Lowell Frederick Pack passed away peacefully in his sleep at 101 years of age on Good Friday, April 2, 2021 two days before Easter. Fred, as he was known throughout most of his adult life, was born to William Crestfield Pack and Ellen Robbins Pack in Stone, Idaho, on January 20, 1920. He was raised in Snowville, Utah, a farming community just over the Idaho-Utah line in Northern Utah, only four miles south of Stone.
Fred was the second oldest of 3 sons and 3 daughters in the family. He worked on the farm, drove teams of horses to plow the fields, and did all the work required on a farm. He attended grade school in Snowville and high school at Box Elder High School in Tremonton, Utah.
His family were devout members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He wanted to serve a mission for the Church but limited family funds during the Great Depression of the 1930’s prevented him from doing so. In later years Fred would serve as a bishop and stake high councilor in the Church.
While in high school, he managed to save money for college by axing fence posts and hauling them by wagon. He enrolled at Utah State Agricultural College (now Utah State University) in Logan, Utah, in civil engineering. Mid-way through his junior year of college World War II broke out so he joined the United States Navy. The Navy then agreed to let him finish college before reporting for active duty.
In the summer of 1942 Fred was assigned to Navy basic and special training at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California, just north of San Francisco. At church his first Sunday in Vallejo he was invited to the Taylor home for dinner where he met their daughter Marjorie. They dated that summer and then wrote each other as Fred completed college in Utah. Upon graduation in May 1943, his first Navy active-duty assignment could have been anywhere in the world. But to his surprise and delight he was assigned back to Mare Island! Fred and Marjorie were married on May 17, 1944, in the Salt Lake Temple of the Church after which he served the Navy at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
After the war, he found work as a civil engineer in Pasadena, California. Thus began a long career in civil engineering and land development in southern California. He owned his own highly successful businesses throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s in both southern California, and Oahu, Hawaii. He then expanded his land development activities to Island Park, Idaho in partnership with his brother Marvin. While working in Island Park, he discovered and purchased the Rainbow Ranch, a guest ranch in nearby southwestern Montana. He moved his family there in 1967 where they lived many adventurous years hosting dudes and hunters from all over the United States. Due to the declining health of Marjorie, they sold the ranch and moved to Bozeman Montana in 1978, then southern California in 1979.
In 1981 Marjorie passed away from cancer in Rancho Mirage, California. In 1982 Fred married Edith Anderson, a widow and friend from his childhood in Snowville. They lived many happy years split between homes in Rancho Mirage or Carlsbad, California, and Logan, Utah. In 2007 Edie passed away and Fred decided to stay in Logan, eventually moving to live with his son Bob’s family. Fred lived with Bob until his death with occasional stays in Hawaii with son Brent and once in a while with son John in Colorado.
Fred is preceded in death by his parents William and Ellen and siblings Don, Lucille, Eulalia, Marvin, and Norma. His progeny currently includes three sons, Brent (75), John (70), and Bob (64), 21 grandchildren, 48 great- grandchildren, and 2 great-great grandchildren.
A viewing will be held on Friday, April 16, 2021 at 10 a.m. at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7380 South 1300 West, West Jordan, Utah 84084. The funeral service, viewable remotely via Zoom will immediately follow at 11 a.m. The graveside dedication and interment will be the following day, Saturday, April 17, 2021, at 11 am, at the Sunset Hills Cemetery, 340 Golf Way, Bozeman, Montana. Please send any memorial donations to the charity of your choice.
Instructions for participating in the funeral via Zoom are as follows:
1. Joining by computer:
a. Go to zoom.us in any internet browser
b. Click “join meeting”
c. Enter the meeting id - 8012981564
d. A box will open saying “https://zoom.us wants to open this application”. Click “open zoom”
e. Click “Join with Computer Audio”
f. Click “Mute” in the bottom left-hand corner so that your audio does not interrupt the funeral services
2. Joining by phone or iPad:
a. Download the Zoom app
b. Open the app and select “join a meeting”
c. Enter the meeting id - 8012981564
d. Select “join without video”
e. Select “Call using internet audio”
f. Select “mute” in the bottom left-hand corner so that your audio does not interrupt the funeral services.
Friday, April 16, 2021 at 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Friday, April 16, 2021 at 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM