2023/16. WHAT HE DID - WHAT I SAID

We heard from the Presiding Judge, a former Presiding Judge, The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Chief Executive of the Court and the President of the State Senate. All men. I represented the women and the common folk, those of us who know the man in his work shirt with the worn-out collar. I've known him longer and deeper than the rest of them.

DAVE’S RETIREMENT – CORI’S REMARKS

Recently, on one of those rare days when I get the urge to organize, I found myself sorting through a drawer filled with old papers and journals. At the bottom of the pile was a journal with only a few pages filled, one that had no doubt been lost once upon a time and replaced with another. Tucked between the pages of that book was a piece of yellow legal paper folded in half. On it, in my handwriting and in Dave’s handwriting, was a little Home Evening exercise with the heading that said something like “Personal Goals for My Life.” 

Each of us had written three distinct personal goals, and then three goals for our family. We were newlyweds at the time, no children yet, with a vast empty canvas before us. At this moment I cannot even recall what I had written. But I remember sitting on the edge of our bed, reading that fading paper and noting how beautifully my David had fulfilled, and was continuing to fulfil his goals. These are the three things he wrote, as I recall them, because of course I could not find the paper in my recent search for it: 

1. I hope to be a loving husband, one who provides and cares for his family, and to be a good father one day. 

2. I want to remain devoted and faithful to my religious convictions and to my God. 

3. I would like to one day be able to serve my fellow man either in public service or as a judge. 

Regarding Goal #1 - I can tell you firsthand, without equivocation, that he has faithfully and almost to perfection fulfilled my portion of goal number one. He is a most loving husband, has provided faithfully and comfortably for his family, and I believe each of our four children and eleven grandchildren would tell you he has been and continues to be a good father and grandfather. 

Regarding Goal #2 -David would be the one to tell you, and I would stand as a witness, that he continues to live a life that keeps religious conviction prominent in his life, but he would not force his own convictions on you. Deep spiritual questions led him to his faith, and he values questions as much as he values answers. His ability to balance the two, to hold steady, and return his focus to the Christ centered fulcrum of his beliefs rather than weighty matters that teeter on either end, has provided a firm foundation of faith that I admire and hold to when my own faith ebbs and flows. 

Regarding Goal #3 - 

Today we gather to basically celebrate the honorable fulfilment of goal number three. We moved to Farmington from Pennsylvania in 1982. In 1984 he was elected to our neighborhood homeowner’s board. A few years later when our oldest, our son John, was in elementary school, he and a few friends, seeing a need to organize a recreational sports league in Farmington, established the precursor to the Farmington City Recreation. The Farmington Area Baseball League, FABL, was pivotal in creating a sense of community for our rapidly growing city. In 1993 Dave was elected to Farmington City Council. He served two four-year terms before being elected as Mayor. His twelve years serving the City of Farmington ended in 2006. In 2007 he was appointed as Utah State District Court Judge by Governor Jon Huntsman. 

Few would know it, but I do. I see David’s fingerprints all over the places and people we love. When I drive by a Farmington ballfield with lights on at night, I remember the excitement we felt when those lights were first installed by a fledgling baseball organization. I see neighbors playing on the soccer field in our neighborhood and recall the pushback Dave got when he and his fellow board members stood their ground and refused to sell that board-owned lot for a relative pittance so a house to be built on it. Every Christmas, when we are performing my Christmas concerts in the Farmington Arts Center, I stop and look at the bronze plaque placed on that building recognizing Mayor Connors and city councilmembers who decided our city needed such a facility. I ceremoniously reprimand him each year that the place isn’t larger and more suited to performances, and he reminds me that it was the very most we could afford as a city at the time. 

As any of you who work in this building know, the role of a judge has its pros and cons. The best of days Judge Connors was privileged to bind people together, under the law, for beautiful purposes. There are families here today whose marriage and adoption certificates bear the name of Judge Connors. On the worst of days marriages were dissolved, loved ones were harmed, or their lives taken. Horrible scenes have been recounted in this space as well. David’s ability to trust the law to maintain order and balance is one of his finest gifts. One day we were in Harmons grocery store and a woman stopped us. “Aren’t you Judge Connors?” It’s always a bit frightening when a stranger asks you if you are a judge. He responded in the affirmative. Sometimes I respond; “Why do you ask?”. This woman continued; “You sent me to jail.” Then she added “It was the best thing that could have happened for me. I needed it, and you must have known I needed it, and I want to thank you. I had a chance to re-examine my life and my part in it. I’m doing really well now. I’m working, and I’m figuring it out, and I never could have done that while I was on the road you took me off of.” 

David would be the first to tell you that the law itself took her off that road. His part was interpreting and properly using the law. Dave has always, since I have known him, been a lover of the law, a devotee of the constitution of the United States, and a compassionate participant in the well-being of mankind. He is the most level-headed person I know, the most steady and true soul I have ever had the honor of knowing, and the most trustworthy person to have worn a wedding ring on his finger or the robes of justice. He has filled his role as husband, as father, as believer, as public servant, and as judge with integrity, wisdom and most of all with pure love. I am blessed and honored to share his home, his children and his name 

One of David’s favorite writers, Johann Goethe said: The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it. David was born with a brilliant mind and a massively good heart, and a talent for combining the two. He is therefore one of the happiest humans I know. That heart and mind are interested in many things. Goethe also said: Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes. Here’s to a very big change, and many exciting tomorrows ahead, my Love.