

to 400 students. As a second UCAS location opens, this will allow UCAS 

to gradually increase enrollment until reaching 1,000 students. 

“We serve students from all walks of life,” Dr. Trevino says. “Our 

mission is to serve underrepresented students who are interested in 

STEM careers, and who willingly work hard to reach their goals.” 

School administrators recognize not 

every motivated student is gifted in every 

STEM area, but believe all can learn good 

habits and skills to develop their abilities to 

problem-solve, collaborate, communicate, 

and think critically. 

Students maintaining a 3.0 minimum 

grade point average with appropriate college 

behavior and exceptional attendance have 

their university tuition paid for by UCAS. 

Approximately 125 students graduate 

annually, each having earned between fortyfive 

to sixty university credits. This has saved 

$21 million in college tuition for families over 

the past fourteen years! And the scholarships 

are impressive. In 2018, UCAS students 

received more than $6.2 million in offers. 


its campaign efforts, including ZCMI, First Security Bank, Signetics, 

JCPenney, and Commercial Security Bank in the 1970s and 1980s. More 

recently, the Orem City mayor and executives from Utah Valley 

University and Costco have filled those roles. 

Many Orem companies support United Way through employee 

donations. In the 1970s the United Steelworkers Union helped increase 

donations by twenty-six percent in one year. Recently, Costco increased 

its employee participation from forty-two to seventy-one percent. 

Each year, hundreds of volunteers from Orem City and its companies 

participate in United Way's Day of Caring—a one-day service event with 

multiple sites and projects. Volunteers also participate in Sub for Santa 

and other individual projects throughout the year. 

United Way partners with other nonprofits in Orem City, such as 

Family Support and Treatment Center and Habitat for Humanity, to help 

accomplish its goals in Education, Income and Health. 

This page, dedicated to the United Way of Utah County, has been contributed by Utah 

Community Credit Union in recognition and thanks for their service to the Orem Community. 

UNITED WAY 

OF UTAH 

COUNTY 

✦ 

Left: United Fund, circa 1970s. 

Below: Day of Caring...in partnership 

with Orem City employees. 

United Way of Utah County first opened its doors in 1963. Orem 

City, its leaders, companies, and citizens have helped shape what United 

Way is today and its success throughout the last fifty-five years. During 

the 1980s, Orem City and its community leaders were a driving force 

behind United Way's accomplishments. This set the trajectory for a 

thriving United Way today and continuing strong corporate and 

individual partnerships in Orem City. 

Early in United Way's history, Geneva Steel/U.S. Steel and its 

corporate leadership was instrumental in the nonprofit's success. 

Winston Crawford, a Geneva Steel executive and mayor of Orem, served 

as campaign chair and was very vocal on the value of having a strong 

local United Way. Dick Stone, an executive at U.S. Steel, worked with 

United Way Executive Director Jack Holmes every day for a year to 

make sure the new organization was financially stable. 

Wilson Sorenson, the president of the technical college that became Utah 

Valley University, also served in leadership roles. In more recent years, 

Matthew Holland, president of Utah Valley University, personally supported 

and promoted United Way's literacy initiative, EveryDay Learners. 

Orem City companies have always provided executive-level 

volunteers to serve on United Way's Board of Directors and as chairs of 



BUILDING A GREATER OREM 

Orem’s real estate developers, construction companies, energy companies, 

heavy industries, and manufacturers provide the 

economic foundation of the city 

Houghton Plaster, Inc. ..............................................................................................................174 

Westland Construction..............................................................................................................176 

Any Hour Inc..........................................................................................................................178 

Geneva Rock Products, Inc. .......................................................................................................180 

Geneva Pipe and Precast...........................................................................................................182 

Precision Assembly, Inc. ...........................................................................................................184 

Therma-Glass Windows & Doors ................................................................................................186 

Bonneville Industrial Supply Co. ................................................................................................ 187 

Dreams Carports I, Inc.............................................................................................................188 

Clegg Steel, Inc.......................................................................................................................189 

Skyview Glass .........................................................................................................................190 

Lowry Overhead Door ..............................................................................................................191 

✦ 

The interior of the Olmstead 

Hydroelectric Plant, 1908. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Building a Greater Orem ✦ 173

HOUGHTON 

PLASTER, INC. 

✦ 

A family business: Stan Houghton Jr, 

Stan Houghton Sr., and Dale 

Houghton, in the early years of 

Houghton Tile & Plaster. 

Houghton Plaster, Inc.’s roots in the construction industry run deep. 

For nearly seventy years, the Orem company has completed projects 

ranging from residential homes, religious institutions and educational 

facilities to large-scale hotels, convention centers, medical facilities, 

office buildings, and more. 

With a broad scope and multiple services, Houghton Plaster and 

Houghton Specialty Finishes (HP) are known for their expertise in 

exterior insulation and finish systems, stucco, Venetian and other 

interior plasters, acoustical plaster, manufactured stone, metal stud 

framing, drywall finish, and cementitious and intumescent fireproofing. 

HP has always considered itself as a business centered around family 

roots and established on principles of hard work, integrity and quality. 

Endorsements from others in the industry support that declaration. 

Stanley A. Houghton, Sr. arrived in Utah with his brother in 1947 at 

age eighteen from Los Angeles hoping to make his way in the world. 

He met Emma Stratton at an LDS sacrament meeting and they were 

married August of 1952. They raised five children in the Orem home 

he built. He worked in Park City mines and briefly at Geneva Steel 

before becoming a journeyman plasterer. 

Stan, Sr., started Houghton Tile in 1950 with a few employees; his 

sons, Stan Jr., and Dale, joined him, full-time, after completing their 

education. Originally, Houghton Tile utilized a small warehouse and 

shop at the family’s Orem home. Stan also established Timpview Tile, a 

retail tile shop in North Orem, to enhance his opportunities to support 

his family. 

The beginning of their LDS Temple project experience in 1983 was 

the remodeling of the historic Manti Temple. Stan Sr, Stan Jr, and Dale 

worked side by side in restoring this edifice to its original glory. At this 

time, the third generation began to learn the family business. Chris 

Houghton, now CEO of Westland Construction, tagged along with his 

Grandpa, Dad, and Uncle at age eight, mixing plaster, pushing 

wheelbarrows, and cleaning. 

