DeMar Gale Funeral Transcription
April 10, 1997
Mapleton Third Ward Meetinghouse
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Mapleton, Utah
Bishop Lynn Patterson:
On behalf of the family I would like to welcome you here this morning . What a beautiful crisp, cool spring morning in Utah. We’re here this morning to pay tribute to one of Heavenly Father’s choice sons, DeMar Gale. The family prayer was just offered by a son, Ronald Gale. Presiding over the services this morning is Elder V. Dallas Merrell, member of the quorum of the seventy. We would like to welcome Elder Merrell and his wife with us this morning. We would also like to recognize President Ainge, who is a counselor in the Mapleton Utah Stake. We will begin this morning with an invocation offered by a brother, brother Eldon Gale.
Eldon Gale:
Our dear Father in Heaven, we are gathered here this morning as family and friends of Brother DeMar Gale and participating in this graduation event. So grateful to have been a part of his life, to have had our lives touched by him and his dear wife and their family. Grateful to live in this land of freedoms and opportunities where we can express our selves and to be guided by the gospel which opens the great vista of what can be. Thankful to have had a man such as DeMar to help us gaze out at that vista and improve our lives. Grateful to live when we have these modern conveniences and technologies that make it possible to travel great distances to be together in such an event. Have the means the means of communication where these things can be made known and spread about. Now we asked for thy special blessings to be with his dear wife, Dorothy. May we all gather around her giving support which we know will occur but in the weeks to come it will gradually diminish. May we not let that occur may we show our love and appreciation for that which she and her dear husband and family have contributed to our lives, and may we so live that one day we will be with them together again. We ask for thy blessings to be upon that which will continue in this service that those things said and done will be in accordance with Thy mind and will, that those who will participate will be able to control emotions and be able to express those things that are in their heart. So again we give thanks for this dear brother and do it the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Bishop Lynn Patterson:
I might say that I have been touched by the beautiful family who has taken the time to be here. What a beautiful sight to see such beautiful people assembled today. The service this morning will go as outlined. We will first have a song by the grand children and great grand children of DeMar and Dorothy. They will sing, “Families Can Be Together Forever”. I might say that is a true and correct principle, brothers and sisters. They will be accompanied by Brother John Hoopes. A grand son will then give a favorite poem. A son, Douglas Gale will give a tribute to his father. We will then have a solo by Carmine Campbell, who is a missionary friend. He will sing, “Each Life That Touches Ours For Good”. He will be accompanied by his good wife, Golda Campbell. Following the vocal solo we will have a long time friend brother Kent Harmon speak to us. A son-in-law, John Hoopes, will then render a vocal solo, “How Great Thou Art”. He also will accompanied by Golda Campbell. And then we will then have the privilege of hearing from Elder V. Dallas Merrell, who will speak to us.
Grand Children and Great Grand Children sing.
Families Can Be Together for Ever.
David Hoopes:
I have entitled this sonnet DeMar and Dorothy.
DeMar and Dorothy
His work-stained hands reached out and touched her face.
Though callused, they conveyed a sea of love,
a tenderness returned in her embrace,
a unity forged firm by heaven above.
These same strong hands would often push a plow,
or craft black walnut with a master’s art.
He worked each day his family to endow,
with life and love --- his tools: strong hands, big heart.
Her same embrace would often calm a child.
Her smile a light to warm the troubled life.
A woman, jewel, a mother pure and mild,
She stood with him as one, his friend, his wife.
And though time’s flow will surely prove them gone,
from roots of strength their nation carries on.
David Hoopes -- April 6, 1997
Douglas Gale Tribute to DeMar Gale
David, we should have had someone else just before me. The Bishop indicated that David would read a favorite poem. This may be the first time Dad heard it because David just wrote it the other day. Very, very fitting, very beautiful.
It is not my custom to read addresses but I recognized early on, as I started preparing for this, the only hope I had was to look down.
DeMar Gale of Mapleton, Utah, passed peacefully away Sunday evening, April 6, 1997. DeMar and Dorothy, his wife of 60 years, had moved back to central Utah 4 years ago after having lived 13 years in Moses Lake and 31 years in the Tri-Cities, both in Washington State. DeMar is survived by his wife Dorothy, daughters, Deloris and her husband Vern Fischer of San Manual, AZ; and Myrna and her husband John Hoopes of Globe, AZ; sons Douglas and his wife LaVon of Benton City, WA; Leon and his wife Judith of Fountain Hills, AZ; Kenneth and his wife Cherrie of Richland, WA; Marvin and his wife Claudia of Taylorsville, UT; Ronald and his wife Shelly of Beaverton, OR; Rex and his wife Susan; and Floyd and his wife Georgia both of Snohomish, WA. He is also survived by 48 grand children, 27 great grand children, 8 brothers and sisters, 6 uncles and aunts and enough close friends to populate a major nation.
DeMar, trained as a pattern maker for the initial startup of Geneva Steel Plant but spent most of his professional career as a general contractor building hundreds of homes, hotels and other commercial buildings, and numerous chapels for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Quality craftsmanship was his hallmark. After a life-time of building he could honestly say he had never worked on a project where the owners would not welcome him back.
DeMar was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day and actively served all his life in bishoprics, high councils, and in priesthood quorum and auxiliary leaderships. He and his wife, Dorothy, served two full time missions for the Church.
