J Reed Thacker

J. Reed Thacker, beloved husband and eternal companion to Kathleen Shaw Thacker, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and friend, passed away on September 21, 2026, surrounded by the family that was the center of his life.

Reed was born at home on November 13, 1935, to Ralph A. and Ethel Jacklin Thacker in Daniel, Utah. The youngest of seven children, Reed grew up on a 40-acre farm in the beautiful Heber Valley. Life on the farm taught him lessons that would define him throughout his life—the value of hard work, love, service, resourcefulness, and an unwavering loyalty to family.

When the work was finished, Reed found joy in the outdoors. He relaxed by hunting and fishing and developed a lifelong love for nature and for being in the mountains. Those early years in the Heber Valley created a connection to the land that remained with him for the rest of his life and that he would eventually pass on to his children and grandchildren.
Reed attended Wasatch High School, where he participated on the football and wrestling teams and was elected Senior Class President. After graduating in 1954, he spent that summer working for the U.S. Forest Service. During that time, he learned the scientific names of many of the plants and trees found throughout the mountains he loved. Decades later, he could still identify them and delighted in sharing those names and his knowledge of the natural world with his children and grandchildren.

Reed enlisted in and honorably served in the U.S. Army during the post-Korean War era and was stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia. After completing his military service, he answered another call to serve, this time as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the East Central States Mission. His missionary service strengthened a testimony of Jesus Christ that would guide his choices, his marriage, and his family throughout his life.

Following his mission, Reed returned to Utah and attended Brigham Young University which started a lifelong passion for BYU sports. He loved cheering them on to victory with his kids and grandkids. A special memory was welcoming the team home at the airport after winning the national football championship.

Wanting to earn more money for school, he moved to Murray, Utah, and began working for HiLand Dairy as a milkman.
That decision would change the course of his life because soon afterward he met Kathleen Shaw, the woman he would affectionately call his “Honey.”

After a two-year courtship, Reed and Kathleen were sealed for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple on June 28, 1962. Together they built a life centered on faith in Jesus Christ, family, hard work, and service.
Their love story spanned more than 64 years. Through raising a family, building homes, working, serving in the Church, traveling, welcoming grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and growing older together, Reed and Kathleen remained devoted to one another. Even in Reed’s final days, after more than six decades of marriage, they could still be found holding hands and sharing sweet kisses.

For nearly four decades, from 1969 until his retirement in 2006, Reed owned and operated his own barber shops, including locations at the Cottonwood Mall, The Cavalier, and later The Sportsman.

To Reed, barbering was about much more than cutting hair. Reed genuinely enjoyed people, and people enjoyed being around him. Over the years, he developed deep relationships with generations of Utah families, often cutting the hair of fathers, their sons, and eventually their grandsons.

Reed was creative by nature and, in many ways, spent his life building—building relationships, building people, building a family, and quite literally building things with his own hands.

After learning carpentry skills while working alongside his father, Reed put those skills to use building a home in Cottonwood Heights where he and Kathleen would raise their family and live for 35 years. Reed was remarkably handy and could fix just about anything. Around the Thacker home, a house or yard project was rarely just a project. It was an opportunity for Reed to teach his children how to work, solve problems, use their hands, and figure things out for themselves.

Those lessons continued into the next generation. Reed was always willing to show up with his tools to help his children and grandchildren finish a basement, remodel a room, repair something that was broken, or tackle another project. His service often came not through words but through work—quietly showing up, rolling up his sleeves, and helping someone he loved.

Perhaps one of the most meaningful things Reed ever built was the family cabin.

The cabin became an important part of his legacy—a place where children and grandchildren gathered, worked, laughed, played, and grew closer together. Summer days meant family BBQs, homemade ice cream, Fourth of July celebrations, projects around the property, and long evenings surrounded by the people Reed loved most.

At the cabin, Reed taught his family both the value of hard work and the importance of simply spending time together.

The mountains also became one of Reed's favorite places to teach, listen, counsel, and connect with his family. A ride in the mountains with Dad or Grandpa was rarely just a ride. Reed sometimes used those drives to talk about difficult issues, offer counsel, teach a life lesson, or gently communicate a request from Mom. Other times, he simply told stories from his own childhood and shared memories of growing up in the Heber Valley.

And whenever the family gathered at the cabin, there was one tradition that was nearly mandatory: the evening ride.