In 1985, HP was incorporated in the State of Utah, and services 

expanded to Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado, Illinois, and Kansas. 

Beginning in 1988, HP opened a branch in East Anaheim, California, 

and for six years, the company did most of its work in California. With 

more than 2,000 projects to its credit, HP’s success can be attributed to 

the leadership’s hands-on approach. 

President and Senior Project Manager Dale A. Houghton personally 

oversees all construction activities. His involvement in every aspect of 

the company ensures high-quality construction and professional 

handling of all business aspects. 

Their work has elevated the quality of many distinguished buildings 

in Utah and outside the State. 

One of HP’s most significant projects is the LDS Conference Center 

in Salt Lake City. Uncle and nephew again had the chance to work 

together, with Dale managing the project for HP and Chris acting as 

foreman, managing HP crews fireproofing the structural steel, metal 

stud framing, and interior/exterior plasters. 

During the two-and-a-half years of work on the Joseph F. Smith 

Building at Brigham Young University, HP provided metal studs and 

drywall, exterior sheathing, fireproofing and gypsum plaster. The 

contrast of modern architecture and a beautiful courtyard with dozens 


✦ 

Above Left: Houghton Plaster and 

Westland Construction get their deep 

roots from their founder father, Stan 

Houghton, Sr., and his wife Emma. 

of arches, gave the workers invaluable experience in their scopes of 

work. Similar scopes were provided on the Gordon B. Hinckley Building 

and Visitor’s Center as well. 

Drawing from their roots in old-world methods, Houghton Plaster 

used traditional plaster techniques on the LDS Nauvoo Temple in 

Illinois to give the look and feel of plaster used in the 1800s, when the 

original temple was built. Dale and Chris again worked together to 

deliver this project successfully. This was Chris’ last project for HP 

before furthering his career with Westland Construction. 

Other significant completed projects are the Portneuf Medical Center 

in Pocatello, Idaho; Midtown Village in Orem; Station Park Retail Mixed- 

Use development in Farmington, Utah; Navajo Nation Justice Center in 

Crownpoint, New Mexico; Xactware in Orem; and work on projects 

ranging from the Park City, Utah, Olympic bobsled and luge run, to the 

Utah State Capitol Building and LDS temples around the world. 

Above right: Houghton Plaster worked 

extensively on the construction of the 

WordPerfect campus, a 924,634 

square-foot complex built between 

1988 to 1992 at 1600 North (700 

East) in Orem. 

Left: One significant highlight of HP’s 

work; participating in the rebuilding 

of the historic Nauvoo Temple for The 

Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-day 

Saints in Illinois. 


WESTLAND 

CONSTRUCTION 

✦ 

Right: Stan and Dale Houghton are 

working on temples for The Church of 

Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 

including a temple under construction 

in Africa. 

Below: Houghton Plaster and 

Westland Construction headquarters 

at 1411 West 1250 South in Orem. 

During Utah’s brutal 1980s building recession, Stanley (Stan) 

Houghton, Jr., and his brother Dale Houghton of Orem-based 

Houghton Tile & Plaster ventured west to find work in Southern 

California over a period of six years. 

When the Southern California construction industry collapsed in 

1990-1991, a few general contractors for whom they worked went 

bankrupt on multiple projects, leaving the Houghton’s unpaid and 

wondering how their firm could survive. 

“We knew we needed to be in a position where we could watch the 

money and have more control over when and where the money came 

from,” Stan said. “We felt we could do general contracting work as well 

as the GC’s we were working for, if not better. If we were going to go 

broke, we were going to come home to Utah to do it.” The decision was 

made, and Westland Construction was founded in 1992; at that time 

Stan took on the role as President & CEO of Westland, and Dale 

assumed the position of President of Houghton Plaster. 

Stan’s kids were young at the time. Chris was working for Houghton 

Plaster and Kyle and Todd were in school but pushing brooms on the 

weekends cleaning jobsites. Eventually, sons Chris, Kyle and Todd 

followed their father’s footsteps and now serve in executive positions. 

After leading the company for 25 years, Stan formally stepped down 

May 2018 and named Chris CEO, Kyle President, and Todd a Vice 

President of Southwest and Canada business activities. 

The Houghton’s believe their success comes from the influence of 

family patriarch Stan, Sr., who moved to Utah from Los Angeles at 

eighteen and worked for a local plaster company before founding 

Houghton Tile in the 1950s. After Stan and Dale graduated from high 

school, they joined Houghton Tile and expanded into specialty tile 

flooring, specialty plaster and stucco, drywall, metal stud framing and 

structural steel fireproofing trades. 

Both Stan and Dale credit their father’s work ethic, coupled with 

profound generosity, for creating a family standard. “He was one of 

the most kind, caring men we have ever known. He taught us principles 

of hard work and treating people fairly, a quality more important 

than how you end up financially.” The third generation echoes that 

same sentiment. 

One of the most satisfying aspects of the trade is Westland’s work on 

LDS temples. Westland’s strong relationship with the Church dates to 

the early 1990s when it completed several LDS meetinghouses. 


Westland landed its first temple project in 2000, a renovation of the 

Monticello Utah Temple. Since then, the firm has built and renovated 

many temples in the U.S. and around the globe in multiple countries. 

As of 2018, Westland has major Temple projects in the Democratic 

Republic of Congo (DRC) Africa, Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, and Auckland 

New Zealand. Since August 2016, Stan has directed the DRC project in 

the capital of Kinshasa. He spends four to six weeks in Kinshasa to 

ensure that work progresses on schedule, then returns to Utah or 

Auckland for a week or so before repeating the cycle. 

Houghton Plaster has been hired to direct major portions of 

construction on Haiti and DR Congo temples due to their expertise and 

intimate knowledge of temple finishes with Dale taking the lead. This 

is fulfilling to the Houghton brothers as they are both working side by 

side on these magnificent projects. 

Beyond religious projects, Westland has firmly established itself in 

Utah’s K-12 primary education market and has made steady inroads in 

healthcare. The firm’s first school project (March 2003) was renovating 

Salem Elementary for Nebo School District—after seven-plus years of 

trying to crack the tight market. Chris and Kyle wore many hats, with 

Kyle marketing and Chris estimating and managing projects. The 

project was successful and led to a job at Payson High. One job turned 

into two and exploded from there. 

