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 1944-2021
Gary Lynn Booth age 77, passed away peacefully on Sunday, December 12, 2021 in American Fork, Utah from a battle with a long-term illness. He was born June 4, 1944, in Vallejo, California to Albert and Vesta (Dixon) Booth. His family moved to Orem, Utah when Gary was young and he spent the majority of his life in Utah County.
Growing up Gary loved being outdoors with his brother and their friends. He loved camping and hunting but most of all fishing. He was a skilled fly fisherman and the love of fishing continued into adulthood. He was a graduate of Orem High School went on to be an entrepreneur.
Gary met the love of his life, Carrie Hendricksen, through mutual friends and they married August 8, 1978. He and Carrie had a wonderful blended family with children from previous marriages and children of their own. Gary loved spending time with his family, it was his greatest joy. He had a gentleman’s soul and a huge heart, he was so kind and selfless. He made everyone feel welcome and would be the first to help those in need. He will be remembered for his generosity and kindness.
Gary was a natural in business world. He owned several successful businesses, Modern Shoe, Coral Sea Pet Store in the University Mall and Kirby Company of Orem. The love of sales and working with people made him a standout in the Kirby Company and he worked for them for 44 years. He had tremendous work ethic and was Kirby’s top salesmen for several years and won multiple awards for being the best. Kirby awarded him with luxurious paid vacations that he loved to share with Carrie. They loved to travel together and with their family. He lived life to the fullest until his health started to decline.
He loved animals, of all kinds, and as the owner of a pet shop, often brought them home to share with his family. They had the usual household pets, but they also had exotic animals like monkeys, kinkajous, ferrets, hedgehogs, rare birds, lizards, snakes, and spiders. Gary built an amazing waterfall and fishpond in their backyard and had the most beautiful collection of Koi fish.
After retirement, Gary found the love of a good treasure hunt. He would scour antique stores, yard sales and thrift markets for the “golden egg.” He found collectibles that were worth hundreds of dollars. He kept some for his own collections, metal toy banks were his favorite, but he would sell most them to people all over the country to complete their collections. Gary knew that Carrie and his family were his greatest treasures of all.
Gary is survived by his wife Carrie; his children, Warren, Dave, Gary Lee, Kim and Bradilyn; his 15 grandchildren, one great-grandchild and many nieces and nephews. He is preceded in death by his parents and his brother, Gordon. We are honoring his wishes and not having a formal funeral. A Celebration of Life will happen this summer.
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M. Alan Jenkins
Photo of M. Alan Jenkins with hooded falcon (a Merlin), 1997.
I was saddened to read of Gary Booth's passing. But I was cheered to read that he seems to have led a productive, mostly happy and full life. I know this---from his photo I can say he aged well! Gary had a profound effect on my life. I had tried several times to locate him to offer my deepest heartfelt thanks, but never succeeded in finding a link to him to do that.
While at Lincoln Junior High School, I became interested in and passionate about falconry, the hunting sport where birds of prey are used to hunt mostly small game. Gary had a captive Red-tailed Hawk that he sold me, and I had hopes of training and hunting with. However, the hawk suffered from a broken wing that hadn't heal correctly, and it couldn't fly. The broken wing was before I got him. However, I kept the hawk for many years, and it fired my interest in falconry and birds of prey. During my senior year at Orem High a boy from California, Lee Camp, who was also interested in falconry, moved to Orem and we had Mr. Norton's algebra math class together. We were introduced when David Butcher found out Lee was interested in falconry. David also knew of my interest. Mr. Norton was absent one day with no substitute available, so Lee and I talked all period long. Lee and I spent much time learning things the other one of us knew about falconry and birds of prey. After high school I attended Utah State University and majored in Zoology; Lee Camp changed schools and we became roommates at USU. After USU and under threat of being drafted into the Viet Nam stupidity, I joined the U.S. Air Force and became a pilot, so that at the least the war would do me some good by teaching me a skill (which I have not used since!). After 5 years in the USAF, I got into a BYU to gain a M.Sc. degree in zoology and from there I was hired by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service as a raptor (bird of prey) biologist--a dream job for me! I worked in Lakewood, Colorado for them for 10 years and moved to a private bird conservation in Oklahoma and, in total spent 37 years doing conservation, population monitoring, and educational work on birds of prey. I have about 2 dozen scientific publications and contributions to chapters in books. I have also traveled the world to do some of my projects. One facet of my work was to help re-introduce the Endangered Bald Eagle back into the southeastern U.S. The project got my photo into the November 1992 issue of National Geographic magazine, making my parents very proud. I retired in 2011 and I have moved to beautiful Oregon, and I am a grandfather of 13, great grandfather of 1. ALL of this began with Gary Booth. Thank you, Gary; you are missed.
Jim Rawson
Alan, thank you for that marvelous tribute to Gary! And, thank you for keeping your classmates apprised of your marvelously productive life! Hopefully, we'll see you at our 60th class reunion on September 9th!