Reed’s Obituary Reed L. Moss, 88, died March 29, 2019, after a long and courageous battle with pancreatic cancer. He was born to John William and Zelma Bell West Moss November 21, 1930, at his parents’ home in Ririe, Jefferson County, Idaho. His mother told him the snow was four feet deep in their back yard on that day.
He grew up in Ririe and on the family farm on Antelope Flats, which is about nine miles east of Ririe. He graduated from Ririe High School in 1948. He attended Ricks College and BYU Provo for one year each and then in November 1950 was assigned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to serve for two and a half years as a missionary in the East German Mission.
Following his church mission, he was drafted in 1953 into the United States Army and after months of intense basic and Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) training was assigned as Special Agent CIC in Frankfurt, Germany. There he worked with the West German Police and the FBI to investigate espionage, sabotage and other illegal activities during the Korean War and Cold War. He deeply appreciated the physical and mental training and discipline he gained in the military.
He credited that experience, and his association with the Special Agents with whom he worked, with leading him to seek a career as an attorney. In July 1955, he was honorably discharged from the Army and then resumed his studies at BYU Provo. While there as a student he was hired to teach German courses.
In June 1957, he graduated from BYU with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing. He was awarded a full-tuition scholarship by George Washington University Law School, in Washington, D.C., and spent the next three years there, graduating in 1960. Reed married Elizabeth Schreyer, from Salt Lake City, Utah, December 20, 1957 in the Salt Lake City Temple.
She has been his soul-mate and companion for more than sixty-one years. To this union came seven children: Rebecca (Joe) Ellsworth, Michael (Kathy) Moss, Jeffrey (Linda) Moss, Carolyn (Todd) Karford, Angela (Trevor) Clayton, Annette (Alan) Sargent and John Jared “JJ” (Natalie) Moss. They have thirty-three grandchildren and twelve great grandchildren, with several additional great grandchildren on the way.
They lived in Washington, D.C. during law school, then in two different homes in Idaho Falls and Ammon, Idaho as their seven children grew up. In 1996 they built their dream retirement home on the family dry farm on Antelope Flats. His grandmother, father and uncles homesteaded the farm in the 1920s.
The farm has been a cherished place to each generation of the family ever since. At the top of some his professional letterhead was inscribed “Farmer Attorney” and he often said he became an attorney so he could afford to farm. To him, there was no clear line between his Faith and farming.
He was an editor on the George Washington University Law Review and co-researched, co-wrote and published a major Law Review article commissioned by the U. S. Government. He was awarded Graduate of the Year. His law school training helped him to become a prolific writer and public speaker.
He wrote and delivered hundreds of speeches at funerals, public events and church meetings. A crowning literary achievement during his later years was writing and publishing The Potter and the Clay , a novel based on a true story about growing up in a small Idaho farming community with his family during the Great Depression and World War II years. After graduating from law school Reed and Elizabeth returned to Idaho Falls and he joined George C. Petersen, Jr., and shortly after, Dennis Olsen, in a law firm which eventually became Petersen, Moss, Olsen & Carr.
He practiced law in Idaho Falls for thirty-seven years and retired in 1997, when he and Elizabeth were called by his church to be the Mission President, and Companion, of the Leipzig Germany Mission for three years. He served in numerous other church callings, including bishop’s counselor, eighteen years in the stake presidency of the Ammon Idaho Stake, counselor in the Idaho Pocatello Mission, temple sealer in both the Idaho Falls and Rexburg temples, youth Sunday school and temple preparation teacher, dedicated home teacher and many others—all of which he thoroughly enjoyed. Some of his community assignments and other accolades include: President of the 7th Judicial Bar Association, member of the Idaho Supreme Court Rules Committee, YMCA Fund Raising Committee, and co-chairman of the Eastern Idaho Community College Committee to organize EITC into a Community College.
He greatly admired the way the latest committee obtained help through legislative funding and how they presented the project to the voters. He was also a co-chairman of the “Unity in the Community Committee,” which brought together many different Faiths to eliminate bullying from schools and vandalism from the city, and to provide Faith-based graduation ceremonies, separate from school graduations. He was an Adjunct Professor of Law at BYU Provo Law School from 1992 to 1996, teaching Wills and Estates and Law Practice Management.
In 2003 he received the Idaho State Bar’s Professionalism Award—one of the highest honors any Idaho lawyer might attain during his or her career. In that same year he and Elizabeth were honored by BYU-I with its Distinguished Emeritus Award. Although his lifetime of service and his professional accomplishments are impressive, what is most amazing is his genuine and unselfish love for all who were blessed to know him.
He made each of his children, grandchildren, missionaries, students, ward and stake members, etc. feel they were his “favorite”. Reed was preceded in death by his parents, brothers: Merlin and Joel; sisters: Lael, Helen, Rhea and Ruth; and a grandson, Brian Ellsworth, who died as a passenger in an automobile accident near Denver, Colorado at age 14.
Reed is survived by his wife and seven children. Funeral services will be held 12:00 p.m., Monday, April 1, 2019, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Ririe Stake Center, 14061 North 130 East, Ririe, Idaho, Bishop Todd Sutton officiating. A viewing for family and friends will be held from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Sunday, March 31, 2019 at Coltrin Mortuary, 2100 First Street, Idaho Falls, Idaho.
A viewing will also be held 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. Monday morning before the funeral. Interment will be at the Ririe Cemetery where military rites will be performed.
If you found any mistakes, or you would like to add/remove to this obituary, please contact us by email: info@obituary.memorial. We never ask money for this.