Education construction highlights include rebuilds of Provo, Union, 

Lehi, and Hillcrest High Schools, plus the new construction of 

Mountain View High School in Herriman Utah, one of the largest K-12 

primary education facilities in the state. 

It is also significant to note that Westland was selected to rebuild 

Cascade Elementary School in Orem, a school that Stan played football 

at as a teen and Dale attended as a student—a true circle-of-life event 

for the Houghton family. 

In healthcare, Westland completed multiple projects for 

Intermountain Healthcare, an award-winning $18 million Revere Health 

Multi-Specialty Medical Clinic in 2016, broke ground in 2017 on a $30 

million Central Valley Medical Center expansion/remodel in Nephi and 

will begin construction on a new Revere Health Multi-Specialty Clinic 

in St. George. 

From the simple vision of an eighteen-year old Southern California 

boy to one of the largest, most respected construction management 

firms in the State of Utah, Westland truly exhibits the spirit of Orem. 

✦ 

Above: Todd Houghton, Kyle 

Houghton, Stan Houghton, Jr., and 

Chris Houghton of Westland 

Construction. 

Left: A significant highlight of 

Westland’s international work; 

participating in the rebuilding of the 

Suva Fiji Temple for The Church of 

Jesus-Christ of Latter-day Saints. 


ANY HOUR, 

INC. 

When Wyatt Hepworth of Any Hour, Inc., took over the business his 

grandfather began in 1961, he was in his early twenties and a recently 

returned church missionary. He resolved he would be available for his 

customers twenty-four hours a day, six days a week....but never on a Sunday. 

That plan seems to work. Any Hour Services–Electric, Plumbing, 

Heating and Air Conditioning handles about 80,000 orders a year along 

the Wasatch Front. 

Three employees worked for Dwain Hepworth when his grandson 

became company president. Today, Wyatt directs 216 employees and 

maintains 192 trucks. Expanded services include solar and home 

automation and construction. 

His ten-year goal is to have 1,000 trucks to meet Utah’s service needs. 

At the same time, Hepworth wants to provide meaningful careers that 

allow for lives outside the job. 


Hepworth directs the company based on a few time-proven principles: 

• Phone calls with live persons; 

• Flexible scheduling, including evenings and weekends; 

• Friendly and trustworthy technicians ; 

• Honest pricing and upfront costs ; 

• Work completed while customer is at home; and 

• “Any job, any size, any hour” services. 

“I believe we do well because, when customers call, they can have 

the peace of mind knowing that the technicians coming to their homes 

are professional, licensed, trained, and drug-free,” Hepworth explains. 

“Our employees tend to stay with us for a long time—typically between 

five and fifteen years.” 

Hepworth hires about five percent of the people who apply for Any 

Hour employment. “I’m selective when I hire, and I use technicians, 

not sales people. Often people ask for repairs, and sales people show 

up who try to sell them something. We’re real technicians who want to 

help customers get the best from their equipment.” 

Any Hour’s efforts at providing superior service have been rewarded 

several times. Among them is the 2015 Best of State award for 

improving the quality of life in Utah for residential maintenance and 

repair and the Western Contractor of the Year designation from the 

respected industry publication, Reeves Journal, in 2016. 

“I want this balance for the best-trained and licensed technicians and 

best-trained office staff in Utah,” he says. 

Home offices are in Orem, and Any Hour remains a locally-owned 

and family-operated enterprise. More than fifty-five years since 

it launched, it wants to be big enough to maintain every system in their 

customers’ homes, but small enough to stay in touch with the 

Utah market. 


GENEVA ROCK 

PRODUCTS, 

INC. 

✦ 

Right: Here is one of the original 1954 

trucks used to help launch Clyde 

Companies and its Geneva Rock 

Products division. 

Below: From the beginning, Geneva 

Rock has been privately-owned and 

operated, and the principal 

stockholders remain members of the 

Clyde family. Pictured are founder 

W.W. Clyde, Wilford Clyde, chairman 

and CEO of Clyde Companies, and 

Jim Golding, president of Geneva 

Rock Products. 

They are everywhere. Those trucks and equipment bearing 

the familiar blue and yellow logo of Geneva Rock Products, Inc., 

distinguish the top supplier of ready-mix concrete, sand, gravel, 

asphalt, and construction services along the Wasatch Front. 

It all began in Orem in 1954. Utah contractor, W.W. Clyde, started 

his business in 1926 as a heavy civil construction contractor and had 

become impatient with concrete deliveries from another concrete firm. 

He decided to start his own plant in the center of Utah Valley. 

“W.W. had partnered with Jacobson Construction to build hundreds 

of bomb-proof concrete bunkers called igloos, which held chemicals 

and waste products at Dugway Proving Grounds and Tooele 

Army Depot,” explains Wilford Clyde, chairman and CEO of the 

parent company. 

“When finished, the two companies divided the equipment, and 

W.W. Clyde took the batch plant. He opened Geneva Rock Products in 

August 1954.” 

The company provided ready-mix concrete for the Wasatch Front, 

and over time added asphalt, sand and gravel products, and a variety of 

construction services, including excavation, utility work, and paving. 

Geneva Rock’s first job was supplying concrete for a pipe mill at 

Geneva Steel. Geneva Rock installed a batch plant across the street 

at 400 North Geneva Road, which operated until 1991. It was 

demolished, and Geneva Rock built an updated plant. Its second 

major job was supplying concrete for Provo High School. 

Odds are excellent that when you see a major business in the area, 

Geneva Rock had a part in its construction. Geneva Rock graded 

the original grounds for landscaping on the Utah Valley University 

campus in Orem and provided the concrete for many of its buildings. 

It has an extensive work history with nearby Brigham Young 

University, where Geneva Rock helped with building the J. Reuben 

Clark Law School, the football stadium expansion, and the Museum of 

Art, among others. 

Recent Orem-Provo projects include providing ready-mix concrete 

for the Utah Valley University Performing Arts facility, BYU Missionary 

Training expansion, and the BYU basketball practice facility. Its 

construction division provided asphalt for the Bus Rapid Transit that 

runs through Provo and Orem, and employees also dredged the Provo 

Boat Harbor at Utah Lake. 

