Leland Robert Nelson

October 18, 1942 – July 28, 2026

Leland “Lee” Robert Nelson passed away on July 28, 2026, at the age of 83 after a long battle with cancer. He was born on October 18, 1942, in Logan, Utah, to Robert and Marion Smith Nelson, the second of four children. He grew up alongside his sisters Saundra Aker (the oldest), Susan Ford, and Margaret Hannuksela in Concord and Walnut Creek, California.

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 with his cousin, Karen. 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 Clayton Valley High School in 1960, and went on to study physics at University of California 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 and later, an MBA also from BYU.

On September 9, 1967, Lee and Sharon Anderson were married 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 Hamilton, Montana where Lee managed a Dodge dealership before discovering the path that would define the rest of his working life: writing. He founded the Bitterroot Journal, a monthly tabloid magazine, serving as its editor, publisher, and ad sales manager. He and Sharon manually cut and pasted each edition’s layout on the kitchen table.

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 over a million copies of all his books.

Over the following decades, including his best-selling fictional Storm Testament Series, 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 based on his own experiences, 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 an unfinished novel by Mark Twain. 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. He was recognized by the Utah State Legislature for his distinguished contributions to the preservation and celebration of Utah’s pioneer history.

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 the family knew, he was the only living person at that time 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. For many years Lee was editor and part owner of Cedar Fort Publishing in Springville with his longtime friend, Lyle Mortimer.

Never content to do just one thing, Lee also started and ran the Rocky Mountain Mule Deer Expo, exhibiting scores of the biggest bucks ever taken and drawing tens of thousands of participants. 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 horseback excursions that he called “Outlaw Trail Rides” exploring the history of Butch Cassidy and the early Native Americans.

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 and elk hunting in remote parts of the intermountain west, cultivating a large vegetable garden along with hundreds of zinnias, and cheering for the Utah Jazz and BYU…and occasionally the U of U and Utah State.

Lee is survived by his wife, Sharon; his eight children and their spouses–Richard (Diana), Robert (Lynette), Marvin (Allison), Russell (Chelsea), Virginia (Jason), Sarah (David), Kristin (Shawn), Benjamin (Monica); 32 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. He is also survived by his sisters, Saundra and Margaret.