Wayne J Brooksby's Obituary
Our beloved father, grandfather and great-grandfather, Wayne Brooksby (age 92) passed away peacefully in his sleep of natural causes on December 5, 2025 at his home in Sandy, Utah.
He was born to Alfred Brooksby and Vida Judd at home in Fredonia, Arizona on May 20, 1933. He was the youngest of seven siblings with one brother and five sisters. His oldest sister passed away as an infant. Growing up on the “Arizona Strip” was an adventure. At a young age, Wayne tinkered in his parent’s barn building his own go cart, motorcycle and other contraptions. When he was 16 he worked the summer at the Grand Canyon Lodge on the North Rim. He was taught to fly airplanes by his father who owned several planes. He would often fly solo around the area long before he was old enough to get a pilot license. He did immediately get a pilot license as soon as he was old enough. He attended school in Fredonia and graduated high school with a graduating class of himself and six others. He attended BYU where he met his future wife, Carolyn. When he was drafted in the US Army, they wrote to each other faithfully. During his time in the army, he served in Germany with the Medical Corps. He fulfilled a number of responsibilities in that capacity, Including that of dental assistant which he had lots of previous experience because his father was a dentist. Upon returning from Germany, he married Carolyn Russell on September 9, 1955 in the Salt Lake Temple. They raised their family of two sons and two daughters in Sandy, Utah.
Wayne worked hard to provide for his family. During college he drove logging trucks. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in education from BYU, he taught thousands of students at Bingham High, Mount Jordan Middle, Skyline High and Granite High Schools in industrial arts and electronics. He was often called upon to teach classes in other subjects such as science and math because he was well versed in most subjects. He also spent five years as vocational coordinator for Granite School District. Wayne earned his Master’s degree from USU.
Wayne was a jack of all trades and a master of all of them. If there was something he didn't know how to do, he would get books or find people who did and learn how to do it. With his knowledge of electronics, he was able to repair televisions in the days before they became a throwaway commodity that were just disposed of when they stopped working. He would often perform TV repairs for family and friends and when color televisions came out, he built the family's first color television set from a kit. In his wood shop, he built a beautiful walnut cabinet to house the new color television set. He did all his own auto maintenance and even purchased numerous wrecked automobiles and did the body work and mechanical work including the paint jobs to restore them to working order. He was also proficient in all aspects of home building, maintenance and repair. He purchased his first home in Murray at a residential subdivision that was being demolished to build a shopping center and moved the house to its current location in Sandy. Later, he built his current home in Sandy on the lot next to that first home. He did all of the work on that new home including pouring the foundation all the way to putting on the roof by himself and with the help of his family. The only two exceptions were digging the hole for the foundation and having a friend who was a bricklayer help him lay the bricks. At one point he got into real estate investment and he purchased several old, larger homes and converted them into apartments during his summers when not teaching. He also did a remodel of his Washington, Utah home. At one point he even spent some time in Hawaii helping his son, Darren, who was pretty much completely rebuilding a home for his family on the island of Oahu.
Most of his “hobbies” would be considered “work” by most people, but he truly enjoyed fixing things for others and helping people who needed help. But he did have some more traditional hobbies. He enjoyed hunting and fishing as well as camping and took his family on numerous trips to fun places like Yellowstone. He and Carolyn had a membership at the Strawberry Pinnacles near Fruitland, Utah where they spent many summers surrounded by their children and grandchildren camping and floating in the river and playing in the swimming pool. Later after their children were mostly raised, Wayne and Carolyn traveled and visited nearly all 50 states as well as Canada and Mexico in their trusty (and sometimes not so trusty) motor home. He and Carolyn also took up square dancing and spent many years dancing with The Electric Squares club.
Wayne had an excellent memory and loved witty poems. He especially loved cowboy poetry and had dozens of poems committed to memory including poems he had written himself as well as poems from other authors. He loved sharing them individually and to groups while dressed in his western clothes. He wrote many poems about the old West and self-published a book of his poetry.
He and Carolyn had 60 happy years together and spent 16 of those years wintering at their home in Washington, Utah where they had many friends and relatives till she passed away in 2015. Wayne was a cancer and heart attack survivor. He was a lifelong, faithful member of the LDS church.
He is survived by his children - Craig (Marian) of Midvale, UT; Saundra (Mark) Gotberg of Riverton, UT; Darren (Leslie) of Mililani, HI; Kaylyn of Sandy, UT.; Seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren who will miss him, but are excited that he is now with Carolyn. He is preceded in death by his wife, parents, siblings, and a grandson Bryce.
Per his wishes a private family gathering will be held at Sandy Cemetery where he will be interred next to Carolyn whom he has missed greatly.
Special thanks to Harmony Home, Health and Hospice for the wonderful help and support to Wayne and his family during his last days. And thanks also to Premier Funeral Services for their kind help and support to the family after Wayne's passing. The support of all of the doctors, nurses and other professionals who have helped the family through this trying time have been greatly appreciated.
The family appreciates everyone's love and support at this time but respectfully requests that no flowers be sent.
What’s your fondest memory of Wayne?
What’s a lesson you learned from Wayne?
Share a story where Wayne's kindness touched your heart.
Describe a day with Wayne you’ll never forget.
How did Wayne make you smile?