Dennis Blake Everett, age 76, beloved family man and disciple of Jesus Christ, passed away peacefully surrounded by his wife and children on April 24, 2024 at his home in Woodland Hills, Utah after a short, brave battle with cancer. He had no fear of death, knowing without a doubt that it is not the end and that he would be with his beloved family, past and present, again.

Dennis was born on January 28, 1948, son of Blake and Berniece Johnson Everett. He grew up in the idyllic small town of Mapleton, Utah in a time when there were more sheep than people, everyone knew each other, and there wasn’t a single stoplight. He served in the Central American mission as one of the earliest missionaries there in the late 1960s and was very happy to learn recently that a temple would be built in Maracaibo, Venezuela, one of his mission cities.

Dennis married Rebecca Fechser in the Logan Temple in 1970. They are the parents of Dennis (Catherine Terry), Joe (Judith Hale), Chad (Tanya Ludlow), and Carly (Simon Phillips). They have fourteen grandchildren and one great-grandchild. From when their children were first born until the end of his life, Dennis prayed together with his wife every night for each of their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren by name. He loved his dear wife and all his family. They were indeed the most important part of his life. He worked hard and made many sacrifices in generous support of his family.

He set an example of lifetime service to others including service in many church callings in his lifetime. At times, especially while living overseas, he held multiple church assignments at a time. Living in many cases where congregations covered a large area, his service included a lot of driving. His favorite assignment was as a teacher in priesthood and gospel doctrine classes. In later years, he enjoyed serving in the temple and indexing. He contributed nearly 40,000 indexed names to FamilySearch, mainly for records in Russian and Spanish languages.

Dennis served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, with assignments in various states and in Germany. After graduating from Brigham Young University with a degree in Russian language, he worked for the Department of Defense while also serving in the U.S. Army Reserve. His favorite career assignments included teaching Russian language to military and civilian government personnel. His dedication to providing quality learning experiences for his students led him to earn a Master’s Degree in Educational Technology from Pepperdine.

A renaissance man, Dennis loved to read in his extensive home library, study languages, history, philosophy, and many other subjects, play multiple instruments, and travel. He could speak Spanish and Russian fluently, had a good conversational and reading ability in German, and studied various other languages including Serbo-Croat and some Icelandic and Hebrew. He played the accordion from a young age and taught himself to play the piano and the guitar. He enjoyed singing while playing the accordion or guitar. He and his wife Rebecca used their musical talents to write lyrics and scripts for church roadshows and sang at family and church events. He also sang in church choirs. Dennis traveled to many places. Besides Utah, he lived with his family in California, Texas, Maryland, Germany, England, Hawaii, and Iowa, and had many travels there and in neighboring states and countries. He loved spending time in the outdoors, from fishing with his dad as a boy to camping and hiking with his wife and kids. He enjoyed skiing in his younger days and was even a ski instructor in Germany with his wife. Lately, he and Rebecca mainly enjoyed exploring the Utah desert for rocks and gems and kayaking on Utah lakes.

Dennis will always be loved and fondly remembered as the best husband, dad, and grandpa one could wish for. He is survived by his wife and posterity and his sister LaRaine Everett Wetherell.

The family wishes to thank the amazing Larysa Mitchell and the wonderful Annie Steele for their very competent and tender care during hospital and hospice care.

Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m., Wednesday, May 1, 2024 at the chapel at 220 Woodland Hills Dr, Woodland Hills, with a viewing from 11:30-12:30.

Services will be live-streamed. To view, click HERE.