Samuel Hector Lee March 4, 1929 ~ May 11, 2024

Samuel Hector Lee died due to natural causes on May 11, 2024 in Orem, UT. He had just started his 96th year and lived an interesting and long life.
He was born in Park City, UT on March 4, 1929 to Elmer Chatterton Lee and Mary Catherine Raddon. His siblings include Helen, Elmer, and Dixie. Sam and Dixie were great friends throughout their lives.
Readers of The Park Record knew them as Master Sam and Little Miss Dixie. Their grandfather, Sam Raddon, was the editor of the local paper for over 60 years!
Sam kept many friendships from his Park City days throughout his life. Park City High School holds yearly reunions and many from Sam’s class stay connected. He ended up being the last one to die from the class of 1947.
Sam grew up learning the value of hard work and held many jobs as a teenager, including delivering newspapers, picking fruit in Orem, milking cows, delivering medical supplies in Salt Lake City, and working at the Remington Arms Factory.
After graduating from high school, he lived in Provo during the week majoring in accounting at BYU, and worked in the mine on the weekends to earn money for college. He was a reliable employee at the mine and eventually worked every job at the mine.
At BYU, he scored highest in the nation on a big accounting test and took a job as an accountant for Redd Motors in Monticello, UT.
Next, he served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to England for 2.5 years, where he attended Princess Elizabeth’s 25th birthday celebration.
After his mission, he returned to Monticello, where he met and married April Barton. Drafted into the Army, he served two years in Fort Ord during the Korean War.
He owned the US mail route for southeastern Utah, and while on the layover in Durango, CO, he finished college (with the help of April reading all his coursework onto a reel-to-reel recorder, which he listened to on the daily drive).
After finishing his bachelor’s degree, the family moved to Manhattan, KS, where he finished a master’s degree in Economics and coursework for the PhD program. Next, the family moved to Hastings, NE, where he was an assistant professor at Hastings College.
After four years, they returned to Utah, where he worked in banking, as an entrepreneur, as a real estate agent, and as a labor analyst for the State of Utah.
After retiring from that job, he returned to work for Southwest airlines, first at the call center and then in his 70s as baggage handler. “I get paid for going to the gym!” he often said of the years he spent working for Southwest.
Employees got to fly for free, and that was a job perk he really enjoyed! Sam enjoyed square dancing, which included a memorable trip to Russia and square dancing in front of Lenin’s tomb. Sam was always moving, literally and figuratively.
Sam was kind, warm, humorous, and liked good music and literature. He was genuinely interested in getting to know others. And he liked candy!
Sam and April divorced after 20 years and then remarried after 40 years. They spent the last eleven years together in Orem, UT.
Sam is preceded in death by all his family, and children Cecile, April, and John, who died of leukemia.
He is survived by April, five children, 22 grandchildren, and 24 great-grandchildren.
Funeral services are Thursday, May 16 at 11 a.m. at the LDS Chapel at 60 East 1600 North in Orem. Visitation prior to the service from 10 to 10:45 a.m. 
Sam will be buried next to his son John in Provo.
A link to the funeral service can be found at utahvalleyfuneral.com.