“We do hundreds of projects annually,” Clyde adds. “We regularly 

get the overlay projects for Provo and Orem.” 

“Our goal is to improve our community,” says Jim Golding, president 

of Geneva Rock Products. “We have used four guiding principles 

from the beginning. We value people, our word is our bond, we always 

give a full measure, and we offer quality products and services at the 

best value.” 


✦ 

Left: Geneva Rock invested more than 

$8 million in a new compressed 

natural gas fueling station and a fleet 

of twenty-five CNG ready-mix 

concrete trucks. The cleaner-running 

CNG fleet has significantly lower 

emissions than its diesel counterparts. 

Asking employees to “give a full measure” began with W.W., who 

would frequently tell his team, “You give them a good measure, what 

you say—or even better. I don’t ever want you to cheat anybody.” 

Golding believes one key to Geneva Rock’s longevity is its fiscal responsibility. 

“We have always been conservative in financing and risk taking,” 

Clyde explains. “Being in construction is a bit of a risk, but our family 

company has followed our values carefully from generation to generation.” 

The company is also committed to building a better community 

through service and environmental responsibility. 

“We spend millions of dollars to operate in an environmentally 

friendly way,” Golding adds. One of their major resources is at the point 

of mountain (between Utah and Salt Lake Counties), and they have put 

in extensive watering systems to control the dust at the large gravel pit. 

In early 2017, Geneva Rock became the first ready-mix concrete supplier 

in Utah to own and operate a natural gas filling station as an investment 

into clean air. It provides compressed natural gas (CNG) for the company’s 

fleet of twenty-five new natural gas powered ready-mix concrete trucks. 

“We take environmental stewardship seriously,” Golding adds. “We 

recycle old materials, and our goal is to become more resource-efficient 

during our jobs to make sure we are delivering a solid product as well 

as reducing ongoing maintenance, renovation, and demolition.” 

Additionally, Geneva Rock believes in giving back to the communities 

that keep them in business. Among its donations are $1 million toward a 

construction management program at UVU and $2 million to a recreation 

center in Springville, Utah. Additionally, Geneva Rock employees have 

donated hundreds of hours for area service projects. 

Below: Geneva Rock is one of seven 

companies under the umbrella of 

Clyde Companies and operates 

independently with its own leadership 

and board of directors. The familiar 

white mixer with its distinctive yellow 

and blue logo can be seen statewide. 


GENEVA PIPE 

AND PRECAST 

For more than sixty years, Geneva Pipe and Precast has provided 

high quality precast concrete products at competitive prices, and its 

growth reflects the considerable development of Orem City. 

Its founding vision was to build a locally-owned and operated 

concrete manufacturer to provide infrastructure in Utah County. 

From the day Joe Burnham founded the company in 1956, he 

recognized the talents and skills of young entrepreneur Aldo (Bush) Bussio, 

who worked closely with Burnham to plan and supply materials to 

construct the original facility. Burnham’s belief in Bussio eventually formed 

a valuable partnership that lasted until Burnham’s 1977 retirement. 

As the new sole owner, Bussio was a capable businessman as he 

responded to community needs. The focus was and continues to be 

quality products, a strong customer focus, and a profitable relationship 

with employees. 

Bussio held honesty and respect to the utmost value throughout his 

career and, in doing so, was able to build lasting relationships and make 

outstanding contributions to the concrete pipe industry, according to 

Kurt Johnson, current president and CEO. Bussio was elected as 

chairman of the board of the American Concrete Pipe Association in 

1990. The industry again awarded Bussio for his contributions in 2005 

with the Richard E. Barnes Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Consistency in vision and mission has been possible through longterm 

leadership. Geneva Pipe has had only four presidents in six 

decades: Burnham, Aldo Bussio, Vince Bussio, and Kurt Johnson. 

What has changed is Geneva Pipe’s scope and size. The Geneva Pipe 

Company was originally located on thirteen acres in Orem. A small 

facility with only one machine produced pipes from 4 to 36 inches in 

diameter and only 4 feet in length. 

The land still belongs to Geneva Pipe as the site of corporate offices, 

and the facilities have expanded. Six decades later, the company vision 

was clearly correct. 

As demand developed, Geneva Pipe added additional equipment. 

The first two additions in 1962 were a manhole machine and a 

Packerhead pipe machine. These allowed the company to make 

specialty manhole bases that became important to customers as the 

area’s sewer and storm drains developed into complex systems. The pipe 

machine filled the market need for 8-foot lengths of 12-inch up to 48- 

inch diameter pipe. 

In 1976, a state-of-the-art Rimas Triomat machine upgraded the 

quality of the 4-foot length pipe in diameters of 6 inches up to 18 

inches. Geneva Pipe installed a Module Simplex pipe machine in 1983, 

which increased capacity for 12-foot length pipe with diameters of 48 

inches up to 96 inches. 

In 1983, a Betodan box culvert table offered a nearly endless capacity 

of rectangular and square drainage systems. A Transmatic pipe machine 

completed the Orem operation in 1995, producing double station high 

quality 8-foot pipes from 12 through 48 inches. 


Geneva Pipe continues to add equipment and automation to keep 

up with new requirements and customer needs. Today, Geneva Pipe and 

Precast is a full-service concrete infrastructure manufacturer and 

supplier specializing in underground precast concrete products. 

The company offers a full line of concrete pipe, manholes for sewer and 

storm drain systems, box culverts, electrical vaults and communication 

vaults. Additionally, the company engineers and manufactures specialty 

items on various projects to meet customer needs. 

The company’s philosophy of modernization drove a complete 

refurbishment in Orem during 1997. In 2001, the St. George facility 

was purchased and refurbished. 

In late 2006, Geneva Pipe expanded again to accommodate growth 

with a cutting-edge robotic facility in Salt Lake City. Additionally, 

Geneva Pipe added a metal fabrication facility in Orem, which allows 

them to fabricate much of the equipment needed for facilities. 

For a company to last decades, more than an ordinary business is 

required. It must offer something exceptional. One element is described 

by President Johnson, who says, “When customers purchase, they 

expect a product that will be long-lasting quality they can trust.” For 

nearly sixty years, Geneva Pipe has dedicated itself to providing 

customers with sustainable precast products that will be the foundation 

for many years to come. 