DeMar’s passing will leave a major void in the lives all he served but the legacy of hard work, integrity, service and faith he left will warm lives for generations to come.
When we were asked to prepare an obituary for Dad to be published in several news papers, we suggested it may require that each newspaper would have to run a special addition to accommodate the material that should be published to properly acknowledge the contributions that Dad made in the lives so many in the 80 years of his mortal probation. We decided against that. In place of a special addition of local newspapers I would like to share a few thoughts today that should paint a little better picture of one of the truly noble sons of God.
First of all, you can not say Dad without saying, or at least thinking, Mother. For 60 of Dad’s 80 years he was joined at the heart to mother. Sealed in the Holy Temple of God on May 28th 1936, they were instructed to become one, and become one they have. I remember after leaving home to go to college one of my first rude awakenings was to find out that married couples argue. Certainly Mother and Dad were not instantly made into one on that special day in 1936. They were not clones. They had very different personalities, talents and temperaments, but they took the covenants they made in the temple very seriously. They wanted to be one. Years later, after my own marriage, I came to understand that Mom and Dad did not automatically agree on everything. They did, however, judiciously choose how they would come into harmony with their decisions. That process did not involve the children, or for that matter, any other public forum. In public they were unified and it was not an artificial unity. In their private relationship they worked things out to where they were truly one. Mother, we recognize you played a major roll in developing that unity and we express our eternal gratitude for that marvelous example for your children and for all our posterity.
Now a little about Dad. Dad was born in Bluebell, Utah, on October 9, 1916. Dad said the only thing he could remember about the occasion was how everyone that came by would say, “Well, isn’t he a nice big baby?” He claimed that at 12 pounds and 9 ounces of solid muscle he could pretty well take care of himself.
You know how family traditions get started. I distinctly remember Dad telling us when he was three days old he told his mother he could tell she wasn't feeling to well so she should just stay in bed and he would get up and fix her breakfast. I tried to verify that in his written history but I couldn't find it. I couldn't even find where he carried his brother, in knee deep snow, five miles up hill both ways to school and back each day. Since I could not remember which brother it was I didn't know who to ask to verify that family tradition.
Both of these family traditions, although I was not able to verify them, do fit nicely into a total picture of Dad. Both suggest a willingness to serve others. Although his life-time commitment to serving others may not have started when he was three days old, it did start early and it lasted throughout his life. Both Dad and Mother not only willingly served others but, to the extent they could, they involved their family in that service.
I have no idea how many times we have been with Dad to the welfare farm. We have picked potatoes, topped onions, hauled hay, pruned, thinned, and picked apples, pears, apricots, peaches, grapes, and cherries. We have worked on building projects with him for the welfare farm.
From Dad, we learned to pack our own families for moving by helping move countless other families in and out of the ward. We have been with Dad when others thought a washer, dryer, queen-sized bed or even a piano could not be moved into the basement only to have Dad ask, “Is that where you want it?” If the answer was still “yes” he would orchestrate the available help, always with himself on the downhill heavy side, and into the basement it would go.
From Dad, and Mother, we learned that when the Lord, through a quorum leader, member of the bishopric or stake presidency, or any other individual with current stewardship responsibility over us, extended a call, or other assignment to us, the answer was always yes. We also learned that when we accepted any calling or other assignment, it required all our physical, emotional, and spiritual energies. If a meeting, report, or any other routine activity was part of the calling we were to complete it, not by rote but with the understanding that in that particular instance we were agents of Jesus Christ and should do as He would do it if He were personally here. I remember a time in the Moses Lake 4th Ward when a routine monthly home teaching report meeting conflicted with the annual high school varsity versus alumni basketball game. At the time Leon was one of the reigning stars of the varsity. It was important to everyone that the varsity show those old men, the 18, 19, and 20 year olds of yesteryear , that their time was past. This was a new and better year. It would have been easy for Dad, who was a counselor in the bishopric at the time, to say, “Oh, it’s only a monthly report meeting, Leon go ahead, we’ll take notes for you”. It may have been harder for him to say, “Doug and Ken, you can go watch the game”. It would have been still harder for him to say, "Hey, I want to see that game. We'll all skip just this once”. Instead, Dad talked to the Bishop and we had the shortest Monthly Home Teaching Report Meeting in history. We had an opening prayer, separated into various groups to report our home teaching, had a closing prayer and everyone went to the ball game, on time. No presentations, no sample lessons, no instructions from the Bishop, just report and go.
From Dad, and again from Mother, we learned the importance of work. I can still hear Dad explain what the business end of a shovel was for and that the shovel in total was not a prop to lean on. To give a sense of how early the importance of work came into Dad’s life I would like to share a couple pages from his journal. I may seem long but it points out many truly important principles.
The summer I was ten I settled in Vernal. I stayed at grandmother Merrell’s and worked for Uncle Jacob Lybbert hoeing corn, hauling hay, etc. He paid me fifty cents a day. It was hard work. I worked for about a month. I had ten dollars, I sure felt rich. Doc Goodrich had a bicycle for sale. I wanted that more than most anything else I had ever wanted. He was asking $10, so I figured I would go out and get it on Monday.
