Larry Burton Knight was born May 18, 1954 in Salt Lake City, UT. He was raised in Salt Lake City by his parents Jesse Aubrey Knight and Beulah Burton Knight with his brothers Jim and Jess. He served a mission to Peru from 1973 -1975 and met his incredible wife Diane at LDS Business College, where he was the student body vice president. They married on May 5, 1978. They had 3 children: Jeff, Sarah, and Amy.
Larry was a friendly, intelligent, kind, generous, silly, supportive, loving, and religious person. His life can be defined by his eager willingness to care for those around him, from his family to a stranger he just met. Larry would never turn down an opportunity to provide care or service to those he knew.
Everyone who knew Larry felt they had a place to be themselves, knowing he would accept and love them as they were. Even if he disagreed with a choice you made, he would support you in that choice. He loved to go on long bike rides every day, and loved to be out in nature in whatever way he could. Moab and the Utah desert are his favorite vacation destinations and he loved looking for pictographs and petroglyphs. He taught his children to serve, to laugh, to capture memories, and to enjoy the natural world.
Larry loved his wife. Through good and bad, sickness and injuries, challenges of raising children, being stuck together at home during 2020, and in cross country road trips to help their children move-they chose each other. They enjoyed traveling-most recently on desert road trips to favorite spots and a trip to Costa Rica with his brothers and their wives. Some of their favorite memories were driving the California coast, traipsing through the Scottish highlands, and every one of the many times they explored the European continent together.
He spent his career in manufacturing engineering, where he made many treasured lifelong friends. His work travels took him around the world and he easily made friends wherever he went. He also made the most of his layovers and spare days and claimed that he could “see any museum in 10 minutes-even the Sistine Chapel.”
His favorite past times included: exploring the world with his wife and family, riding his bike, spending time in nature, taking photos (of his family and absolutely everything else), serving others in any way he could, lecturing people on safety, saying “I see dead people,” giving unsolicited advice, playing with his grandkids, watching movies where things explode, and texting dad jokes to the family chat. He loved action movies, as long as there was no “gratuitous dialogue”. He loved root beer floats, spaghetti, and pumpkin pie; every version of Godzilla, Walker Texas Ranger, Star Trek, and the color orange.
His silly nature came out in his love for memes and dad jokes, or how he referred to dogs as frogs, or ended every FaceTime call blowing raspberries. He loved to spend time with his grandchildren, and could be counted on for a trip to a museum, or bowling, or to an afternoon movie. As grandkids got older, he made a tradition of taking them on an annual Thanksgiving break trip. He was an involved grandparent-attending every concert, race, event, or recital. He loved playing monster trucks and dinosaurs, and getting out his toy “big loader” every Christmas Eve. He instituted an annual cut throat indoor hockey game at the family Christmas Party.
He loved learning and had a habit of picking up interesting coffee table books. He loved National Geographic and NASA, and how, through these, he could travel places he hadn’t ever been before, or would never be able to go. If you mentioned a time or a place, you could almost guarantee he had a personal story or interesting fact to share about it. He was notorious for butt dials, and everyone in the family received them regularly. None of his grandsons could ever beat him in an arm wrestle, a fact of which he was incredibly proud.
He passed away unexpectedly of a heart attack on July 30, 2022 in West Valley City, UT, doing what he loved, serving his family.
He is preceded in death by his parents and is survived by his wife Diane (Orem, UT), 3 children: Jeff (Heather) of Orem, Sarah of West Valley, and Amy (Clint) of Pleasant Grove; and his grandchildren Taylor (19), Easton (17), Hayleigh (14), Blake (11), Felix (4), Eloise (3), and Sterling (1). He is also survived by his brothers, Jim(Liz) and Jess(Deanna) and many nieces and nephews who loved him.
Services will be held as follows: A visitation will be held Friday, August 19, 2022 from 6:00 – 8:00 pm at Nelson Family Mortuary (4780 N University Avenue, Provo) and Saturday from 10:00 am -10:45 at the Knight’s LDS meeting house (762 East 1200 North, Orem). A memorial will follow on Saturday at 11:00 am in the chapel. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Lifting Hands International(liftinghandsinternational.org) and the Food and Care Coalition of Provo(foodandcare.org)
Published by Nelson Family Mortuary from Aug. 4 to Aug. 5, 2022.
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