For additional information about Geneva Pipe, please visit our 

website at www.genevapipe.com. 


PRECISION 

ASSEMBLY, INC. 

✦ 

Precise is the word for this circuit 

board at Precision Assembly, Inc. 

Any new business idea must answer two basic questions: “What 

problem am I trying to solve?” and “How can I solve it better than anyone 

else?” Mark Seastrand, a seasoned businessman, and Steven 

VanBibber, a manufacturing engineer with experience in high reliability 

electronics manufacturing, recognized the need for a local electronics 

manufacturing service that specialized in low to medium volumes 

that also could meet the highest quality requirements of manufacturing 

not typically found in small manufacturing operations. 

In 1996, Mark and Steve founded Precision Assembly, Inc., and began 

a journey that would take them down paths neither could have imagined. 

Precision Assembly is an Orem-based electronics manufacturing 

service (EMS) company, providing electronic circuit board assembly 

services to regional companies that choose to outsource the manufacturing 

of their electronic products. Precision Assembly’s customers fit in 

a broad range of industries, including medical, industrial, instrumentation, 

and educational technology markets. It appreciates that each customer 

has distinct needs and is dedicated to meeting each client’s 

unique assembly requirements. The manufacturing systems, processes, 

and service levels they developed have won them several awards and 

the long-term loyalty of their employees, customers, and vendors. 

In 1998, Mark departed Precision Assembly to pursue a career in 

publishing management, selling his half of the company to Steven and 

leaving him with a business built on a firm foundation and poised for 

growth. The engineer now turned businessman knew early on that the 

future of the business was dependent upon surrounding himself with 

the right people, the right customers, and the right vendors. The core 

of the story of Precision Assembly is the people. 

Steve quickly learned that although sophisticated equipment and 

processes are used in electronics manufacturing, it starts and ends with 

the people. Precision Assembly customers have quickly realized they 

could rely on the people who assembled the product, who responded 

to their inquiries, who defined the critical processes and who supported 

the manufacturing team. Those who oversaw the quality systems 

defined the way the organization did business as they managed the 

flow of the various components that are assembled to create custom 

electronics. The company motto of ‘Our Service…. Your Success’ 

became the focus that delivered the real value to the customer. 

In 2001, Precision Assembly was recognized by the Utah Valley 

Entrepreneurial Forum as the ninth fastest growing Utah-based organization 

less than five years old. Additionally, in that same year, Precision 

Assembly was recognized by the Mountain West Venture Group as number 

five on their list of Utah’s top 100 companies. Mountain West 

Venture Group (now known as Mountain West Capital Network) is 

Utah’s first and largest business networking organization devoted to supporting 

entrepreneurial success. Annually, they honor Utah’s 100 fastest 

growing companies for their efforts to create a sustainable niche, consistent 

growth, staying power, and the ability to thrive in an often brutal 

business environment. Precision Assembly remained on this list for three 

consecutive years. 2018 marks the twenty-second year of business for 

Precision Assembly, demonstrating that the awards of 2001 were an 

accurate assessment of Precision Assembly’s niche and staying power. 

More and more local companies want local manufacturing and 

greater control over their supply chain. On-shoring is a real movement 

as manufacturing is returning to this country. The desire to control 

one’s critical intellectual property, the ease of change coordination, and 


the lower risks associated with a local vendor are market conditions 

that will continue to drive the growth of Precision Assembly. The electronics 

content of today’s designs continues to escalate, and all those 

electronics need a manufacturing resource. Along the Wasatch Front, 

Precision Assembly is the sought after leader for electronics assembly. 

Precision Assembly has always been true to its focus on people. 

Loyalty among its employees has provided great stability over the 

twenty-two years of its existence. Twenty-eight employees have been 

with the company more than ten years. Fifty-three percent of the 

employees have been with the company more than five years. Even 

with some significant growth over the past few years, the average 

tenure of its ninety-three employees is 6.8 years. Customer loyalty also 

plays a big part in the long term success of Precision Assembly. In 

2017, three of its top six revenue customers have been partners with 

Precision Assembly for more than eighteen years. Its customer base 

stretches from North Carolina to Seattle but remains strongly concentrated 

along the Wasatch Front. 

The journey begun in 1996 still continues due in large measure to 

the family environment established and maintained by Steven and his 

management team. Steven’s story of Precision Assembly is one of a 

solid beginning under the leadership of Mark, followed by many years 

of on-the-job training as a business manager. In his twenty-two years 

with Precision, twenty of those as sole owner, Steven’s only lament is 

that he wished he had taken his accounting class in college more seriously, 

and that he had augmented some of his engineering classes with 

courses in human psychology. The success of his team proves that hard 

work, a focus on people, and a drive to deliver high quality products 

does solve a problem and does do it better than anyone else. 

✦ 

The MY100DX, one of Precision 

Assembly’s pick and place machines. 


THERMA-GLASS 

WINDOWS & 

DOORS 

For the past thirty-nine years, Daron Wayne Ockey has contributed 

to the community in ways many would not recognize as they drove 

through the neighborhoods and streets of Orem. 

But if you looked closely, you would see his expertise and 

craftsmanship everywhere. Specifically, the doors and windows of 

Orem's homes and businesses. 

In November 1979, Daron was selling insulation. Many would ask 

if he did storm windows and storm doors. At that time, there was an 

energy crunch and people wanted to conserve energy and electricity. 

Curious if he could start a business, Daron obtained a business license 

and named the company Therma-Glass Windows & Doors after 

ThermaFiber Insulation. 

He began going door to door to obtain business. When he got his 

first job to put in a storm door, it took him six hours to complete. 

Daron became a window dealer and worked hard for years. Patricia, 

his wife, taught piano lessons to cover the family's grocery budget. 

Daron plastered foundations for extra income. It was five years before 

Daron and Pat saw a profit in the business. 

If you spoke with Daron and Pat you would notice that optimism, 

grit, hard work, pride in good work, family and relationships have been 

key to the success of Therma-Glass. 

Quotes often repeated by Daron include: 

"The miracle isn't that we finished, the miracle is that we had the 

courage to start." 

"The hard is good." 

"If it's worth doing, then it is worth doing well." 