While we were sitting in church I saw the Ward Clerk sitting on the stand taking minutes. I saw a person or two go up and give him some money for tithing. Then it struck me that I owed a dollar tithing. It bothered me all during Sacrament Meeting. I knew I should pay my tithing but if I did I wouldn’t have enough to buy the bike. I decided I would buy the bike then next time I got some money I would pay my tithing. After all, you pay tithing on your annual increase, so I had plenty of time. Well, I wrestled with the problem and didn’t hear anything that was said in meeting.
As meeting let out I don’t know what happened, but there I was standing in front of Albert Goodrich telling him I had to pay a dollar tithing. As he made out the receipt, he asked me where I was working. I told him I had been working for Uncle Jacob Lybbert, but was through for a while. Albert asked me if I would like to work for him. He would pay me seventy-five cents a day, so I took the job. When I went out of the chapel Doc Goodrich was waiting for me to see if I wanted to buy his bike. I told him I only had $9. He said that was fine, I could pay him the other dollar when I got it. My, was I a happy guy for paying my tithing.
Well, I worked for Albert three days and he said I was one of the best workers he ever had, so he was going to pay me one dollar a day. I worked for him the rest of the summer. I learned many lessons from Albert, like always being on time. He had taught at high school for twenty years and had never been late and never missed a day of work. I can’t say I have that good of record, but I think I could count on one hand the number of times I have been late. He taught me to give an honest days work for an honest days pay and never to gossip. I haven’t done too good a job on this last one.
Albert was a firm man and I was kinda scared of him, but I liked to be with him. He was strictly honest. I stayed with him the next summer and worked for $12 a month and board. When we settled in the fall, he made it $15. When I went to high school I took four years of shop from him.
If I hadn?t let the Lord guide me to pay my tithing I wouldn’t have gotten the first job that paid off at once and more than doubled my income. It is quite likely I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to work with him.
I will have to tell a little incident that happened when I was working with Albert. I had been cultivating corn with a one row, one horse cultivator. You could just fasten the reins up on the harness of old Belle and she would go up one row then turn around and go back down the next all day without having to guide her. I could just about sleep walk behind her, holding the cultivator. Well, it was kind of a tiresome job.
Just an aside for all Dad’s grand children. Did you note that he said it was kind of a tiresome job and not kind of a boring job. What is the difference? I don’t know, but think about it. We can do lots of tiring things without allowing ourselves to become bored with them. Now back to the journal.
One day Albert came home with a two row, two horse cultivator that you rode and guided the cultivator with your feet. If you pushed the right pedal the cultivator would go to the left, etc. I thought, “my, it would be nice to use it,” but I didn’t think I would ever be able to.
Albert took it out and told me to come to where he was, about ten o’clock. I took my hoe, since I thought I would be hoeing the rows behind the cultivator. When I got there, he said to watch him for a round or two then I could do it. I watched, but it didn’t do much good. When I got on and started I pushed the wrong pedal and took out all the corn in both rows. He stopped me and explained again, then said I couldn’t do it with him looking over my shoulder. He said if I didn’t catch on before long, not to dig up the whole field of corn but to quit and bring the horses in.
After he left I pulled out of the field and into a patch of weeds and just set for a few minutes working my feet on the pedals until my right foot knew what my left foot was doing. In a few minutes I went back to work and didn’t cut up any corn. I could even dodge out and pick up weeds between the hills of corn. If he had stayed and watched me I would have been so nervous I would never have learned. Over the years I have followed this practice with new men I have hired. I showed them how to do it, then got out and left them alone.
To me there are some exciting things about this brief passage from Dad’s journal. First of all Dad learned to work when he was very young. These experiences with Uncle Jake and with Albert were not his first exposure to work and yet he was only 10 and 11 years old at the time. Early he learned to give his best but he also learned that an honest day’s work was worth an honest day’s pay and an honest man would pay it. He learned to be true to the covenants he made as he took upon himself the name of Jesus Christ when he was baptized. I know he has told all of his children, and many, many others, that he would rather try and get by on nine tenths and the Lord’s help than ten tenths alone. He was fully committed to not only live the law of tithing, but all of the commandments of God. He learned to be self reliant and to work things out for himself. You know, when he explained to Leon, Ken and me that he could tell the difference between cultivator blight and poor soil or cultivator blight and a problem with the planter, I never knew how he had learned these distinctions. Experience is a good teacher if we let it be. Dad was not one to have to learn the same lesson over and over and over again. During these early years he learned how to train and manage other workers. Lessons he used through out his life in running his own business, in rearing his family, and in providing leadership in Church callings. From Albert he learned to love to work with wood, a love that stayed with him throughout his professional career and sustained him in his retirement years. There is some question in my mind as to if Mother and Dad would ever have moved back to Central Utah if Dad had not such a love for working with wood. He told us he had to move to new territory because he had exhausted his local market for giving away the wooden bowls he made. Down here he found a new supply of friends that would take a bowl if he offered it.
From Dad we learned the importance of mastery of self. I remember turning an acre foot water into a new head ditch only to have a small trickle find its way through a gopher hole out into the field. Before we recognized the problem all the water in the ditch was gushing down the hill finding its own way through a field of newly planted potatoes. Dad’s only comment as he ran toward the disaster was, “Oh peep!” When got exasperated enough to say “Oh peep!” we knew things were serious and we better grab a shovel, or what ever other tool was appropriate, and start helping to solve the problem. Never any profanity, never any finger pointing or name calling, just identifying the problem and solving it.
