Horace Bean

Horace Hardy Bean (Hardy) died on January 4, 2022, surrounded by his family.  He was 94 years old.

He was born to James Horace and Alta Love Bean on April 23, 1927 on a 1000-acre ranch in Lincoln County Nevada.  He was born 3 months early because the midwife gave his mother the wrong medicine.  His father’s wedding ring could go on his leg or up his arm to his bicep.  A ladies’ hankie folded in 4ths was used as his diaper and he slept in a shoebox next to the woodstove to keep him warm.  They used an eyedropper to feed him. In spite of this difficult beginning, he survived and excelled.

Hardy grew up where the northeast part of BYU is now located.  At this time, it was not part of Provo City but part of the county.  When he was about 4 years old, he was hit by a model-T truck when coming home from church, which broke his leg.  He was in traction for several months but in spite of this the bones shifted and healed with the bone overlapping; for the rest of his life one of his legs was shorter than the other.

He got a job working in Provo for DTR (Dixon Taylor Russell) doing upholstery work while in high school.  He played trombone and baritone in the band for Lincoln High School in Orem. He was also part of an acapella singing group.  He loved music, especially horn concertos.

He was drafted into the army at the end of his senior year in High School to serve in WWII.  While in basic training the war ended but he was sent to protect the Panama Canal. He was released from the service a year and a half later.

After returning from the service, Hardy was called to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, assigned to the Western States Mission.  Even though his mission covered most of the western part of the United States he spent all of his 2 years in Colorado.

After his mission he used the GI Bill to get a degree from BYU in music.  He loved to sing and could play most instruments.  He met his beloved wife, Maridean Dee Powell and went on their first date on New Year’s Eve in 1953.  They were married June 3, 1955 in the Salt Lake Temple.

Hardy taught school in Goshen, Kamas, and Salina.  He then moved the family to Orem and went to work for Geneva Steel in Production Planning.  He worked there 41 years, till he was 71 years old.  When he retired, he and Maridean served a mission in the church cannery center in Lindon, Utah.

Hardy loved visits and phone calls with family, neighbors and friends. For the past several years he loved to let every family member and every ward member know they were not forgotten with a birthday phone call.

Hardy and Maridean had 7 children, 6 of whom survived him.  Kris Farrimond (Ron), Kevin Bean (Annette), Diana Lundahl (Dewey), Janeen Garlick (Robert), Cornell Bean (VeAnn), Valerie Rencher (Mike).  He has 24 grandchildren and 34 great-grandchildren.  He was preceded in death by his wife Maridean, a daughter Susan, parents James Horace and Alta Love Bean, and all of his siblings: Dorothy Bean, June Gammell, and Evan Bean.

The funeral will be held on Thursday, January 6, 2022 at 11:00 AM at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meetinghouse located at 655 South 200 West in Orem, Utah.   A viewing for family and friends will be held Wednesday, January 5th from 7:00 to 9:00 PM at Sundberg-Olpin Mortuary at 495 South State Street in Orem and also before the funeral from 9:30 to 10:30 at the meetinghouse.  The funeral will be available on a Zoom Webcast.  The link will be available upon request.  Interment will be at the Orem City Cemetery with full Military Rites.

Condolences may be expressed to the family on this page.