Daron has made great relationships with clients throughout the 

years. For example, Clyde Wilkinson, a loyal customer, calls him every 

year on his birthday. Daron reciprocated, and they have called each 

other every year on their birthdays for the past thirty years. 

Daron had to specialize his efforts with good customer service, 

quality work, and personal relationships, to remain in business. 

Daron said, "I drive through Orem and Utah County and see all the 

windows and doors we've done in this community over the past thirtynine 

years. I installed that window, or I plastered that foundation, or I 

put on that storm door. I've left my mark on this community." 

Now two of Daron's sons and some of his grandsons all run the 

business together. 

It has become a family affair and school for the Ockey family. The 

lessons of persistence, grit, faith, and family are values that have 

permeated Therma-Glass and the Ockey household. 

The next time you drive through a neighborhood in Orem, look at 

the windows and doors on the houses. There is a good chance that a 

husband and father, determined to provide for his family and deliver 

quality work installed them. 


In 1991, Greg Lupus owned a small supply company but told 

Bob Rasmussen of Mountainland Supply Company, he was tired of 

being a one-man show and would like consideration if they ever needed 

a sales manager. 

Three months later, Rasmussen invited him to Salt Lake City to meet 

board members of Bonneville Industrial Supply Company (BISCO). 

BISCO, founded in 1977, was in trouble with $1.5 million in debt 

and two board members (company investors) ready to close its doors. 

They were tired of putting resources into a money pit. 

They spoke for fifteen minutes, and no one was more surprised than 

Lupus when Bob Barbour handed over the keys and told him to run 

BISCO. The company was his. 

“After they left, I said, ‘What the heck just happened?’ I thought I 

was interviewing for a sales job.” 

Lupus understood financial statements but did not know what he 

was dealing with regarding inventory, people, and trucks. “It was 

baptism by fire.” 

Before leaving, Barbour said, “If I were you, I’d fire everybody and 

rehire whomever you want to keep.” Lupus kept everyone; twentyseven 

years later, ninety-five percent still work for him. 

“I have been blessed with great people, really an extension of my 

family,” he says. “They just needed leadership and understanding that 

BONNEVILLE INDUSTRIAL SUPPLY COMPANY 

we had to be competitive. We provide quality, but service comes above 

everything. Price is two or three times down the list. My sales team has 

a ‘more for your buck’ attitude.” 

BISCO sells industrial tools, power tools, maintenance supplies, 

safety supplies, and more. It offers head to toe safety, from hard hats to 

steel toe shoes. 

“You can go elsewhere or online,” Lupus adds, “but we offer 

professional tools plus professional help. When someone comes in, we 

want to provide answers, regardless of whether they buy anything. 

Chain stores invariably refer their customers to us when they need 

repairs and service. We stay in business because of our service model, 

and we are in the people business.” 

As for the $1.5 million debt? BISCO paid it off in three years and 

has been profitable every subsequent year. 

✦ 

Above: Bonneville Industrial Supply 

Company (BISCO) has many of the 

most recognized and proven brands in 

industrial products plus work wear 

and outerwear at 45 South 1500 

West, Orem, Utah 84058. 

Left: Most of the employees at 

Bonneville Industrial Supply Company 

have been working with Greg Lupus 

since he received the keys to the 

business in 1991, fourteen years after 

BISCO began doing business. 


✦ 

DREAMS 

CARPORTS I, 

INC. 

Below: Barns, carports, garages 

and more. This sturdy, strong 

structure is an example of the 

Dreams Carports I business. 

The owners of Dreams Carports I, Inc., like to say, “You dream it, we 

build it.” And when it comes to Carports, Metal Garages, Barns, 

Commercial Buildings, and other storage facilities, that saying seems to 

be true. Dreams Carports I, Inc., is a quality company operated by 

professional and knowledgeable people with more than fifteen 

combined years of industry experience. 

Reynaldo Toto owns the family-based business in Orem, Utah, 

but serves people far beyond the Utah borders. He and his wife began 

their business in South Dakota but later moved to Utah to be with their 

family. They retained the Rapid City location but established their 

primary operations in Orem in April 2010, located at 488 West 2000 

S, Suite 7 Orem, Utah 84058. 

“For example, typically when you buy a carport, you must install it 

yourself,” Toto explains. “Our building prices include delivery and 

installation.” Their installers are willing to go out of their way to provide 

an impeccable job. 

Dreams Carports conducts its business with the help of its dealers 

and in-office sales representatives selling their best products through a 

large network serving states such as Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, South 

Dakota, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona and, in the 

summer, Montana and North Dakota. 

Toto believes success and customer service is the key advantage to a 

better business. His interest in participating in the Orem Centennial Project 

is to “Let people know we are here.” He adds, “Not very many people know 

about us and our team, but we want to be an active and participating part 

of our local community and provide the best quality products.” 


When Steve and Kay Clegg built a home 

and moved to Orem in the late 1980s, they 

had no idea the impact that decision would 

have on their lives. Orem is where they raised 

their family and where they started a successful 

ornamental iron business. 

They founded Clegg Steel Inc. in 1990. It 

started with one guy building steel railings out 

of his garage and quickly grew into a thriving 

family-owned business with more than fifty 

full-time employees. After working out of their 

garage, Steve and Kay set up shop at the 

Alamo Business Park in Orem for six years 

before breaking ground on a new facility in 

2002 at 1147 North 1565 West, where they 

have been ever since. 

Clegg Steel specializes in fabricating and 

erecting structural steel and ornamental iron 

and has been instrumental in building several notable structures 

throughout Utah. Their projects range from schools to office 

buildings, apartments to fire stations, and public works facilities to 

hotels and museums. 

The Orem Public Works Building, Boulevard Apartments, 

and the Aston Apartments are among other projects Clegg Steel 

has completed in Orem. Among many others, they have also 

done work for Brigham Young University, BMW, FamilySearch, 

UDOT, Rio Tinto, Vivint SmartHome, Utah Transit Authority, 

the University of Utah, Ivory Homes, and Edge Homes. 

Beyond business, Steve served on the Orem City Planning 

Commission from 2005 through 2007 and enjoyed contributing 

to the city that was such a big part of his life, both professionally 

and personally. Their company also sponsored many of Steve’s 

slow-pitch softball teams over the years, earning national attention 

for their accomplishments, including winning the 2013 

USSSA Class “D” World Softball Championship. 