Dad was a craftsman. For many years he never used any moldings, baseboard or other ways to hide less than perfect transitions from one wall to another or from a floor or ceiling to a wall. The way the materials were cut had to be close enough so that they looked like they grew that way.
Dad was not all work, mostly work but not all. We fished the pot holes, hall creek, eight mile creek, the rolling swells of the Pacific Ocean, the San Poil, the Methow, the Tucannon rivers. We hunted the beat fields of Moses Lake, the breaks along the Columbia river, the clear cuts in northern Alberta Canada, the high mountains in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Utah. Hunting was always important to Dad. He shoot his first big buck when he was in his early teens and his last one when he was in his seventies. As important as that big buck was in his early years, in recent years it seemed to loose much of its importance. To Dad, the highlight of each annual hunt occurred on Sunday, when we never hunted. On Sunday we would gather together, a lesson would be presented by an assigned brother, and we would finish with a testimony meeting. This was the most important event of all the hunting.
Dad and Mother supported us in everything we did, whether it was a speech festival (I still haven’t forgiven Deloris for beating me), a football or basketball game, a talk in Junior Sunday School, learning our multiplication tables, or learning to ride horses.
At this rate if I were to try and recount Dad?s life we would still be here when they needed the building for Sunday services. I’ll cut things short by saying Dad blessed the lives of oh so many in Monticello, Carlyle, and Bluebell, in Vernal and the mining camps at Rector and Merker, in Lehi, and Provo, in Moses Lake, Hazelton, Richland and Houston, in Benton City, in Pocahontas, Sikeston, Washington Missouri, and in Mapleton Utah. Where ever he and mother have gone they have just naturally worked in a pattern of loving and serving the people who became their friends. It has been easy to be counted one of their friends.
One last thing I would like to just mention. This past two weeks have been very hard for our family. They have been hard but they also have been very rewarding. Within 12 hours of hearing of Dad's hospitalization 7 of the 9 children were in Mapleton. Within 24 hours all 9 were there. We knew things were serious but because of very deep and abiding testimonies, introduced to by our parents, we also knew the worst thing that could happen would still be very good. Dad could be freed from the physical limitations that he had recently developed. We each had the opportunity to spend many hours one on one with him. We saw that in spite of the grave situation he was in, he was still the same loving man with such a keen sense of humor that we had known all our lives. An example of that great sense of humor came through when, after not having a drink of water for five days, he asked a nurse for a drink. When she told him she was unable to get him a drink he asked, "Why, is the water line broke?"
Throughout his stay in the hospital he remained a consummate gentleman. Every time a nurse or aide did something for him he would graciously thank him or her. If a nurse gave him a shot, not really a pleasant experience for the patient, he or she would still receive sincere thanks. I never saw Dad short or in any way abusive with any of the hospital staff.
I would have expected Dad's thoughts during his final days to be on his degrading health. It was not. Seldom did he even mention it. But many, many times he said to me, "You know it is funny how all I seem to be able to think about is missionary work. I need to talk to the Bishop and see if my home teaching assignment could not be changed to where I was doing someone some good in gaining or renewing their testimonies."
When we asked the RN from the Hospice group to describe the actual death we were likely to face she answered our question with one of her own. “What kind of life did your Dad live?” She went on to tell us that those who live in love and peace, without animosity to others, without hate or bitterness often die the same way, in peace without undo struggle or difficulty . But those that have lived with anger, unrest, hate and bitterness will likely have a struggle, often a very hard time turning loose of this earth as they try to come to grips with the unfinished business they have left behind. It, of course, is not possible to generalize on peoples lives by seeing what they go through in their final hours. We are grateful for the peaceful quite experience Dad had as he completed his life here.
How does our family feel about the loss of it patriarch? Great loss? Of course. But we also know he and mother have together put together a legacy that is with out comparison. A legacy of love, of service, of work, of commitment to covenants. A legacy that will continue to warm our hearts and even the lives of generations not yet born. The 27 great grand children of today will be at least 30 before Christmas. Those new arrivals will also feel the weight and the support of this great legacy. How do we feel? Maybe it can best be described by reading a brief passage from a letter from one of Dad’s and Mother’s missionary grandson. Elder Gale wrote, "I know his life was not cut short.... Joseph Fielding Smith said, 'No righteous man is ever taken before his time. In the case of faithful saints, they are only transferred to other fields of labor." DeMar was a righteous man. I believe the last few weeks he was being prepared for a new field of labor, a chance to work again, with out physical limitation, in the service of his fellow men.
Together Mother and Dad brought us into the world, together they taught us the way to temporal and spiritual success, together they supported us as we grew and started our own families. Where 60 years ago there were two that loved each other, today there are still those two, but there are also 9 children and their spouses, there are 48 grand children, 20 with spouses, and there are 27 great grand children, all who love each other and particularly love the originating two.
