Dean Hal Ashby, Electrical Engineer, Writer, dies at age 78

Dean Hal Ashby, a long time resident of Oklahoma City, passed away at his home on Saturday, January 23, 2010.  He was born on June 7th, 1931 in Salt Lake City, the son of William Earl Ashby and Norien Evangeline Jarvis, and was the 8th of 10 children.

He was married on June 21, 1957 and is survived by Birthe Wagner Ashby, his wife of 53 years.  Dean and Birthe are the parents of five sons, Scott, Duane, Mark, Paul, and Sean.  There are 11 grandchildren, and 2 great-grand children.

Dean graduated from the University of Utah in January 1959 with a bachelor's in Electrical Engineering.  While in college he was a member of the Lamba Delta Signa fraternity.  He was also a member of the Intercollegiate Knights fraternity.  Later, he attended University Central Oklahoma in Edmond and graduated with a bachelor's degree in Computer Science.

In June 1948 Dean joined the National Guard, and was assigned to the 115th Ordinance Company.  He later transferred to the 191st Air National Guard and served as a P51 aircraft mechanics Crew Chief.  While in the Guard his unit was called up to active duty in the Korean War and was stationed at Clovis Air Force base in New Mexico.  He went on inactive reserve status in 1953 and received an honorable discharge in 1955.

He served as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Sweden from October 1953 through May 1956.  As a faithful member of the church, he served in many positions through out the years.

Funeral services will be held on Saturday, January 30th at 1:00 pm at the LDS chapel, 12020 Mustang Rd, Piedmont, (Surrey Hills area).  Interment will be at the Fort Sill national cemetery.

Practicing for the Future

Yesterday, (Sunday), Keith was the junior companion for the High Council Speaker in Ventura 3rd Ward.  The high councilor is from our ward and plans to use him through out the coming year to help him prepare for his mission.

His talk was based on Bishop H. Burke Peterson's October Conference talk about the "Ity Values".  Keith spoke for almost twenty minutes, which was surprising because we can't get more than a 2 -3 words at a time out of him at home!

The Darkest Month of the Year

I took the Christmas lights down off of the house today and packed them away in their box.  Soon they will be in the attic with all the other Christmas stuff.  The reason this makes me feel sad is that after a month of brightly lit houses, January just seems so dark by comparison. 

During November the nights get longer but then, almost overnight, the night is lit up by lights everywhere.  The early darkness becomes something anticipated, a pleasure to experience. After January 1st though, nothing, just darkness.  I just wish there were a better way to start off the new year.

Maybe we should all put up white and red lights for Valentines day!