Birth date: Jul 31, 1926 Death date: Jun 14, 2016
James L. Robertson 1926 - 2016 Our dear father James Lyman Robertson, the son of Hyrum Cumorah Robertson and Anna Laura Peterson, was born July 31, 1926 in Pleasant Grove, Utah and completed his mortal journey on Tuesday, June 14 Read Obituary
James Lyman Robertson was born in Pleasant Grove Utah on July 31, 1926. He was the second son and youngest child of Laura Peterson Robertson and Hyrum Cumorah Robertson, themselves the children of the first pioneers that emigrated to Utah. Pleasant Grove was a village of about 1,800 people at the time. It is now a thriving city of about 40,000.
When he was young they still used outhouses, burned coal in the kitchen stove to heat the house, and relaxed at the end of the day with the radio as the easiest connection with the outside world. He had a happy childhood as the big fish in a little pond, leader of his gang of “young rascals”, the son of the man who ran the only gas station in town and the reliable woman who was the perennial Primary and Relief Society President of the most stable institution serving people during the terrible economic depression of his youth.
Grandpa left the friendly porch swing community of Pleasant Grove to go to war in 1944. He rose quickly in rank and saw much of the desert southwest of the United States during his training, including being on duty in New Mexico when the first Atomic Bomb was detonated. Only a year later, already a sergeant and a command gunner, the war was over. He was soon discharged without needing to leave the country or face a hostile enemy.
His attention turned to school at BYU, a mission to Denmark, a stint at the University of Utah and then graduating from Denver University in hotel and restaurant management on a ROTC scholarship and serving as the president of his fraternity. He met, dazzled and fell in love with my grandma, Joyce Cleone Tillotson while in Denver. After graduation he took a job in Chicago but was miserable to be so far away from grandma who was going to school at BYU. He moved back to Utah and married the love of his life in May of 1952 in the Salt Lake Temple. They soon moved to Southern California where Grandpa took several jobs in advertising sales, pharmaceutical sales, and astronautics purchasing. Jim, Kim and Kent were born in California. The little family soon moved back to Brigham City, Utah in 1959 where Barry was born and Grandpa worked as a purchasing agent for a rocket fuel plant. His next move allowed him to become the regional manager of one of his suppliers and it took his young family to 5203 Chambers Street in Ogden, Utah in about 1964. This is where Jim, Kim, Kent and Barry think of as the place where they grew up. They have happy childhood memories of a strong capable father who with his sweet wife created a fun, secure, loving, comfortable home in a place with lovely, attentive neighbors, gangs of friends, and a deep gratitude for teachers, advisors, scout masters, bishops, and parents of friends who forever affected the trajectory of their lives.
His next phase of life with his beloved Joyce was in Bountiful were maybe their happiest years. They enjoyed the harvests of their love and efforts with their children and his many business ventures. The children were marrying and forming families and bringing them grandchildren to adore (20 plus 17 great grandchildren). His past business successes were allowing him the capital and time to try new ventures. They lived a very comfortable life enjoying family, new friends and new interests in the home on 2338 Ridgewood Way in Bountiful, Utah. Golf was probably grandpa’s favorite pastime besides his family and this place allowed him all the golf he wanted. This is the place the older grandchildren remember for happy times with their grandparents, cousins and aunts and uncles for holiday gatherings, swimming pool, a treasure of toys in the basement catacombs of their large condominium overlooking a well-manicured golf course and busy valley and Great Salt Lake below. Many of his grandchildren had their first opportunity to drive a golf cart when caddying with grandpa on the golf course.
