Rodney Rowley

The family of Rodney Ray Rowley announces his peaceful passing on November 24, 2022. He was 88 years old.
Rod was born March 25, 1934, in Cedar City, Utah. The fifth of seven children, Rod spent his childhood and youth in the rustic environs of Parowan, Utah — his ancestral home. As a boy, he was immersed in a steady stream of relatives and reminiscences, with words, faces, and stories that saturated his soul. Family history was always in his heart and never far from his smiling lips.
From 1954 to 1956, Rod served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (“Church”) in Florida and Georgia. He then returned to Parowan and began his education at the College of Southern Utah. At the same time, he worked as tour-bus driver, providing information and entertainment to his passengers amidst the wonders of Zion, Bryce Canyon, and Grand Canyon National Parks.
Further educational ventures took Rod to Provo, Utah, to attend Brigham Young University. Upon graduation, he pursued a master’s degree from the University of Maryland, followed by a doctoral program at the University of Oklahoma, where he earned his PhD in audiology.
While living in Maryland, Rod met Patricia Anne Stevens of Greensboro, North Carolina. Good vibrations were not lost on the future audiologist and Patricia ultimately accepted his proposal of marriage, which was solemnized on August 21, 1961, in the St George, Utah temple of the Church.
During their first decade of marriage, Rod and Patricia furnished their home with three sons and a daughter, all of them born in Salt Lake City, Utah. Professional opportunity took the family to Southern California in 1973, as Rod became chief of the Department of Audiology at Loma Linda University.
Having reared their children in nearby Redlands, California, Rod and Patricia remained there until 2006, when they retired to Provo, Utah. Their Provo home became a family vacation destination and sometime college dorm for grandchildren.
Among Rod’s hobbies and interests, performing arts often took center stage. He had a sweet tenor voice and relished his roles in musical productions such as Oklahoma!, Annie Get Your Gun, and The Music Man. Add to this his occasional crack at standup comedy and you have a country ham that could not be cured.
Rod’s aforementioned love of family history led him tirelessly to compile and narrate in writing the accounts of his beloved ancestral fathers and mothers. This same devotion to generational families expressed itself in over 15 years of service in the House of the Lord, working regular shifts in the Redlands California and Provo Utah temples.
Until age caught up with him, Rod played golf frequently, usually with friends, sometimes with sons or grandchildren. He once shot a hole-in-one — a feat all the more remarkable because there were witnesses.
The nucleus of Rod’s life included his wife and his church. For over 60 years, he and Patricia were virtually inseparable — even when they teasingly found each other insufferable. And while the Hallmark Channel may never have come calling, Rod and Patricia nevertheless lived out a healthy love story, free of artificial sweeteners. Many are the laughs they have bestowed upon their children and grandchildren over the years.
In Rod’s lifetime of church service, one word defined his discipleship — diligence. He fulfilled many callings in the Church, led or joined church choirs, and — most of all — ministered to his fellow saints. As a matter of habit, Rod — like his Lord — “went about doing good” (Acts 10:38).
Rod quietly aspired to the faith of his forebears who drew their handcarts halfway across a cold continent to build up Zion. To be sure, he would have answered any accusation of perfection with a plea of “not guilty.” But, as Anna said of the King of Siam, so we say of Rod — “I don’t think any man has ever been as good a [man] as he could have been, but this one tried. He tried very hard.” The boy from Iron County truly became an “Iron Rod.”
Surviving Rod are his wife, Patricia; sons Kurt (Nancy Naylor), Kenneth (Nancy Moulton), and Michael (Guadalupe Meza Ozuna); daughter Christina; 13 grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; brothers Doyle, Austin, and Donald; and sister Clair Dale.
Among those who preceded Rod in death were his parents, William Clair Rowley and Roberta Benson, his sister Afton Topham, and his brothers Robert Rowley and Douglas Rowley.
Funeral services will be held Friday, December 2, 2022, 11:00 AM, at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meetinghouse, 2900 North Timpview Avenue, Provo, Utah. Immediately preceding the funeral, at the same location, there will be a viewing from 10:00 AM to 10:45 AM. Interment will take place at the Parowan City Cemetery, under the direction of Southern Utah Mortuary. Online condolences can be sent at www.mortuary.org.