Lee Winfield Farnsworth's Obituary
Lee Winfield Farnsworth March 6, 1932 - January 4, 2026.
Lee Winfield Farnsworth, of Provo, Utah, beloved husband, father, grandfather, teacher, and friend, passed away peacefully on January 4, 2026, at the age of 93. He lived a life marked by enthusiasm, learning, travel, hard work, family, and faith.
Lee was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, the fourth of eight children to Walter James and Ethel Loveridge Farnsworth. At the age of 12, the family moved to southern California to seek out better opportunities. From his family of origin, he learned the values of frugality, persistence, and hard work.
Lee loved singing and throughout his life would burst into song at the slightest provocation. He knew every lyric from songs he hadn't heard for 80 years! He later said he wished he could have made a living being a singer. As student body president at Mount San Antonio College, his singing led to meeting the love of his life, Zona Gayle Smith, in the college choir. From the moment they met, their shared love of music would be a constant theme -- most often with her playing the piano to accompany his beautiful bass voice.
Lee and Gayle were married on June 16, 1953, in the St. George Temple. Their 72 plus year marriage was filled with love, education, raising a family, and traveling to every corner of the globe. He had a special talent for creating elaborate itineraries on a shoestring budget. He took his children on his sabbaticals, research and teaching assignments to Japan multiple times and to castles and museums all over the world, all while being stuffed into too small cars and eating peanut butter sandwiches.
Lee had an affinity for words and language. He was an animated storyteller and never could resist a good pun. In the Army Reserves, he discovered a gift for foreign languages, studying Japanese in the Army Language School and Chinese later during graduate school. He was deployed to Korea, and later Japan, which led to a lifelong interest in Asian Studies.
After serving honorably in the military, Lee took advantage of the GI Bill to further his education. He received both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from University of California - Berkeley. Looking back, he noted those as the best years of his life -- starting a family, honing in on his life's work, and making lifelong friends. He then earned a PhD in Government from Claremont Graduate School and took his first teaching job as an Assistant Professor at Florida State University in Tallahassee. He was very pleased to then be hired by Brigham Young University and taught Political Science there for 33 years! He loved his students and especially enjoyed his time as director of the Washington Seminar and taking multiple cohorts of students to Japan as director of an internship program. He also put his political knowledge to good use by serving on the Provo City School Board and in the Utah State Legislature from 1974-1982 serving as Majority Whip in his last term.
Lee was a very hard worker and always kept busy. He built the family home, could fix anything, and maintained a huge vegetable garden and lots of fruit trees. There was always plenty for his large family, and excess for sharing and preserving for winter. After retirement, he took a landscaping class and took great pride in keeping his yard well-tended. He had a three times a week racquetball date into his nineties and relished a very detailed daily weight lifting and yoga regimen.
As a lifelong member of the LDS Church, he held many callings throughout his life: stake missionary before his military service and again later at BYU as a young professor, District President in Tallahassee, Florida, Bishop of the BYU 126th Ward from 1985-1987, and full time senior missionary with Gayle in Nagoya, Japan from 1997-1999. He worked in the Provo Temple for many years and was a great example of selfless service. Once, in the midst of cancer treatment, we sat down to a family dinner, but he was nowhere to be found. Later we spotted him fixing the sprinkler for a widowed neighbor!
Lee would say his greatest joy was his large family! He was so supportive and excited about everyone's accomplishments. He loved gathering everyone together for family reunions and watching old family movies. He was always so hospitable, embodying the mantra of "the more the merrier." He would set up tables and chairs, make sure everyone had a bowl of ice cream or a root beer float, and then happily do the dishes afterwards.
Lee is survived by his beloved wife Gayle, their ten children: Carol (Mark) Ellis, David (Michiko), Kenneth (Inna), Ellen Farnsworth, Leonard (MiYoung), Bryan, Steven (Jill), Janis Walker, Mary (Matthew) Smith, and Paul (Rebecca); his sole surviving sibling Linda Huntsman; 37 grandchildren, 62 great grandchildren, and 5 great great grandchildren!
Lee is predeceased by his parents, in-laws, six siblings, a grand daughter-in-law and three great grandchildren.
Lee will be remembered for his zest for life, humor, intelligence, and generosity. He was well loved and will be greatly missed.
Funeral services will be held on Saturday, January 10, 2026, at 1:00 p.m. at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Chapel located at 3050 Mojave Lane, Provo, Utah. A viewing will be held in the same location from 11:00 a.m. -12:30 p.m. prior to the service. Interment will take place at East Lawn Memorial Hills Cemetery in Provo, Utah, following the service.
For online condolences and updated information for the funeral and streaming options please visit https://www.premierfuneral.com/. Streaming of the funeral service can be found at https://zoom.us/j/91674281785
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