As I got up this morning and finally saw beautiful rays of sunshine warming the earth my mind went back to about 1951. We were nearing completion of the first chapel in Moses Lake. As a building fund project the ward put on a three act play and Dad was asked to take the part of an elderly grandfather of a large very busy family. There was much going on in the families life but Dad brought things into perspective when he read the weather forecast and likened it to the family. He read, "Cloudy today, but fair tomorrow". We have had a cloudy few weeks, but the future looks very fair. We have 115 in our immediate family and this is our first experience with the birth we call death. Dad has gone on to a very fair situation. Where he is we can be also if we choose to live the life he chose to live.
As the grandchildren sang, I know that families can be together forever, in the name of Jesus Christ amen.
Brother Carmine Campbell sang:
Each Life That Touches Ours For Good.
Brother Gale mentioned in his remarks that DeMar and Dorothy had served two missions. My wife and I and several others were fortunate enough to spend some time with Dorothy and DeMar in Missouri. We came to love these people to know them and what special people they were. Brother DeMar and I had the privilege of building a home while we were in the mission field. I always thought he was in charge because he knew so much more about building than I did. But one thing I liked about him was he let me do anything I wanted to do. And so today, Dorothy I haven’t asked if I could do this but I’d like to sing a song for you and DeMar. The rest of you can just listen if you want to.
As I listen to Doug tell some of DeMar’s life, I look over the audience and I’m sure there are many of you that have bowels in your home that he made. Many of you probably have inlaid tables and you grand daughters if you don’t have a cedar chest that he made its too late now because he made many, many things and my how they enriched our lives. I would like to sing “My Friend”.
MY FRIEND
With in my heart there is a feeling
forever tender and strong.
For you my friend who stood beside me
and urged my footsteps along.
Should fortunes fail or shadows fall
your friendly hand would guide me.
Thou time may part the paths we wander
this feeling still will remain
and when at last we go
unto our journeys end
we’ll meet again my friend.
Kent Harmon.
My wife and I have known DeMar and Dorothy Gale for nearly 40 years. We have lived in the same ward and in different wards in the same stake. DeMar and I have served the Church in related callings. DeMar built the house we called home for nearly 30 years. One of our daughters married one of the Gale sons, and we share grandchildren and great grandchildren. So when I tell you that DeMar and Dorothy have done an impressive job of raising their nine children, when I tell you that DeMar is a remarkable man—honest, trustworthy, one who loves his neighbor, his family, his Father in Heaven and our Savior—I know whereof I speak.
I am honored to join with you, Dorothy in this graduation service for your husband of 60 years. We don’t often think of the passing of a loved one as a graduation—but graduation it is. DeMar has completed his mortal schooling; he has taken his final examination in this life, he has gone on to the next phase of his education for the eternities to come. Dorothy, he has gone to prepare a place for you.
I first met DeMar when he arrived in Richland, Washington, assigned by the Church building department to supervise the construction of our new stake center. The Church building program was different then; much of the administration for a building project was in the hands of the local authorities and we depended upon donated labor for much of the construction. DeMar proved not only to be a superb craftsman; he also knew how to get people to work together and to enjoy the manual labor they were doing. That project, completed over 30 years ago, was a great experience for everyone involved. DeMar was never one to seek credit, but I give him major credit for the good feelings that developed in our ward and stake as the project progressed.
DeMar and I share many memories. I will mention only a few.
--There was the day a roof collapsed under us and we rode it down to the floor below, a drop of about 20 feet. I’ve never been quite certain if it was my extra weight, or DeMar’s that brought the roof down.
--There was the day that his son, Marvin and our daughter. Claudia were married in the Salt Lake Temple, forming a union that has produced seven children and 10 grandchildren. I attribute much of the success that Marvin and Claudia have seen in raising their children to the training Marvin received in his childhood home.
--There was the day that DeMar casually suggested to us, “You ought to take a look at the new house I have for sale.” My wife and I looked, we bought. We rejoiced that we could live in a home built by DeMar Gale, built with care, built to the high standards of excellence that he demanded of himself in all that he did. That home was one of the best investments we ever made.
--There was the Sunday that DeMar, as a stake high councilman, and I were assigned by our stake president to select and install a new president in a struggling little branch in Heppner, Oregon. When we received the assignment, I was in hopes that the stake president would give us direction as to the man we should call. He didn’t do so, and we departed on a difficult task. The problem was that most of the priesthood brethren in the branch had already worn themselves out in service to the branch; the others didn’t seem qualified for one reason or another. We drove the 80 miles from Richland to Heppner early in the morning, interviewed the few holders of the Melchizedek Priesthood who lived in the branch and retired to the large assembly room on the second floor to talk with each other and then to seek confirmation from the Lord as to our choice. The selection was made, the confirmation was received, the new president served with excellence. I learned once again that day that DeMar is a spiritual giant, close to the Lord and well able to call down guidance from on high. I will always appreciate the spirit that DeMar brought into that prayer.
There is much excitement across this world-wide Church as we prepare to celebrate the sesquicentennial anniversary of the arrival of the Mormon pioneers in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. It has been estimated that perhaps 70,000 persons followed in the footsteps of those first pioneers and that as many as 6,000 perished along the way as they traveled with rickety wagons and handcarts. The death rate among the handcart companies was particularly high. I heard yesterday that among those who traveled with all their possessions in a handcart, the loss of life was much greater among the men than among the women and children. Why should this be? It was because the men spent their days working to the limit of their endurance, pulling the handcarts, and when meal-time came at the close of day, they gave much of their limited ration of food to the women and children, to keep them from starving—and sometimes perished themselves from fatigue and lack of nourishment.