Steve and Kay raised their six children at their home in Orem 

for almost twenty years. “It has been our privilege to help enrich 

the lives of our fellow Utahans through our business, employing 

dozens of people (including friends and family), and to help 

make Orem the great city it is today,” they explain. 

✦ 

CLEGG STEEL 

INC. 

Top: Steve and Kay Clegg are 

surrounded by several employees in 

front of their shop in Orem, Utah. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF ALYSSA SORENSON 

PHOTOGRAPHY, JUNE 2018. 

Bottom: Steve and Kay Clegg (center, 

right middle) pose with three of their 

children and employees: Left to Right: 

Chelsey Thibodeaux, Brad Clegg and 

Rob Clegg. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF ALYSSA SORENSON 

PHOTOGRAPHY, JUNE 2018. 


SKYVIEW GLASS 

✦ 

Top: Skyview Glass, Office Staff, 

2018. From left to right Project 

Managers, Troy Pace and Cory 

Spencer; Accounting, Adam Christian; 

Human Relations, Sissy Olsen; 

Engineering, Tennison Hunter; 

Estimating, Barry Gull; 

Owner/Estimator, Tom Tromley; and 

Project Coordinator, Nate Allen. 

Bottom: Tom Tromley and Barry 

Gull–Skyview Glass, 2006. 

Thomas G. Tromley was working 

as an estimator for a large glass 

company during 2004 and 2005 

and realized there was so much 

work to bid, he was turning down 

more work than he was bidding. 

He decided it was time to start his 

own company. 

He began Skyview Glass with a 

philosophy that holds true today: 

Never walk away from any task 

unless you are proud to put your 

name on it. 

Tom had been in business only 

a couple of months when he ran 

into an old friend at a hardware 

store. He mentioned he had begun 

his own glass company and the 

friend said, “That’s great,” before 

proceeding to tell him about another friend who was building a fourstory 

office building in Lehi and looking for a good glass company. The 

friend arranged a meeting. Tom got the job and installed the glass. Six 

months later, Skyview installed glass for a five-story structure, also in 

Lehi, followed by a five-story building in Pleasant Grove, all for the 

same man. 

“These three projects kicked started the business, and we never 

looked back,” Tom says. 

His first Skyview Glass project had been a small credit union. He 

bid work during the day, and he and his wife fabricated the storefront 

frames at night. Several friends working for other glass companies met 

him on weekends to install the frames. Except for one man, all continue 

to work with Tom. 

Over time Tom needed to hire workers and approached the men he 

knew were hard workers. “Still to this day,” I think of them as friends, 

not employees, and I know they consider me a friend, not an employer,” 

he adds. Seventy-four workers and $12 million in annual sales. 

Skyview also believes in community outreach. Each year he 

asks each employee to donate an hour’s pay, which Tom personally 

matches. It is matched again by the company. That means a $20 donation, 

for example, becomes $80. This money is given to a family in 

need through the Skyview Glass Sub for Santa. It is another project 

they are pleased to attach their name onto. 


As dream homes are built and existing homes are maintained, Lowry 

Doors’ customers have always expected quality products, fair prices, 

and excellent service. Starting from box springs and simple bed frames 

to today’s custom garage door offerings, Lowry Doors has been meeting 

customer expectations since 1950. 

Rulon Lowry, founder of Lowry Doors, began building and installing 

garage doors crafted from wood and bed frames, and functional by 

means of box springs and other creatively used hardware. In 1950, 

Rulon formed Lowry Doors and began developing a company focused 

on providing exceptional garage doors and service in Utah Valley. 

Within a few years, they could purchase hardware from California 

to improve their products. Rulon’s son, Lynn Lowry, came into 

the business and also helped to implement purchasing premade garage 

door panels to go with the hardware, and greatly expanding 

the company and customer base. In 1969, Lynn took over the business 

and within a year built the current facility at 782 North State Street 


Over the years, products and business practices 

changed, but the core principles of professional 

service only strengthened. Lynn was adamant that 

his employees provided his customers with topnotch 

service. Lynn was careful to hire the right 

team members to carry these ideals into the next 

generation. One of those hires, Scott Boulter, is the 

operations manager and has been with Lowry Doors 

for almost thirty years. 

Ron and Dan Lowry, Lynn’s sons, and longtime 

family friend, Lewis Cowley, worked under Lynn 

and eventually purchased the business. Together, 

their success was found in maintaining the 

principles of the company whilst updating product 

offerings and implementing computer technology. 

Today, under the continued direction of Dan and 

Lewis, Marshall Lowry, Dan’s son, heads Lowry 

Doors. His great grandfather was the founder, and 

Marshall represents the fourth generation of Lowry 

presidents. As the premier and oldest garage door 

company in Utah Valley, Lowry Doors services and 

sells to thousands of customers annually throughout the valley 

and further. Lowry Doors no longer uses the same products as Rulon 

did originally, but it will certainly always continue the legacy of 

professionalism through honesty and integrity. 

LOWRY DOORS 

✦ 

Left: From the beginning, Lowry 

Doors has been a family business, and 

three of four generation of leaders are 

pictured. Lynn, Dan, and Marshall 

Lowy are son, grandson, and greatgrandson 

of company Founder 

Rulon Lowry. 

Below: Lowry Doors moved into its 

permanent location in 1970 at 782 N 

State Street, Orem, Utah, almost 

seventy years after the launch of the 

business. This is how the business 

looks today. 


