Ross Loran Birdsall

Ross Loran Birdsall died peacefully at his daughter's home in Santaquin, Utah, March 25, 2025. He was born July 15, 1925 in Salt Lake City, Utah to Ross Birdsall and Anna Eleonora Elisabeth Edholm.

Long after his mother died, Ross discovered that his grandfather and mother had been baptized members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints before they left Kalmar, Sweden, to immigrate to the United States in 1900. She, however, became a Catholic after arriving in Salt Lake City, and Ross accordingly attended Mass and catechism as a young man. Nevertheless, he became active in the LDS Church through the local ward Boy Scout troop and MIA. Ross was asked to play clarinet solos for sacrament meetings. In his teenage years Ross participated in roadshows.

Ross was attending South High School at the outbreak of World War II. He graduated in 1943 and enlisted in the US Navy on October 4, 1943. After basic training, he became a hospital corpsman on the small carrier USS Cowpens, where he served until his discharge in April 1946. One of the first things he did on board was to discover a trove of instruments and organize a ship's band. Aboard the Cowpens, Ross crossed the equator, endured a major typhoon, witnessed kamikaze attacks, and took part in the largest naval battle in history at Leyte Gulf. The Cowpens was the first American carrier to enter Tokyo Bay at the end of the war. Ross was in the Bay when the Japanese signed the surrender on September 2, 1945.

Upon returning home from the war Ross took advantage of the GI Bill and enrolled at the University of Utah. While attending the University, Ross met the stunning Barbara Hansen on a blind date arranged by one of his VFW buddies, Barbara’s brother, Calvin. Ross fell in love and, after a persistent courtship, they were married on March 16, 1949 in his parents’ home. One of the prices of his successful proposal was his baptism into the LDS Church. This was mostly a concession to Barbara's stubborn refusal to become a Catholic. His true conversion came several years later.

In the meantime, Ross had pursued a medical career at the University of Utah; but he never could slay the dragon of the med school entrance exam. After reviewing his grades, he changed majors and graduated in 1951 with a B.A. in physics. He got his first job at Sandia Corporation, the primary manufacturer of American nuclear weapons, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As 1952 dawned, Ross was driving Barbara and their firstborn, R Scott, down snowy roads from Salt Lake to Albuquerque in their new, gray Plymouth Cranbrook.

R Scott had been born in 1950 in Salt Lake. After a brief stopover of six months in Albuquerque, Ross’s employment took him to Spokane, Washington, where he and Barbara had a daughter Roxanne, born in 1952. They moved again to Las Vegas where a second son, Blake, was born in 1955. In Las Vegas, Ross was an eyewitness observer of several above-ground nuclear tests. In 1956, the family moved back to Albuquerque, where daughter, Carolyn was born in 1962. By then, Ross had accepted a new job with Hughes Aircraft in Fullerton, California. He accepted that job only when they offered him the princely salary of $1,000 a month. In 1970 Hughes lost several major contracts and Ross was laid off. After a too-long job search and reaching out to several friends and associates, Ross found a temporary position with the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Nuclear Medicine Department. Taking a pay cut, he was hired to write safety specifications for the biomedical cyclotron. His work so impressed the program director that he asked him to stay on permanently. Ross became the staff physicist at the cyclotron.

Although he and Barbara were “Jack-Mormons” in the early years of their marriage (he was golfing the day his firstborn was blessed), in Spokane they met an active couple who impressed them and motivated them to become devoted members of the Church. Ross served in the elders quorum presidency in Las Vegas. In Albuquerque, he served in the YMMIA, before he was ordained a Seventy by the newly-called apostle, Gordon B. Hinckley, and began one of two or three stints as stake missionary or mission presidency counselor. In California he was a faithful home teacher, ward YMMIA superintendent, and served for several years in the Fullerton Stake Mission Presidency. Later he was called as first counselor in the bishopric in Fullerton Fifth Ward. After his release, he served many years on the high council.

Ross retired from UCLA in 1990, but continued to work for 5 more years until he was 70. Ross and Barbara served a mission at the Family History Library in Salt Lake for a year and a half. This was the beginning of his fulfilling an admonition in his patriarchal blessing to do his genealogy. After returning to Fullerton, Ross was calIed as Director of the Family History Library at the Los Angeles Temple. Those who worked with Ross and Barbara said that they were a delight to work with. One of them called him one of the “best directors she had worked with!” He and Barbara loved the work and had some memorable meetings with General Authorities. Well into his nineties, Ross enjoyed regaling us with anecdotes about Elders Dieter Uchtdorf and Tad Callister. After two terms in that calling, Ross and Barbara decided to retire.

Ross loved music from an early age. He played Clarinet with the High School band and went on to form and lead an ensemble on the Cowpens. He continued his love of music after his marriage. Ross had a beautiful baritone voice. For him it was a huge delight to sing in a barbershop quartet, so he organized one in Albuquerque, then another in Fullerton, and finally a third at the Family History Library in Salt Lake. He was often the ward choir director and organized many choirs. One of his favorite events was the annual Fullerton Stake Fourth of July barbeque, for which he organized a band year after year.

In October 2017, after 55 years in their house in Fullerton, and once again after a lot of lobbying and pleading, Ross convinced Barbara to move to Springville, Utah, where they had found an assisted living facility. Sadly for Ross, Barbara passed away less than 3 months later, on December 31, 2017.

After losing his sweetheart, Ross found a house to buy in Utah. He moved into his brand-new home in Mapleton in March 2018. Immediately, he called his oldest son Scott in California and all but ordered him to move in with him. All went well until June 2023, when Ross, too impatient to wait for his daughter Roxanne to help him get into the car in a restaurant parking lot, fell and broke his ankle and became bedridden. Several months later, Roxanne bought a new house in south Santaquin, and he moved in with her. Ross continued to enjoy many visits from his children, grandchildren, and family. Although he had outlived all of his friends, he retold stories of those cherished relationships he had enjoyed throughout his life.

Ross is preceded in death by his wife Barbara, his grandson Erik Scott Birdsall, and his great-grandson Brady Nathan Plumb. He is survived by his four children, R Scott Birdsall of Mapleton, Utah, Roxanne Lamb of Santaquin, Utah, (Dennis), Blake L Birdsall of Leavenworth, Kansas (Karen), and Carolyn Prody of Spanish Fork, Utah, 23 grandchildren, 55 great-grandchildren and 7 great-great-grandchildren.

The Birdsall Family thanks all of Ross’s caregivers, and extends extra gratitude to his nurses, Eryn and Melissa, his aide, Charity, his chaplain, Rory, and the whole staff at Aspen Ridge Home Health & Hospice.

Funeral services will be held at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 591 Summit Ridge Parkway, Santaquin, Utah, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. A viewing will begin at 9:45 a.m. and the services at 11:00 a.m. There will be a family luncheon following the service. Interment following the luncheon will be at Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park, 3401 S. Highland Dr., Salt Lake City, Utah.