Joe Orgill: The following was taken from the Eulogy I gave at my Dad's (Gene) funeral. Eugene was my mother's second husband.

My mother recorded: "I became very anxious to go to the Temple and have the boys (Colin and myself) sealed to me. It was at this time when Eugene Orgill came into my life almost miraculously. He was corresponding with Mother (Helen K. Orgill) about the Orgill genealogy. They had met at one of the Orgill reunions in Salt Lake. I received my patriarchal blessing in June 1952 and was promised the Lord would give me the spirit of revelation as how to act and what course in order to receive the blessings I so much desired.

"Sometime later Gene Orgill's lovely book of remembrance arrived for mother. It was done so beautifully..I remember looking at Gene's picture and admiring his beautiful countenance and remarking to Mother, 'Now, that's the kind of man I could love and respect.'

I felt impressed to write to Gene and compliment him on his fine work. He answered my letter and I began to be interested in him. Mother invited him to her home to spend his vacation in Feb 1952. He attracted me very much and he stayed for 112 days. We decided before he left that it was quite possible we had been led to one another as an answer to our prayers.. and we became engaged. Mother, Joe and I left for Utah and Gene and I were married in the S.L. Temple on June 4, 1952 and had Joe and his dead brother Rudolphos sealed to us. We took up residence in Bingham Canyon, Utah in a three room apartment.. Gene was a brakeman on a locomotive engineer (carried copper ore out of the copper pit). He later became a locomotive engineer.

Was poverty or a split family the reason for the sadness that cloaked Gene’s early childhood? Gene's parents filed for divorce shortly after Gene's birth on September 5, 1916. Gene's father, Alexander Orgill (son of Nephi Orgill, who was brother of Joseph Orgill, my great great grandfather) though often living in Salt Lake City, where Gene lived, had no interest in seeing him. Gene saw his father once briefly when he was 20, the father still had no interest. This always hurt Gene, and to the rest of us had no logical explanation.

Gene went to live with his Aunt Hannah while in the 3rd grade. His mother was still in S.L., till she was killed in 1929 in an automobile accident. Gene was 13 years old.

Gene began at Wasatch High School in Heber, Utah. During the depression Gene lived with his Aunt Hannah and the adopted daughter. Gene worked in the CCC camps (federal work camps to relieve enormous unemployment). He would send $22/month to Aunt Hannah. Winters were extremely cold and snow deep, Gene chopped green logs and brush from the hills to burn during the winter. During these extreme hard times, Gene learned the gentle love and understanding for the people around him. He says of his Aunt Hannah: "But Aunt Hannah never complained, it gave her husband a chance to do Temple work and for that she was willing to make many sacrifices. Although we had to work hard and we never had wheat you could call luxuries, if I had the chance to live my life over and choose the circumstances I would gladly do the same thing over again just for the privilege of knowing Aunt Hannah and Uncle Jim and having the privilege of living with them, for I think Aunt Hannah is just about the most wonderful person I have every known."

Gene served in the army 4 1/2 years, 3 1/2 years in Australia, New Guinea, and the Philippine Islands. Gene told of the "purple heads", soldiers that had to shave their heads and paint them with an anti fungus disinfectant to keep from getting fungus in their scalp. He reports once, that they were encamped and a sudden downpour came (New Guinea), they ran for higher ground and within seconds the tents were whisked away in a flood.

Gene helped me gain a testimony. When I was 13 years old we worked together compiling genealogy. I remember typing copies (no photo copy existed then) of pages and pages of genealogy we had collected from people. He helped me teach my self to type. At that young age he taught me to love genealogy.

Gene worked on Kennecott Copper, the largest open cut copper mine in the world, as a locomotive engineer. We often went on hikes together. He taught me to love the mountains. MY brother and I continued the tradition and in our spare time hiked all the surrounding mountains in Bingham.

Gene was an avid reader of Church history, and taught me respect and love for the scriptures and Church history.

Gene was "mighty in the pen" but not in speech, coming across as a gentle shy person. When I was on my MIssion and in Europe, distancing myself from the Church, Gene continued to write me beautiful letters, which sustained my testimony and reminded me that I had parents at home that loved me.

He was an avid record keeper, in his personal life, of daily expenses, as well as in the Church, where he was ward clerk for 8-9 years. He was also Gospel Doctrine teacher and did Family Records extraction.

In his Patriarchal blessing, he was promised that "the sick will respond to your administration". Gene told me once of a baby he blessed, where he felt the fever drop instantly as he laid hands on the babe's head.

Favorite quote: "The only way to stop time is to keep records and take photographs and in this way we may look back into time."

"The closest glimpse we can get of heaven is to see one of these wonderful innocent little babies. They are so wonderful and beautiful because they are not long from the presence of God."

"We live here, make mistakes and commit various sins, thereby closing the door to what might have otherwise led to great happiness. It is one of the great mercies of your Father in Heaven that if we repent, do our best and showing mercy ourselves, he will open another door to us leading to other great blessings and happiness."