Leland Robert Nelson

October 18, 1942 – July 28, 2026

Leland “Lee” Robert Nelson rode off into the great range in the sky on July 28, 2026, at the age of 83. He was born on October 18, 1942, in Logan, Utah, to Robert and Marion Nelson, the second of four children. He grew up alongside his sisters Saundra Aker (the oldest), Susan Ford, and Margaret Hannuksela, and the family later settled in Concord and Walnut Creek, California, where Lee spent his boyhood.

Nearly every summer of his childhood, Lee traveled back to Utah to stay with his grandparents in West Bountiful, where he spent his days on horseback, riding all over Davis County. Those summers planted a love of horses that never left him — over the course of his life, he owned and loved more horses than most people meet in a lifetime.

Lee graduated from [Mt. Diablo High School ] in [1960], and went on to study physics at UC Berkeley. He also enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and then was given leave to serve a full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the South German Mission. Afterward he returned to his studies, earning a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Brigham Young University in and later, an MBA also from BYU.

On September 9, 1967, Lee and Sharon Anderson were sealed in the Oakland temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Together they built a family of eight amazing children and a home that would anchor the rest of his life.

After earning his MBA, Lee joined the Ford Motor Company, where he worked in Michigan and Pennsylvania. The family then moved to Montana, where Lee helped start a car dealership before discovering the path that would define the rest of his working life: writing. He founded and ran the Bitterroot Journal, serving as its editor, publisher, and ad sales manager all at once.

In 1977, Lee and Sharon moved the family to Utah to pursue Lee’s writing career in earnest, landing first in Provo before settling on a small farm in Mapleton, where he and Sharon made their home for the rest of their lives together. He became editor of the Utah County Journal, and it was there that his career as an author truly began. He compiled the Journal of Joseph, his first book, and began serializing what would become his first major work of fiction, The Storm Testament, in the pages of the Utah County Journal. The book was eventually picked up by more than 100 newspapers across the country. The Storm Testament, along with its five sequels and three tangent novels, went on to sell several hundred thousand copies.

Over the following decades, Lee wrote more than thirty books, spanning both fiction and nonfiction — from the official biography of legendary BYU football coach LaVell Edwards, to a fictional missionary story, to a collection of short stories, to a book profiling successful Latter-day Saint entrepreneurs. He wrote the Beyond the Veil series exploring near-death experiences, and he even completed Mark Twain’s unfinished novel. Much of his writing centered on the American West and the Intermountain region in particular, and over time he became a genuine authority on early Church history, the pioneer migration, the Native American tribes of Utah, and the westward expansion of the United States.

Lee took enormous pride in thoroughly researching every book he wrote, often putting himself in harm’s way to gain first-hand knowledge of the stories he told. In pursuit of authenticity, he once shot a buffalo with a bow and arrow from the back of a galloping horse — as far as his family knows, the only living person to have done so. As an accomplished author he was widely sought after as a speaker at schools, community groups, churches, and even prisons. At his core, Lee was a storyteller.

Never content to do just one thing, Lee also started and ran a successful deer hunting trade show, exhibiting scores of the biggest bucks ever taken and drawing tens of thousands of participants over the years. In his middle age, while researching a book on Butch Cassidy, he took up team roping himself, eventually winning several roping competitions. He became even better known, however, for inventing the most effective mechanical device for training ropers to rope the heels of a steer — the Heel-O-Matic. He patented the invention and sold hundreds of units before eventually selling the company.

Combining his love of back-country horseback riding, his gift for storytelling, and his deep knowledge of Utah history, Lee spent a number of years leading week-long pack trips across the state that he called “Outlaw Trail Rides.”

Lee and Sharon later served a full-time mission together in Nauvoo in 2016-2017 where Lee served as a teamster, driving a wagon around the historical sites and telling stories about the history of the Church. He was also an active member of the Sons of Utah Pioneers, frequently leading excursions and giving speeches on pioneer history throughout the region.

Lee’s passions were deer hunting in the remotest parts of the American West, cultivating a massive garden, and closely following the Utah Jazz and BYU sports.

Lee is survived by his wife, Sharon; his eight children and their spouses; 32 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. He is also survived by his sisters, Saundra and Margaret.