Charles Larry Hyde February 15, 1937 ~ June 11, 2025

Charles Larry Hyde passed away peacefully, just as he would have wanted: at home, loved, and remembered.
Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on February 15, 1937 to Lynn Hyde and Nina Cruser Hyde, Larry was raised in a hardscrabble household in Monticello, UT shaped by loss, resilience, and grit.
His young widowed mother raised him during wartime and through the uranium boom, while he escaped into the colorful worlds of The Wizard of Oz and circus novels. Those early stories sparked a lifelong imagination and a deep compassion for others.
As a young man, Larry served an LDS mission in the Gulf States, where he discovered jambalaya and gumbo – reinforcing what would become a lifelong love of sausage.
After returning home, fate (and a co-worker) introduced him to Karen, the stunning blonde who would become his wife and lifelong companion. He pulled up in his ’59 Corvette, jaw dropped, and never looked back.
Larry was drafted into the Army, and they spent their engagement apart. During a brief furlough they married in the Salt Lake Temple on September 7, 1961.
Four months later, on January 4, 1962 he was deployed to Germany as the Berlin Wall was being built. He returned just in time for the birth of their first child, Drew.
Together, they raised five children – Drew, Kent, Jordan, Matthew, and Karlyn – with love, structure, and the occasional chaos that comes from raising four boys and a cherished daughter.
Larry worked long, hard hours – thankfully at a desk rather than in diesel fumes like his father-in-law or underground like his father – but always with purpose.
His life was shaped by kindness and conviction: choosing to serve as a medic rather than a marksman, hiring the formerly incarcerated and disabled when few others would, and helping build the foundations of Utah’s disability community.
He quietly gave away wheelchairs, bought suits for grieving families, and stood up for those with no one else in their corner.
He was a loving and steady husband, the man behind Karen’s towering work in raising their children. And as long as there was sausage on the table, he was content.
Larry is survived by his beloved wife Karen, their children and spouses, 12 grandchildren, and four greatgrandchildren. He also leaves behind generations of stories, countless lives touched by his quiet generosity, and a backyard filled with the dogs and cats who knew his gentle hands.
He worked until he couldn’t – and loved until the very end.
Funeral services were June 20, 2025 in Bountiful, UT.