DeMar Gale is a man such as those who pulled their handcarts across the rocks and sands of the plains and mountains.. One of his great characteristics is his concern for the welfare of other people and his desire to help those who need help.
Many of us remember Elder Bruce McConkie of the Council of the Twelve, who died of cancer in April 1985. At his funeral, Elder Boyd K. Packer, also of the Council of the Twelve, talked of his last meeting with Elder McConkie a few days before his death. They talked of Elder McConkie’s coming graduation from mortality, of his great regret at leaving his family and his brethren, and of his anticipation of what the future held. As they said their good-byes, Elder McConkie asked for a blessing. Quoting Elder Packer:
“Following the blessing, Brother McConkie wept and said: ‘It is now all in the hands of the Lord.” He affirmed his willingness to do as the Lord should wish.
“Last Thursday, as the Brethren met in the temple, the message came from him and from his Amelia that he was ready now to go. Would we ask the Lord? At the altar that was done. The following day at Amelia’s invitation his family knelt around the bed for a final family prayer. His son Joseph was voice. At last they were willing to let him go, and at the very moment they asked the Lord, his passing came. It was a tender and sweet experience for the family.”
And so it has been with DeMar and Dorothy and their family. DeMar has suffered for some time with an incurable disease. As the time drew near for him to leave his family and friends and all that he has cherished on this earth, his children gathered about him. Last Sunday his sons joined in giving him a final blessing. And soon, he passed peacefully to the other side of the veil. As with Bruce McConkie, DeMar’s transition from mortality to the next world was a sweet experience for him—and for the family.
There may be those who think that Elder McConkie’s passing was untimely, that the Church still needed him and that his family needed him. But we should recall the words of President Joseph F. Smith, as found in D&C 138, to the effect that many faithful elders, after passing to the other side, are called to teach the gospel to the spirits of those who died never knowing the truth. Elder McConkie’s mortal probation had been completed; he now had work to do on the other side of the veil.
There may be those who think that DeMar’s passing was untimely, that they weren’t ready to say good-by to him yet, that Dorothy still needs him; that he has grandchildren and great grandchildren who yet need to learn from him. But his mortal probation has been completed and he has work to do on the other side of the veil, perhaps in taking the gospel to those who are still waiting for it, perhaps in watching over the construction of churches—or temples, here on earth..
Sister Harmon and I have a son, Peter, who died 26 years ago as a result of a massive heart attack while he was a missionary in Japan. Peter had loved his mission. He had been an excellent missionary. He loved the Japanese people. We asked “Why was he taken at this time, when he had so much to offer?” One of the things that pulled us through that time of sadness was the feeling that Peter was needed on the other side of the veil to teach the gospel, perhaps to the Japanese people.
Three or four years later, I dreamt that Peter and I met again. No words were spoken. We embraced. I still remember with great anticipation the joy I felt at being with Peter again, if only for a moment. I know that the time will come when Sister Harmon and I will see and embrace Peter again and that the reunion will be sweet indeed. I know that the time will come to you, Dorothy and to your children, when you will once again join DeMar and rejoice in being together.
Now—what does DeMar expect of us who are left behind? He hopes and expects that his children will see to it that his Dorothy is well cared for—that she will not be forgotten by her loved ones. To you who are children and grandchildren, whose homes are scattered over far distances. Much as you might wish it, Dorothy can’t live with all of you. But it is important that you visit often and write often when you can’t visit. She will be waiting for your letters. She will cherish them in her lonely hours.
DeMar wants desperately for each of his sons and grandsons to be the kind of man he has been—a man who loves the Lord and shows it by the way he lives. He wants each of his daughters and grand-daughters to be as outstanding a Handmaiden of the Lord as Dorothy has been. He wants each of his descendants to contract an honorable marriage, one that will endure into the eternities, and provide an ideal home environment in which their children can be trained and nurtured in a Christ-centered environment.
I am grateful to know that I have a Father in Heaven who knows and loves me. I am grateful for the plan of salvation and the atoning sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I want to close with Elder McConkie’s final testimony, delivered in General Conference in April 1985
“Let it now be written once again—and it is the testimony of all the prophets of all the ages—that he is the son of God, the Only Begotten of the Father, the Promised Messiah, the Lord God of Israel, our Redeemer and Savior: That he came into the world to manifest the Father, to reveal anew the gospel, to be the great exemplar, to work out the infinite and eternal atonement: and that not many days hence he shall come again to reign personally upon the earth and to save and redeem those who love and serve him.
“And now let it also be written both on earth and in heaven, that this disciple
does himself also know of the truth of those things of which the prophets have testified. For those things have been revealed unto him by the Holy Spirit of God. And he therefore testifies that Jesus is Lord of all, the Son of God, through whose name salvation cometh.”
I, too, testify to these truths in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
John Hoopes sang:
“How Great Thou Art”
Elder V. Dallas Merrell:
This is an inspiring service under the direction of the priesthood and attended by wonderful folks. DeMar was my cousin and my friend. I’ve had many wonderful thoughts.
