Donald Anderson

Donald Ray Anderson was born in Lincoln, Idaho on January 8, 1935 to Ural Rex Anderson and Sarah Fern Franck. He died July 19, 2021 in Newberg, Oregon.

Ray’s love of learning and educational goals led him to attend 8 college and universities over the course of 17 years to pursue bachelor’s degrees in both German and Chemistry as well as a PhD in Physical Chemistry from Brigham Young University.

He married Darla Dilworth in 1967 in the Idaho Falls Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They soon moved to Columbus, Ohio where they lived and raised seven of their children over the next 30 years. During that time, Ray worked for Chemical Abstracts Services, a division of American Chemical Society. He retired as the Senior Scientific Information Analyst in 1998. Ray enjoyed collecting many things, but he especially loved books on foreign languages. The jewel of his vast collection was undoubtedly a facsimile of the Gutenberg Bible.

In 1999, Ray and Darla moved to Idaho to care for her aging parents and then relocated to Provo, Utah. Shortly after the move, they were called to serve as missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the Provo Utah Missionary Training Center. They lived in Provo until Darla’s death in 2008. Ray married Rita Carlson and moved to LaFayette, Oregon where he lived for the remainder of his life. He enjoyed genealogy, loved compiling family history documents and spent many hours during his last years compiling the information from his research.

Ray is returning home in heaven to his loving wife and eternal companion, Darla; four of their children, David, Heidi, Carrie, and Jamison; his parents; his twin brother, Jay; and one sister, Kay.

He is survived by his sweet wife, Rita; four daughters, Darryle Grace Parker, Linda (Mark) Shattuck, (his daughters from his first marriage to Marlene Parker in 1955), Katie (Steve) Schwope, and Rachel (Jeff) Jensen; four sons, Kelly, Jeff (Christine), Joseph, and Ben (Hilary); one brother, Rex; and one sister, Patti; fourteen grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.

A public viewing will be held on Tuesday, July 27, 2021 from 9:30 to 10:30 AM at Sundberg-Olpin Mortuary 495 South State Street, Orem, UT 84058. A private family service will then be held at the Provo City Cemetery. A memorial service will be held in Oregon in Ray and Rita’s home at a future date.

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