Our loving husband, father, and grandfather Michael Wayne Barnard passed away on May 31, 2018 in Murray Utah surrounded by the family he loved so much. Mike was born on August 4, 1942 to Louis and Lucy (Hollis) Barnard in Portland Oregon. He was the eldest of two children.
Mike graduated from South High School in Salt Lake City and attended the University of Utah. On October 9, 1964 Mike married the love of his life, Mary Ann (Colunga), in the Salt Lake Temple. Their family eventually grew to include three children, ten grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.
Mike worked as a master electrician for most of his working life. After retiring from his profession, he volunteered at This is the Place Heritage Park with his wife. It was here that he was first asked to portray Brigham Young.
This would become one of his very favorite things to do. He also worked at the Taylorsville Recreation Center where he made many friends. For the past eight years, Mike has served as a service missionary at the Church History Museum.
Mike has had many different callings in the LDS church, but the one he probably loved the most was being a door greeter for sacrament meeting. He taught all the little kids in his ward how to have firm handshakes for when they would later become missionaries. Mike was loved by all those that knew him.
He enjoyed traveling with his family. He had a love of learning and for books. Not only did he work on genealogy, but he took the time to learn the history of his family beyond just names and dates.
Mike loved to teach others, especially youth, about history. He did this by portraying historical figures. He started by playing a fictitious mountain man named Zadoc.
He visited many school classes as Zadoc to teach about the history of the American West and the trappers that explored the region. While he enjoyed doing this, it was his portrayal of Brigham Young that he loved doing the most. He dove into history to learn as much as he could when he was first asked to portray Brigham Young.
He owned over 50 books either written about or written by Brigham Young. He would then teach about Young through his portrayal to youth and church groups, family reunions and anybody else that had an interest in the subject. Mike’s greatest joy was his family.
There was nothing that he loved more than spending time with his grand and great-grand kids. Every one of them felt special when they were around Grandpa Mike. He is survived by his wife Mary Ann; sister Carol Herold (Lorell); daughter Janie Wyatt (Jason); son Burt Barnard (Kathy); son Charles Barnard (Susie); as well as ten grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his parents. Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, June 6 at the Taylorsville North 15th Ward chapel (1475 W. Atherton Drive, Taylorsville Utah) at 11:00 a.m. Viewings will be held the night before between 6:00 and 8:00 pm and an hour before the funeral services at the same location. The family would like to thank all the great doctors and nurses at the IMC Cardiac ICU for their wonderful care of both Mike and his family.
They went above and beyond to help and that will always be appreciated.
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