DeMar had many more brothers than were born to Irene. LaVoir, didn’t your consider him like a brother, and Sterling. Porter was a little older, but we all thought of him like a brother. And I see others here who were influenced by his leadership and by his service. President Thurn J. Baker, of the Grand Coulee Stake and the Moses Lake Washington Stake who was his Stake President for many years. I’m sure you’ve had some wonderful thoughts, haven’t you Thurn. Would you like to come up and express them? I was just a little late. He is doing this (shaking head side to side). I’ve of those who would like to speak and offer gratitude to DeMar and to Dorothy. Marilyn Stevens was in Moses Lake at the time the Gale’s came.
One of my first recollections of DeMar, thou I think, did he stay in our home in Idaho, did he come up and help build the business there. It was Donald. It was both of them. That is what I remember. I remember DeMar helping teach me the Articles of Faith and I’ll always be grateful to him for that.
And then when they came to Moses Lake and it was near the winter time wasn’t it Dorothy? And I remember my dad saying, “Dallas, go and get that cow, which ever it was, and take it to DeMar and Dorothy so they will have some milk for the winter. So I walked a cow from May valley to Hiawatha valley, and I remember being very grateful that they gave me a ride home, it was way after dark.
DeMar built our home in Moses Lake. It still stands, it is still in the family.
He was George Fannin’s and my scout master, such as scouting was in those days. George went on to become a professional scouter, having started at DeMar’s tutelage.
Well you could say many things, each of you. I hope you’ll remember you grandfather and your great grandfather, your father. We must remember him and his influence and his teaching and his example. As has been stated so well today.
I was Leon’s home teaching companion. Remember that, when you were barely a teacher and I was a young priest. We were assigned some inactive families. I know that DeMar had a strong influence on Leon for that home teaching and we went out I remember one couple brothers who lived in a basement house out beyond your place. I don’t think they ever spoke to us or looked us in the eye. We’d go knock on there door and one of them would come and open the door and they would both then set on their rockers and rock and look at the ceiling. I’m sure DeMar was encouraging Leon, “Just keep going.” It looked pretty bleak but I understand they later took their families to the temple.
There were other wonderful experiences where I felt DeMar’s influence.
I was with my wife Karen in a sacrament meeting yesterday. President Hinckley presided. And then we remembered together and heard testimony of the things spoken of here today that are so important for us today. President Hinckley bore witness of the resurrection. He said without the resurrection there would be no Christmas. It all ties together. The things which you have learned from DeMar or learned through his sons and daughters are true. President Hinckley made an interesting statement yesterday, he said, “I’m grateful for the plan of salvation and the promise of exaltation. And then he said, and this is what is interesting to me, “We don’t know very much about exaltation . We know very little, but I think it is going to be very wonderful.” And then he said, “ I’m sure it is going to better than this.”
And we don’t, we know of the promise, we know that we are to become like our Heavenly Father and that is what He wants us to do. The whole gospel plan is to draw us to him. Come unto Christ so that we can then stand in the presence of God and with Him as our advocate, and with His tender mercies, plead for us so that we could come and inherit that which the Father has promised us and beckoned us, pleaded with us for all our lives to come and partake of.
We don’t know a lot of details, we don’t know exactly what DeMar is experiencing but we know that he has and been embraced by his mother and his father, his grand parents and by other friends and associates. With the promise that having done certain things that he will be okay and that he can then advance.
And so the central thing that I have been thinking of here, hearing the beautiful music and the tribute by Douglas to his father and the other things that have occurred is that DeMar is okay and Dorothy is okay. They have claim upon the celestial kingdom and the highest of blessings inside that celestial kingdom. They have completed all that is necessary both to be saved and to exalted in that celestial kingdom. I promise you that. They are heirs of the highest blessings promised by our Father in Heaven. Now why do I know that? For that I know that. Well for one I know DeMar and I know Dorothy. I don’t think they have betrayed that which I knew of them earlier so they have endured.
Heavenly Father has told us quite precisely what to do. The mission of the mission of the church is to help us to do that, and to have that occur in our lives. And so the mission of Church is to invite all to come unto Christ. The savior said over and over again for us to come unto Him, to take upon us His name. The First Presidency and the twelve has sent a communiqué for all the members of the Church just last November telling us quite precisely what we must do to inherit all that the Father has promised.
One is that we must be baptized. If there happens to be any descendent or friend of DeMar Gale who has not been baptized I asked you to invite them, “Will you come and be baptized?” You have to be eight years of age we all know, so we have to wait and prepare until that time of accountability.
Then we must go beyond that. Every male must receive the Melchizedek priesthood in order to receive all that the Father hath. I would encourage you, and call upon you, to invite every descendent of DeMar Gale, the males of age, to come and be ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood. There is none disqualified. If there are any who are a little tardy then invite them and don’t give up, because with the marriage of DeMar and Dorothy in the temple and the sealing there, they have claim upon their posterity. But they must receive the essential priesthood ordinances. So please be baptized, and please, brethren, be ordained. Wives encourage your husbands and others to come and receive the holy Melchizedek Priesthood. We can not be saved and exalted in the Celestial Kingdom without it.
