- Kelly Paul Beck, age 71, departed this life from his own home surrounded by his family on 123123 at 234 (December 31, 2023 at 2:34 pm). His passing was a result of complications of a several-year battle with Lewy Body Dementia. He was born March 20, 1952 in Provo, Utah to Paul Alton Beck and Sammie Clyde Beck. He was the second of five children. His childhood was spent in Holladay, Utah where he attended and graduated from Olympus High School. He was on both the Student Council and Seminary Council during his secondary education. His family moved to Seattle, Washington for one year during Kelly's junior year but returned to Holladay for his senior year. He attended the University of Utah where he studied English as his major with the intent to become an educator. He took a break after his first year of college to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He served in the Mexico Southeast Mission from 1971-1973. It was on his mission that he developed a passion for the Mexican people and Spanish language. Throughout his life he would collect friends and adopt "family" because he introduced himself in Spanish to someone who looked like a Mexico native. After his mission, he returned to study at the University of Utah. He married Rebecca Jane Cook on their shared birthday, March 20, in the year 1974 in hopes that having their wedding on their birthday would help Kelly not forget their anniversary. Kelly and Rebecca had four children who they raised predominantly in Holladay: Mickey (Sabrina), Lars (Rebekah), Marin (Gojko), Alisa (Ed).
Kelly was an excellent salesman. His charismatic personality and well-crafted communication skills led him to many sales positions in several industries. Early on in his career, he decided to combine his salesmanship and love of hard work by founding All Weather Waterproofing. As a roofing contractor, he especially loved putting roofs on several temple buildings for the Church of Jesus Christ. He also enjoyed that his roofing business enabled him to drive all across the United States to survey and make bids on jobs. After many years of success with All Weather, Kelly sold that business and went on to be a sales representative; first, for a couple of Utah-based artists and then, for multiple roofing supply companies. When his oldest son Mickey proposed starting a roofing business together in 2011, Kelly could not resist the opportunity to operate another company. He and his son Mickey worked together throughout the rest of Kelly's life. His family could never convince him to retire. As a business owner, he was a caring boss who contributed much to the lives of his employees.
Some of Kelly's lifelong hobbies included reading voraciously (he is quoted as saying "books are our friends"), driving long distances, and serving others. He served others in many creative ways, including hosting countless people in need to live with him and his family over many years. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ, Kelly held many service callings. Among his favorite were teaching gospel doctrine to both adults and youth, serving as an ordinance worker in the Jordan River Temple, and, most recently, serving as a Guest Service Missionary.
Kelly was preceded in death by his mother and father, Paul and Sammie, his brother Tim Beck and his sister Carla Howell. He is survived by his wife,children, and 14 grandchildren.
The family would like to thank Aspen Ridge Home Health and Hospice for the excellent care they provided our father. Their service enabled us to have him at home with his family for his final days.
Instead of flowers the family would like to suggest contributions to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints General Missionary fund.
Visitation- Thursday, January 4, 2024, 6:00 to 8:00 P.M. Jenkins-Soffe, 1007 W South Jordan Parkway South Jordan, UT 84095
Memorial Service- Friday, January 5, 2024, 11:00 A.M. Jenkins Soffe
Kelly was insistent that he did not want a funeral. He said,"I don't want people to stand
around and tell lies about me." In place of a formal funeral service, the Beck Family invites
you to come to the memorial service prepared, if you choose, to share a short memory or
Since Kelly did not want any lies told at his funeral, I guess I can tell some here. I have several memories of Kelly, you can decide which are the lies.
I noticed Kelly was a pretty good singer in elemntary school at Crestview in the grade singing time. We were never in a class together then. But then at Oly Jr. we had several classes together and we put together the fist quartet, 7th grade, with Kelly Beck - Lead, Garth Limburg - Bass, Keith Taylor - Baritone and me as tenor. Needless to say at that age it was difficult to make anything sound good. We didn't.
