Duane Dudley

Our father, James Duane Dudley, passed away peacefully due to old age Jan 11, 2021 at 92 years. Born September 8, 1928 in Twin Falls, Idaho to James Wesley Dudley and Wanda Tippets, he lived a long full life.

As a boy raised in Pocatello, Idaho he had many adventures. He and a friend started a fire in an old barn in their alley playing with a “cool” magnifying glass and the barn burned to the ground. He learned not to steal from his mom when she made him drink all the food coloring he thought was candy and hid in his pocket. In elementary school, he pinched his teacher in an inappropriate spot because she was not wearing green on St Patrick’s Day. He learned very quickly not to ever do that again. He was a very handsome young man and was one of the star football players at Pocatello High School and was very popular for his “Boogie Woogie” on the piano.

He served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Northern States Mission. On his way home, he stopped to visit his sweetheart, Gayle Couch, and ended up proposing. They were he married in the Idaho Falls Temple on September 6, 1950. Together they had five children and now have 25 grandchildren and 48 great-grandchildren.

They started their marriage in Provo, Utah while earning his Bachelors of Science degree at BYU in 1952. In 1953, they moved to Houston, Texas where he earned his M.A. in Physics at Rice Institute. He then worked for a year at Hughes Aircraft in Los Angeles before returning to school at the University of Utah to earn his PhD in Physics in 1959, while living in Orem and teaching as an Assistant Professor of Physics at BYU in Provo, Utah. After graduating, he accepted a job at Sandia Corp in Albuquerque, New Mexico for 2 years. While there, BYU offered him a teaching position in Provo starting in 1962; by 1968 he was promoted to full professor.

His greatest love and gift was teaching, and he taught at BYU for his entire career until he retired in 1994. He took one sabbatical leave to work for Kaman Nuclear in Colorado Springs, Colorado. This experience helped show him his real love was to teach. He had a gift for music and specialized and did research in the physics of musical acoustics, and presented papers to acoustical societies around the states and Europe. While teaching at BYU he enjoyed working as Associate Director and Advisor for students in the Honors Program. Another highlight was serving as Associate Director in the BYU Jerusalem Center from November 1992 to May 1994.

His dedication and service to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was profound. He served many years in student wards as bishop and stake president as well as in our home stake. He was a great listener and had a gift for counseling, spending many hours counseling students with their education and many more hours counseling others in their testimonies and life challenges. He taught countless church lessons, and many firesides and education weeks around the country, Hawaii, and Canada. He truly believed his studies in the sciences proved there is a God and that this earth and the heavens were created by Him. He was more than ready to share that testimony with others.

He was actively involved in genealogy for most of his life. His favorite work, however, was serving a mission with his wife in the church’s Family History Center, and continued that service in the local Family History Center for years after.

He loved music and was an accomplished pianist, had a beautiful tenor voice and sang in the Woodward Chorale for years; the highlight for him being the Messiah performed every Christmas. At our family gatherings it was tradition for him to play his “Boogie Woogie” while the family danced. He loved to laugh and had a great sense of humor. We had many fun nights playing cards with many laughs, while he quietly won almost every game. He loved movies and was on a committee to help choose appropriate movies to be shown in the Varsity Theater. He was an avid reader and had an amazingly open mind and loved to learn. For example, when asked about dinosaurs, his answer was “who knows but what God was just having some fun!” Besides all this “he was just cute” (quoted by Gayle). His last words to our mom were, “you are so beautiful”.

He is survived by his wife, Gayle Dudley of Provo; five children: Brooke Keith (Jeff), Cindy Hafen, Becky Dudley, Allyson Riding (Ed), and Jim Dudley (Janine); his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and sister June Ellingson of Cedar City. He will be buried beside his great-granddaughter who preceded him in death.

https://www.bergmortuary.com/obituaries/James-Dudley-10/#!/Obituary