Then so the parents can offer that blessing to their children, setting an example, and also to lay claim by the sealing power upon them, thirdly we must come to the temple and receive our endowments. That is essential, it is a prerequisite, it is required. So I would invite every one of you to come to the temple to receive your holy endowments. The brethren must have the Melchizedek Priesthood, the sisters must be worthy. We would want every one of you to come and receive that. Then for husband and wife, come and receive the holy sealings in the temple. And when you have done that, maintaining a current temple recommend, endure to the end, be worthy of those blessings, then you stand ready to receive all that the Father hath.
That is the message of the Church, and that is the message of our prophet. And that is the message of the program of the Church of which you are apart or which you must become a part of it.
I hope and pray that as we think of the wonderful live of DeMar that we recognize his great personality and we recognize his character, his thrift, his honesty, and love of beauty, his diligent work, and his integrity. We also need to realize that in addition to these qualities we have seen in DeMar, we must receive essential priesthood ordinances, that will enable us to receive all that the Father hath which. He has promised this to those who would be true and worthy.
I love DeMar Gale and I love Dorothy and I love their family. I admire you and I draw strength from you. I hope and pray we as an extended family will all be true and faithful that we can have this type of reunion in the proper place in times to come. I’m grateful for his ancestors, those who came before, and those who were first born in the Church and their friends and associates. I’m grateful for the Priesthood by which this service is conducted today and by which this grave will be dedicated and by which we have received great blessings and great promises and potentialities. I testify that God does live, that Jesus is the Christ, that He is our Savior, our redeemer, He is more than an elder brother, He is central to our lives and must be so ever more. This I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Bishop Lynn Patterson:
Brothers and sisters, this hour that we have spent together has been a wonder way to spend the time today. Speaking today, representing the members of the Mapleton 3rd Ward we were excited to hear that a older couple planned to move into our ward about 4 year ago. And as we have had the privilege to get to know brother and sister Gale we don’t use that terminology any more.
We appreciate the sweet spirits that they brought into our ward, their smiling faces, and the great attitude and testimony that they always carried with them, either in their home or as we would meet each Sunday.
Dorothy, I’ve had the opportunity to look over this fine congregation and to see many of your posterity. Sixty years ago, I think you and DeMar probably would never have guessed the beautiful spirits that would come into your family. I’m sure that your heart is warmed to see the beautiful people, the lives that they are living and the way that they are following the example of the Savior.
I just turned 50 a few weeks ago, so I guess I am one of those, but the older I get the more I bare testimony to the fact the decisions we make in this life weigh tremendously on the blessings of eternity. I’m a high school principle, that is my part time job, and as a high school principle I seem to hear youth say quite often, “It doesn’t matter what I do in my life. It only effects me.” Well we know how short a vision and focus that is. The decision we make, the obedience that we choose in our lives here, not only bring tremendous blessings in this life and the joy that we seek, but will bring great blessings in the here after. I bear testimony to you that that is important.
It is the wish of each parent that each generation will improve. And that those who follow will learn from our experience and our example and follow that which is good and perhaps will make a little bit of improvement on that which they may say they didn’t like.
You’ve had a tremendous example from this beautiful couple, from your parents, and I would hope that as grand children and great grand children that taking what has been said from this pulpit today, you will make the commitment to be obedient, that you will follow the Savior Jesus Christ. I bear testimony to you that this is the truth, and this is the way we will be blessed in living eternal life.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth, the baptism, those beautiful covenants that we make to witness in all places and all times for the Savior are very important in our lives. The great restitution of all things, the blessing of covenants in the temple, tremendous covenants, give us great hope. I hope that as grand children and great grand children, you will continue to make the commitment to be obedient and to follow the Savior Jesus Christ. Brother Gale would say those things to you as I’m sure he has many times. I pray that you will live by the spirit that you will have faith in every foot step that you take in this life. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
We would like to thank those today who have given us the spoken word and the beautiful music that has been rendered. We would like to thank Sister Annett Evans for the prelude and the postlude, which she will play. We would thank the Wheeler Mortuary for the service that they have provided the family. We would also like to express appreciation to the Mapleton 3rd Ward Relief Society for the good sisters who will be helping with the flowers and will also be providing a luncheon here in the cultural hall that will follow the internment. Paul Bares will be grand children of DeMar and Dorothy: Craig Fischer, Dallas Gale, Gregory Gale, Robert Gale, Peter Gale, David Hoopes, Eric Gale, and Travis Gale. Following these services internment will be in the Springville Evergreen Cemetery where a brother, Donald Gale, will offer the dedicatory prayer. A son, Marvin Gale, will now offer the benediction.
Marvin Gale
Our dear and kind Eternal Heavenly Father, we thank thee for the sweet and wonder example we have experienced from DeMar Gale and for the void he has left in our lives. We thank thee for that void, Father, in as much as it can motivate all of us to live better lives, cleaner lives, and be recipients of the blessings promised us by thy servant, Elder Merrell. That by holding the holy Melchizedek Priesthood and entering thy temples, being properly baptized and so forth, we can be with Dad again and not have a “until death do you part” type of arrangement but see him in the worlds to come. Help us to know as we go forth from the internment that we can bouy each other up, receiving the promises in the scriptures from the Sermon on the Mount that those who mourn shall be comforted. Help all to receive that comfort and thy peace, we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.