Richard Salgy

Richard Roy Salgy, known throughout his 86 years on earth simply as “Dick”, returned to his Heavenly Father in the early morning stillness of March 19, 2026 after a long, valiant struggle with several health challenges. His family surrounded him with love and devotion as he made his way through the mystifying gauntlet of his final days. Through thick and thin, he was unfailingly supported by his sweetheart of 65 years, Joan Marie -- who held his best memories for him when he had lost his way, and sat beside the beeping monitors every night to hold his hand, so he would not wake alone in a strange place.

Dick was born on July 24, 1939 in Duluth, Minnesota, the first child of Ivan Salgy and Marcia Mary Martin. He was the oldest of their four children – all boys – who traveled together down a rocky childhood road through the harsh realities of life during the difficult years of World War II. His father, a Croatian immigrant, was a hard-working welder. He had to stand all day in pain on the sometimes-bloody stumps of his legs that were strapped to his cumbersome wooden legs. Due to a freak railway accident in 1932, Ivan had both legs severed below his knees by the wheels of a train when he fell from a boxcar in which he had hitched a ride.

For the children in a family perilously short of money, with a father triggered by weariness and worry, carrying old-world beliefs about sparing the rod, the only tender heart of the tiny home was Dick’s mother, Mary. Her gentle voice pled for mercy and soothed the painful aftermath of angry punishments. And then, on the Valentine’s Day, when Dick was a few months from his 13th birthday, an unthinkable tragedy befell the family when Mary suffered a heart attack and died in her sleep at age 39. For Dick this was the catastrophic, irreversible end of the good times.

But somehow, his life appears to have been designed to create in him a great heart out of the cauldron of childhood sorrow, adversity, and privation. Under the relentless pressure of
poverty, and the weight of his responsibility as eldest brother, to protect and take care of his younger brothers, Dick developed a deep empathy for the suffering of the poor and needy around him, and an instinctive impulse to help.

As a result, many widows, and housebound neighbors, lucky enough to live in his various wards and neighborhoods, have seen him appear on his four-wheeler after every snowstorm to plow their driveways and sidewalks. The widows rewarded him with jars of homemade jams and jellies, and his favorite oatmeal cookies. He would return home hours later, with a smile frozen on his face, not because his ATV storage box was filled with goodies, but because his heart was filled with joy from helping others. He became legendary--new move-ins believed he must be employed by the city because no one would do all that for free!

He supported friends who were down on their luck with a lot more than sympathetic words, quietly paying for a needed wheelchair, covering a bill or two, sharing from their food storage. He never forgot what it was like to be laughed at by his classmates at school, because he had pieced together broken shoe laces to tie his shoes. His mother pleaded with Ivan to buy Dick a pair of new shoe laces, and he finally did. While in high school, Dick once colored a circle on the thigh of his leg with a blue ink pen, so the hole in his Levis was not so visible when he sat down. So, throughout his life, he did what he could for people in need -- whatever their particular need happened to be.

After high school, he moved to Utah to take a job, and there he met his sweetheart, and
discovered the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was welcomed and included by the young men when he needed the warmth of belonging. And he was drawn to the Church’s worldwide and local focus on Christlike service to the poor and needy—it matched the tender desires of his heart. His years of consecrated service as bishop of the Orem 46th Ward, gave him more expansive opportunities to serve and watch over his own little flock. His affinity for the youth and the working families struggling to make ends meet, gave him special insight into their needs and helped him provide counsel that was both practical and spiritual.

He was an avid fisherman, having grown up fishing with his father, brothers, and uncles, in the crystal-clear blue lakes and rivers of Minnesota. The Salgy family would proudly proclaim, “Fishing is in our blood!” The family had a singular devotion to the walleye. Many trips were made to the remote private lakes in Canada by land and by air. For which you must be willing to fly in on a sea plane with all your gear, sleep in a bunk-bed in a cabin that is bristling with mosquitoes and patrolled by hungry bears, get in a boat before dawn and fish all day, then eat nothing but fried walleye all night. (The tales of those adventures, and the size of the catch, grew in detail and dimension with each telling.)

Dick was a wily and enthusiastic game player, who loved to play poker, cribbage, and Michigan Rummy loudly and competitively with family members -- keeping won/loss records that spanned decades.

He also pursued quieter hobbies. He had a lifelong passion for reading – finding and fixating on a favorite author until he had read everything they wrote. He had a huge collection of Tom Clancy novels, and Lee Childs’ Jack Reacher novels. But his first, definitive, favorite was Louis L’Amour; he proudly collected every one of his novels in hardback.

He also loved to collect coins, and went through several periods of his life where the whole
family was deployed on the hunt for a particular penny or nickel that might randomly appear in a handful of change, round out his series, and be worth millions. He instilled this vision in grandson Brandon at a young age, provoking him to scan every stretch of pavement and parking lot for loose coins. Dick loved nothing more than secretly tossing a few coins where Brandon could discover them with hope and delight.

Dick was in a major happy place at Home Depot and relished the prospect of working with his hands to create order out of chaos. He was a maker and fixer of things, embracing projects that improved the homes and lives of his children and grandchildren, such as finishing basements, remodeling and painting bedrooms, installing pegboard and other craft room enhancements, building shelving for food storage rooms, and famously helping Joan’s parents build their beloved cabin at Indianola.

His long journey of Christlike service to family, neighbors, and needy strangers came full circle in his last mile. When he could no longer do things for himself, he was attended with
generosity, skill, and patient forbearance by a glorious tag team of children, doctors, nurses, ward members, paramedics, neighbors, firemen, and spontaneous acts of kindness that warmed his heart and eased Joan’s burden.

He is survived by a brother, Terry Salgy, and half-sister, Cindy Pribnow (Bob), both of Duluth, Minnesota, his beloved wife, Joan Brown Salgy of Hurricane, Utah, and their children: Ricard “Ric” Salgy (Susan) of Provo, Utah, Teres Salgy Tate of Washington, Utah, and Kerri Salgy Sehestedt of Lehi, Utah.

Now, he has gone to join a host of beloved relatives including his parents, brothers Ivan Robert “Ebb” Salgy (Shirley) of Yuma, Arizona, and Ronald Joseph Salgy (Shirley) of Duluth, Minnesota, two cherished grandsons, Matthew Tate and James Hartman, and great-great-granddaughter Lazara Saldierna who preceded him in death. His roaring laughter, intense water fights and toddler “wrestling” matches will be sorely missed by his surviving posterity: 3 children, 8 grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren, and 2 great-great grandchildren.


FOTO: Private