Iris Violet Rowland

Iris A. Rowland, 98, passed on in the early morning of March 5, 2007. She lived a long, rich, varied life, always on her own terms. She was lively and lucid throughout and to the end. Born in Sweden on June 15, 1908, she immigrated to America in the spring of 1913, along with her parents Alma and Carl Alm, and her older sister Edith, settling in Murray, Utah which is where Iris grew to adulthood. She graduated from public school, and later LDS Business College. "Ike," as her husband of 45+ years, Fred, called her, spent her young adulthood as a receptionist for some of Salt Lake City's leading physicians of the day, including Dr. Clark Young and Dr. Ulrich Bryner. She was one of Utah's skiing pioneers, and was a longtime active member of the Wasatch Mountain Club, where she began her passionate life-long love affair with the natural splendor of the intermountain west. She was never happier than when she was in the mountains. Iris married Fred E. Rowland on December 23, 1934 in Farmington. They settled in Salt Lake City, first in the Capitol Hill area, and, in 1941, in the environs of Sugar House. In both instances, they first bought land, and then designed and built the houses in which they lived, finishing the second house on December 7, 1941, learning about Pearl Harbor only after having finished their move that Sunday. They raised two children in that Sugar House home, Fred Carl and Dave. Fred Sr. was a lifelong career railroad man employed by the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, and "Ike" took care of the childrearing and myriad auxiliary pursuits as varied as PTA (She was briefly PTA President at Emerson Elementary), writing pursuits, and liberal political causes. For example, in the early 1980's, she was a proud founding member of Utahans' United Against the Nuclear Arms Race. She was a faithful, albeit unorthodox, member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The entire family remembers Iris as a person of the highest love, integrity, compassion, warmth, versatility, imagination, vitality and creativity; always opinionated, but always fair-minded. She was bohemian in the best sense. Iris and Fred divorced. He passed in 1993; she was also preceded in death by her parents and sister. She is survived by her two sons, Fred Carl (Linda) of Orem, and David Lee (Laura) of Farmington, 10 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren, with two more on the way in 2007. Memorial Services will be held Wednesday, March 7, 2007 at 11:00 A.M. in the Relief Society room of the Park Ist Ward, 50 south 750 West, Orem. Interment at Spanish Fork Cemetery. The family wishes to thank Berkshire Rehabilitation Center, Orem, The Charleston Assisted Living Center, Cedar Hills, and ESPECIALLY Linda and Fred Carl Rowland for the tireless dedication and heart they brought to making Iris's life bearable in her final years. Blessings!