Helge Skjeveland

Helge Skjeveland (born Rødne) died February 24, 2020 in Provo, Utah. