Theodore "Ted" Alton Wight, provider, exemplar, father, and patriarch to a posterity of over 75 children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, passed away surrounded by his family on Thursday, December 29, 2022, from complications resulting from an accidental fall during a nocturnal craving and pursuit of ice cream. He was 90 years old.

Ted's life was an arc from humble beginnings to a man of many talents, a true Renaissance man. He was born on March 2, 1932, in Pocatello, Idaho, where his father worked for the Union Pacific railroad. After multiple work-related moves to other locations in Idaho and Nebraska, his family eventually settled in Provo, Utah. After graduating from Provo High School, he attended Brigham Young University and played in the BYU symphony orchestra, where he met his future wife, Marcia. He later transferred to the University of Utah, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in psychology and a doctorate in mathematics education. A man with an active inquisitive mind, Ted was incapable of finding fulfillment in a single intellectual, creative, or spiritual endeavor. He earned his principal income teaching mathematics but was also a man of great creative and artistic ability as a highly accomplished musician, playing flute with the Utah Symphony for eleven years (together with his wife, Marcia, who played viola for the Utah Symphony for three of those years) and for many years thereafter returned to play with the Utah Symphony when additional flute players were required. On one occasion he returned to play with the Utah Symphony on a European tour. Ted also taught private flute lessons at Brigham Young University as an adjunct professor of music. Music filled the halls of the Wight household. Ted and Marcia had strong musical hopes and aspirations for their children. Although their sons' musical interests were short-lived, they instead acquired proficiency in other areas, such as playing the stereo at high decibels and establishing entrepreneurial neighborhood candy and fireworks retail sales outlets comprised of a large cardboard moving box in the family garage (with impressive profits). Ted's daughters, however, pursued their musical talents with fervor, each becoming accomplished harpists, partners in concert with Ted in playing a wide repertoire of flute-harp duets.

Yet another of Ted's great passions was his athletic endeavors. He ran. He swam. He lifted weights. Presumably, to be sufficiently physically fit for the winter ski season, his ultimate athletic passion. He eschewed the groomed slopes and instead chased Alta's steep and deep "champagne" powder, on a few occasions narrowly escaping death by skiing out of an active avalanche he triggered. In his skiing pursuits he was often accompanied by his children and grandchildren, who followed him hiking up mountain ridges and through the cliffs of Alta in pursuit of wide-open mountain cirques of freshly fallen powder. His children all survived these hike-to-ski adventures, eventually learning to appreciate Ted's beneficent, if not arguably irresponsible, removal from school on deep powder days due to his children's serious eye problems, as they simply "could not see" themselves sitting in a classroom while there was fresh powder awaiting first turns. Ted reassured his children that this was an acceptable parentally supervised "substitute" gym class, since he was, after all, a certified teacher. Until weeks before his passing, at the age of 90, he was determined to stay physically fit and walked the halls of his apartment complex, pedaled on his stationary exercise bicycle, and diligently lifted two-pound weights (one in each arm!), with the perennial, though never-to-be-realized, aspiration of "just one last ski run."

One cannot fairly describe Ted's life without noting his passion for food. He was a "foodie" before the word had been invented. Although he shunned greens (never an asparagus, broccoli, or brussel sprout ever appeared at the Wight dinner table), he loved the comestible delicacies of life. In Ted's culinary repertoire, bread was a garnish for the butter. Shrimp or lobster was mandatory on special and ordinary occasions. And ice cream was an essential fifth basic food group, as evidenced by the fact that the Wight freezer was never without a five-gallon container of BYU dairy vanilla ice cream. His relationship with ice cream was obsessive, and ultimately tragic, resulting in his late-night fall. To the amusement of all, immediately following his unfortunate ice cream induced fall, while still prostrate on the floor with a broken femur and waiting for the paramedics to arrive, he pleaded for the nurse aide at his side to feed him the remaining ice cream of which he been in pursuit before the ice cream could melt. He simply could not allow the waste of mankind's most inspired culinary creation. Marcia's most excellent culinary talents, both literally and figuratively, "fed" Ted's food obsession.

Despite Ted's impressive intellectual, creative, and athletic accomplishments (mathematician, educator, musician, athlete, powder hound, death defying avalanche escapist!), he was not a conversationalist. On one of Ted and Marcia's first dates, while traveling from Provo to Salt Lake City to attend the symphony, neither Ted nor Marcia spoke a single word to one another. To Marcia this was indeed an impressive feat, a rare and commendable personality trait, such restraint, such confidence, foreboding a peaceful quiet future coexistence, and was, in fact, the pivotal moment, the turning point that shaped the destiny of her and Ted's future and that of their posterity, when she realized she had found her true hushed love. For Ted and Marcia, love meant never having to say…well…anything. Although dinner time may not have been a time of deep philosophical or political conversation (else the food would get cold, or worse the ice cream might melt!) home was always a place of learning, math tutoring, musical training, and spiritual mentoring. Ted loved his wife and soulmate, Marcia, with all his heart. Together, Ted and Marcia were a parental force of nature, both soft spoken, wise, and caring, counseling their children with a gentle hand.

Ted was a true family patriarch, devoted to learning and living gospel principles, teaching his children to love God, love Jesus, love our mother, love one another (and stop arguing), and love the teachings and truths found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. He was a faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, serving in many church callings, including bishop of a BYU singles ward, where he sought for and received inspiration to guide his little flock of youthful saints and sinners, and loving them equally with all his heart. He was liberal in giving priesthood blessings to his wife and children, and on at least one occasion to the family dog, Keisha. In his later years, during visits from family members, he enthusiastically updated his posterity on the status of his Book of Mormon "reading count," with a loving intention of sharing spiritual mana. At the time of his passing, he had read the Book of Mormon over 100 times. He will be remembered by his family as a spiritual exemplar, an inspired family patriarch, who took advantage at every encounter to teach a morsel of gospel truth and share his unwavering testimony of his Savior, Jesus Christ. He loved and cherished his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren as one of his greatest blessings, always inquiring about their lives, their trials and tribulations, praying fervently for their welfare. In the final weeks of Ted's life, only weeks before his fall and while still in good health, his spiritual sensitivities were again manifested when Ted shared that he had received a spiritual prompting that his time on this earth would soon come to an end. Only days prior to his passing, things became clearer to him. He summoned his family to his bedside and presciently announced "I'm a goner." His life was a tapestry of magnificent events that culminated in his final days in what can only be described as both fulfillment and foreshadowing of God's exquisite, sublime eternal plan – his family surrounding him in love, honoring his well-lived life, each of whom were themselves striving to live out their lives and emulate Ted's example of ministering to others, extending kindness, generosity, time, shelter, and food, even during struggles with the inevitable trials and uncertainties of mortality. Ted's life instilled in others the hope of bringing to pass God's great plan of happiness — family, knit together through the eternities, forever. This will be his legacy.

Ted was preceded in death by his wife, Marcia Ann Stringham, his parents, Theodore Jensen Wight and Anna June Dolbeer, and his great granddaughter Angela Kristen Brown. He is survived by his six children, Kirsten Wight Pederson (Larry), Christopher Lee Wight (Kristen), Lysa Lyn Wight Rytting (Bryce), Colby Todd Wight (Anita), Mitchell Stringham Wight (Sandy), and Andrea Wight Greenwood (Travis), 24 grandchildren, 37 great grandchildren (with 3 more on their way), and his brother, Ray Wight (Judy).

Funeral services will be held at the Walker-Sanderson Funeral Home, 646 E. 800 N., Orem, Utah, on Saturday, January 7, 2022. All are welcome to attend a viewing and greet Ted's family members from 9:30-10:30 am, and funeral service from 11:00-12:00 pm. Interment and dedication of Ted's final resting place will immediately follow at the Orem City Cemetery, 1520 N. 800 E., Orem, Utah.

Family and friends of Ted are encouraged to share their condolences and memories of Ted on the Walker-Sanderson website, www.walkersanderson.com, on Ted's obituary webpage.

Ted's family wishes to express their appreciation to the Legacy Village staff for their compassionate care during Ted's final days (and especially to the nurse aide who compassionately fed Ted his last bite of ice cream while waiting for the paramedics to arrive), and to the Walker-Sanderson Funeral Home. Condolences may be shared with the family online at www.walkersanderson.com