Kelly worked hard on Garth's campaign for VP at Oly Jr. in the spring of 8th grade. He organized flyer handout parties and was singulary responsible for the mafia-style tactics on poster day which ultimately kept other campaigns from entering the school early. He got the best spots for all the posters. We thought that mattered. I'm sure this action alone was the main reason Garth took an unprecidented runner up position in the election.
One night in Lane Clark's basement, Kelly invented "Three-Man Ping Pong." I'm sure someone else has taken credit for that sinces but it was Kelly Beck who got us running around the ping pong table to alternate shots on each side until one of us passed out. It was usually me. Whoever missed the shot got a point and whoever got to ten first ended the game and the person with the least points won.
And speaking of Lane, Our first quarter at the U, Kelly and I were headed to Orson Spencer Hall for an English literature class when we ran into Lane. He conviced us to cut class and cross the parking lot to the first tee of the university golf course. (Its gone now, sadly) We figured Lane would school us both as he was quite skilled in the short game. Kelly shot 39, Lane 42 and I was 45 but I counted all my strokes. (Except the ones I didn't remember)
On many occasions, Kelly would call me to see if I could treat one of his employees who had been injured working for his company. It was rare that any of them could speak English and my Dutch did not jive at all with the Spanish they needed. He would often translate over the phone which was hysterical. I appreciated his confidence and last year, he sent another to me. I called to thank him and report the condition as always. But unlike all the other times, this time we talked for about half an hour to reminisce and his typical hurried conversation had melted a bit. He disclosed his diagnosis to me and we ended with a plan to have lunch together soon. The best laid plans.......
I intentionally left out a few episodes of our camping and front yard sleep outs during the summer after 7th grade. They were simply unbeleivable.
Bruce Gundersen
Since Kelly did not want any lies told at his funeral, I guess I can tell some here. I have several memories of Kelly, you can decide which are the lies.
I noticed Kelly was a pretty good singer in elemntary school at Crestview in the grade singing time. We were never in a class together then. But then at Oly Jr. we had several classes together and we put together the fist quartet, 7th grade, with Kelly Beck - Lead, Garth Limburg - Bass, Keith Taylor - Baritone and me as tenor. Needless to say at that age it was difficult to make anything sound good. We didn't.
Kelly worked hard on Garth's campaign for VP at Oly Jr. in the spring of 8th grade. He organized flyer handout parties and was singulary responsible for the mafia-style tactics on poster day which ultimately kept other campaigns from entering the school early. He got the best spots for all the posters. We thought that mattered. I'm sure this action alone was the main reason Garth took an unprecidented runner up position in the election.
One night in Lane Clark's basement, Kelly invented "Three-Man Ping Pong." I'm sure someone else has taken credit for that sinces but it was Kelly Beck who got us running around the ping pong table to alternate shots on each side until one of us passed out. It was usually me. Whoever missed the shot got a point and whoever got to ten first ended the game and the person with the least points won.
And speaking of Lane, Our first quarter at the U, Kelly and I were headed to Orson Spencer Hall for an English literature class when we ran into Lane. He conviced us to cut class and cross the parking lot to the first tee of the university golf course. (Its gone now, sadly) We figured Lane would school us both as he was quite skilled in the short game. Kelly shot 39, Lane 42 and I was 45 but I counted all my strokes. (Except the ones I didn't remember)
On many occasions, Kelly would call me to see if I could treat one of his employees who had been injured working for his company. It was rare that any of them could speak English and my Dutch did not jive at all with the Spanish they needed. He would often translate over the phone which was hysterical. I appreciated his confidence and last year, he sent another to me. I called to thank him and report the condition as always. But unlike all the other times, this time we talked for about half an hour to reminisce and his typical hurried conversation had melted a bit. He disclosed his diagnosis to me and we ended with a plan to have lunch together soon. The best laid plans.......
I intentionally left out a few episodes of our camping and front yard sleep outs during the summer after 7th grade. They were simply unbeleivable.