Frederick "Fred" Mortimer Darling
Jul 13, 1935 – Apr 11, 2024
Frederick Mortimer Darling passed away April 11, 2024, due to natural causes in Lancaster, California. Fred was born July 13, 1935 to Frederick M. Darling and Gladys A. Rich in Salt Lake City, Utah. Fred married Loray Ovard (later divorced). He met and married Sandra Chapman Kaumans, whom he shared many happy years with (deceased). Later Fred married his last and final love, Samadhi Ishaya (deceased).
Fred was a typesetter for the Salt Lake Tribune as a teenager. He later attended the University of Utah in Computer Science. He worked with computers back in the day when they were the size of today’s large refrigerators and they only had 640K of memory at max. Through the years, he worked for Kennecott, IBM, Envirotech Services, Wemco Instruments and Control, and AeroJet Rocketdyne as a data analyst. As a result, he lived in many places; Sandy, UT, Sacramento CA, San Jose CA, Gold River CA, and upon retirement returned to Draper, Utah. Later he moved on to West Valley City, UT, Oceanside, CA, and Pahoa, Hawaii. He spent the last few months of his life in Lake Hughes, California. His hobbies included golf - if he wasn’t playing it, he was watching it; bowling with friends, dancing, and meditation. A special memory of his children was his pink 1960 Cadillac! Our dad loved it and would clean the white wall tires with a toothbrush.
Fred was adored and respected by many. He loved his family - saying, “he hit the jackpot.” He was a gentle, honest, and caring man and father.
He is preceded in death by his parents, and sister and brother-in-law Jeanne and Bob Popham. Survived by: sister, Marilyn (Steve) Healy, brother George (Orma) Crismon, daughters Penny “PJ” (Ken) Marcus, Debbie (Mark) Campbell, Catherine Hostetter and sons Thomas “Tak” (Mary) Darling, Eric (Michael Bremer) Carter, Matthew (Sabrina) Carter. He has 21 grandchildren, 43 great grandchildren and 4 great-great grandchildren.
Special thanks to Eric and Mike for their excellent care of Dad in his last days. Also, the family thanks Wellspring Critical Care staff for their care.
A Celebration of Life will be held graveside on Saturday, July 13th (Fred’s Birthday) at 1:00 PM at Larkin Sunset Gardens 1950 E. 10600 So. Sandy, UT.