SPONSORS 

Alder Holdings, LLC ............................................................................................174 

Alpine School District ..........................................................................................138 

Alpine Credit Union.............................................................................................121 

Any Hour Inc. ......................................................................................................178 

Blendtec .................................................................................................................98 

Bonneville Industrial Supply Co. ..........................................................................187 

Brent Brown Toyota..............................................................................................118 

Brigham Larson Pianos.........................................................................................120 

Bristol Health .......................................................................................................161 

Bruce Bastian Foundation.....................................................................................142 

Candlelight Media Group, Inc. .............................................................................123 

Center for Women & Children in Crisis ...............................................................160 

Chrysalis ..............................................................................................................163 

Clegg Steel, Inc. ...................................................................................................189 

Cleggs Car Care....................................................................................................122 

Crawford Leishman Dental Group ........................................................................162 

doTERRA .............................................................................................................150 

Dr. Norman G. Jorgensen .....................................................................................168 

Dreams Carports I, Inc. ........................................................................................188 

Eagle Systems, International.................................................................................125 

Escape Salon ........................................................................................................127 

Family Support & Treatment Center ....................................................................164 

First Colony Mortgage..........................................................................................100 

FlexSim Software Products, Inc. ...........................................................................124 

Geneva Pipe and Precast.......................................................................................182 

Geneva Rock Products, Inc...................................................................................180 

Green Seed Technologies......................................................................................116 

Habitat for Humanity of Utah County ..................................................................166 

Harman Companies..............................................................................................102 

Houghton Plaster, Inc...........................................................................................174 

Huish’s Enterprises, Inc. .......................................................................................134 

Kids on the Move.................................................................................................152 

L. A. Bowen Insurance .........................................................................................108 

Lammert, Inc. ......................................................................................................135 

Lowry Overhead Door..........................................................................................191 

Morinda, Inc. .......................................................................................................126 

Mountainland Technical College...........................................................................165 

Moxtek, Inc..........................................................................................................104 

Mr. Mac................................................................................................................129 

Nature’s Pressed ...................................................................................................106 

Orem Community Hospital ..................................................................................154 

Out N Back ..........................................................................................................128 

Precision Assembly, Inc. .......................................................................................184 

Provo Canyon Behavior Hospital ..........................................................................167 

Rock Canyon Bank...............................................................................................131 

Runner’s Corner ...................................................................................................130 

Scofield Tax Service, LLC .....................................................................................110 

Skyview Glass ......................................................................................................190 

Squire & Company, PC ........................................................................................112 

Telos ....................................................................................................................169 

Therma-Glass Windows & Doors .........................................................................186 

Timpanogos Regional Hospital .............................................................................156 

Tour Ice of Central Utah.......................................................................................133 

United Angels Foundation....................................................................................158 

United Way of Utah County .................................................................................171 

Utah Community Credit Union ............................................................................132 

Utah County Academy of Sciences (UCAS)...........................................................170 

Utah Valley University..........................................................................................146 

Vivint Smart Home...............................................................................................114 

Westland Construction.........................................................................................176 


ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Charlene Renberg Winters knew her future would include writing after winning a national 4-H award and college scholarship. The judges said 

her engaging writing distinguished her from all other entries. 

She graduated from Brigham Young University in broadcasting and journalism and later earned a master’s degree in mass communications as well as 

film theory, history and criticism. 

While at the Daily Herald in Provo, Utah, Charlene was an editor in features, arts, food, and the city desk before being recruited as BYU’s arts 

editor. She later became national news manager, science editor, alumni communications director, alumni editor, and taught news and feature 

writing. She won several regional and national writing awards and wrote a humor column for the Herald for 18 years. 

She operates her own business, It’s Your Story LLC, where she writes and edits books, writes personal histories, and freelances for the SCERA 

Center for the Arts and stained-glass artist Tom Holdman. 

About the Author ✦ 193

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

Many people contributed to Orem City: A Centennial Benchmark and deserve heartfelt thanks for their support and efforts to make this celebration 

book a success. It started with Orem City officials, an advisory committee and dozens of people willing and eager to help tell the story of a city they love. 

I recognize that many others had astute comments that helped create a narrative that tells the events and story of their hometown who are not 

included in this list. Thank you so much for your contributions. 

Among those who have supported this book are the following: 

Orem Mayor Richard Brunst; Orem City Council members Debby Lauret, Sam Lentz, Tom Macdonald, Mark Seastrand, David Spencer, and 

Brent Sumner; Orem City Manager Jamie Davidson; and Orem City Assistant Manager Brenn Bybee. 

The centennial book advisory committee: Ryan L. Clark, Kathi Beckett, Charlene Cozier, Lon and Reva Bowen, Jay Buckley, and Peter Wolfley. 

Special thanks go to several Orem residents who worked with me personally and helped provide images, proof reading, background, and who 

shared their stories. 

Kathi Beckett and Ryan L. Clark, for invaluable assistance as advisors who also did leg work for gathering images and helping shape the direction 

of the narrative. 

Jeran Wilkey, professional and gifted photographer, took hundreds of images to give the City of Orem a beautiful book cover as well as inside 

images. Natasha Hehum, UVU photography student, who donated her talents and canvassed the city for essential images. 

Patricia “Pat” Reid, for her passion for the people of Orem and exceeding expectations for contracting centennial profiles. 

Tim Crandall, for sharing his orchard for images and telling his family’s experience as farmers since the 1800s. 

Duff Tittle, for sharing photos, providing information, writing a section on Cascade Fairways, and gathering names of accomplished athletes. 

Journalists Genelle Pugmire and Dick Harmon, for helping with historical information. 

Mr. and Mrs. Brent Sumner, for sharing the history of the Orem-Geneva Times and providing early copies of the publication. Lon and Reva 

Bowen for proofreading, fact checking, and sharing images. 

Jay B. Buckley, writer and BYU professor, for images, captions, editing, and encouragement. Angela Petersen Cottrell, Natalie Dawn Lewis and 

Erlene Lott, for editing. 

Joshua Bohling for long-distance computer support. 

Adam Robertson, Lesa Pulham and April Berlin of the SCERA for gathering dozens of images, proofing the book, copying materials, and scanning. 

Ryan Madsen, director, Orem Heritage Museum for providing images and unfettered access to its information. 

Carole Christensen and Cassandra Christensen Barney for sharing the life of the late James C. Christensen. 

Todd Pedersen and Bruce Bastian for special contributions to the book. 

Nadine and LaDell Gillman for providing “one of a kind” images of Geneva Steel and providing personal story information. 

Hundreds of people on the “You Know You’re From Orem” Facebook page, many of whom came to my home and provided images, books, 

stories and their experiences of life in Orem, especially Ken Crossley, Erlene Partridge Lott, Norene Jensen, Laurel Conrad, Randy Park, Terry 

Stratton, Linda Rowland, Cecelia Harris Fielding, and Merrie Weeks Hudson. 


Acknowledgements ✦ 195

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