William "Bill" Lewis Read

William Lewis Read graduated from mortality on September 25, 2026, at the age of 75. Bill was born on September 16, 1951, in Salt Lake City, Utah, the oldest child of William Earl Read, Jr., and Eunice Frost Read. He was such a beautiful baby that people often commented, “He’s too pretty to be a boy.”

The night before Bill’s birth, his parents attended the Utah State Fair, and the fair became a birthday tradition for most of his life. When he was one year old, he slept through the entertainment his parents were watching but clapped his hands in his sleep whenever the audience applauded.

When Bill was attending the new Mountview Elementary School, he told his mother that she probably couldn’t help him with his homework “because it’s division — LONG division.”

Bill loved dogs, cats, travel, camping, and the outdoors. Besides travelling to Idaho to visit relatives, Bill’s first big trip was to Pasadena, California, where his Read grandparents took him, his father, and his sister Ronda to see the Rose Parade in 1962.

Bill played the trombone throughout his school years. His family enjoyed seeing him march in parades, including the Pioneer Day parade, when they watched from the Pioneer Trailer Court on State Street where their Read grandparents lived.

During his high school years, Bill participated in many musical and theatrical events at school and at various Church and community productions.

Bill’s first job was passing out handbills for Food Town grocery. He also did yard work and spent some time selling LDS record albums.

Bill went to the Pennsylvania (Spanish) Mission in 1970. His first day there was “Turkey Day,” which he spent with the president, the president’s wife, and the mission-home staff. He wrote that he had four or five dinners that day and first went door-knocking that evening. During his mission, he helped set up a Spanish branch. At one time, in the town of Donora outside Pittsburgh, he and his companion were living with two Roman Catholic priests, Father Denapoli and Father Joseph, in the church rectory. There were no apartments to be found within their whole area, so the English elders who were friends of the priests told them about the elders’ situation, and the fathers invited them to stay at the rectory for a time.

In 1976, Bill was hired by Youth Development Enterprises to supervise youth working in the pineapple fields in Hawaii. He came home with sun-bleached hair and leis for his mother and sisters.

Bill studied at the Ron Bailie Broadcast School and worked at the KOUS TV station in Hardin, Montana, where he got to know the Custer battlefield.

Bill's career was in security. He did security work in apartment complexes and at concerts for crowd control. He did night watch, armed security alarms, did Electro Controls, and worked in cabinet-shop warehouses.

Bill is survived by his sisters Ronda Cunningham, Rosanne Schulthies, and Ramona Morrill; brother Dave Read; brothers-in-law Don Schulthies and Wayne Morrill; half-brother Leonard Stewart; sisters-in-law Regina Read and LaWauna Stewart; and many nieces and nephews. He is preceded in death by his parents and his brother-in-law Walt Cunningham.

Graveside services will take place on October 5, 2026, at 12:00 noon at Lake Hills Cemetery, 10055 S. State St. in Sandy, UT.