Just before sunset, family members would pile into the back of the truck and head out with Reed to see what animals might be out and about. Those simple rides—watching the sun fall behind the mountains, looking for deer and other wildlife, listening to Grandpa's stories, and being together—became treasured family memories.

Reed also loved taking walks with his children and grandchildren. Along the way, he would point out plants and trees and proudly identify them by the scientific names he had learned so many years earlier while working for the Forest Service. What began as a summer job for a young man in 1954 became knowledge he was still sharing with his family decades later.

Camping trips, hunting trips, fishing trips, hot dog roasts, picnics, walks, and drives through the mountains were never complicated affairs, but they became some of the family's most cherished experiences. Reed understood that meaningful family memories did not require elaborate plans. Often, all that was needed was a fire, a mountain, something to eat, and the people you loved gathered around you.

The mountains were also sacred to Reed. It was there that his testimony of God and Jesus Christ was strengthened. He found peace among the trees, aspens, streams, and quiet places of God's creation. Through his example, his children and grandchildren learned to recognize the hand of the Creator in the beauty surrounding them.

And if Reed had a free day in the fall, there was almost nothing that energized him more than hunting big bucks among the aspens and pines.

The crisp mountain air, changing leaves, anticipation of the hunt, and time spent outdoors made Reed feel alive. But hunting was about far more than finding a big buck. It was another way for Reed to connect with his sons and grandsons. Around campfires, on mountain trails, and during long hours together, stories were told, lessons were taught, relationships were strengthened, and memories were made.

Some of the greatest experiences of Reed's life, however, came not only from serving his family but from serving his Heavenly Father.

One of the great highlights of Reed's life was the opportunity to serve alongside his beloved Kathleen in the Cochabamba Bolivia Temple. Their time together in Bolivia filled Reed's heart and soul with light as they lovingly served the people of Bolivia and helped them make and receive sacred, eternal covenants with their Heavenly Father.

Reed cherished the people they met and the sacred experiences they shared. Perhaps never did the light of the gospel shine more brightly in Reed and Kathleen than during this special season of their lives. Side by side, they served the Lord, His children, and one another within the walls of His holy temple.

It was a fitting expression of the life they had built together—a marriage that began at an altar in the Salt Lake Temple and continued through decades of devotion to God, family, and each other.

Reed's legacy cannot be measured simply by the things he accomplished or even by the things he built. His greatest legacy is found in his faith, his family, and the love he instilled in them.

His life taught those around him that happiness could be found in simple things: faith in Jesus Christ, a family gathered together, an honest day's work, serving someone who needed help, fixing something that was broken, a conversation on a mountain road, a walk through the trees, a hunting trip with sons and grandsons, homemade ice cream at the cabin, and holding the hand of the person you have loved for more than six decades.

He taught his family that love is often expressed through service, that problems can usually be solved with patience and work, that time together matters, and that some of life's greatest lessons are learned while simply walking beside someone you love.

His family will miss his stories, his counsel, his willingness to help, his knowledge of the mountains, his tools and projects, his evening drives, his love of a good hunt, and the quiet and steady way he loved them.
Most of all, they will miss Dad and Grandpa.

But the lessons he taught, the traditions he created, the faith he shared, and the family he loved will continue through generations.

Most importantly, Reed's life reflected his faith in Jesus Christ and his belief that family relationships can continue beyond this life.

Reed is survived by his beloved wife and eternal companion, Kathleen Shaw Thacker; his children, Connie (Robert) Christensen, Kent (Catherine) Thacker, Alison (Eric) Anderson, Miriam (Rob) Teames, Tyson (Stephanie) Thacker, Ryan (Jenny) Thacker, and Megan (Dandy) Taylor; 31 grandchildren; and 27 great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held Saturday, October 10, 2026, at 11:00 a.m. at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meetinghouse located at 5246 W. Gossamer Way, Riverton, Utah 84096.
A viewing will be held Friday, October 9, from 6:00–8:00 p.m. at Jenkins-Soffe Funeral Home, 1007 W. South Jordan Parkway, South Jordan, Utah 84095. An additional viewing will be held Saturday morning, October 10, from 9:30–10:30 a.m. at the church prior to the funeral service.

Interment will be at the Heber City, Utah Cemetery.

Online condolences may be shared at www.jenkins-soffe.com.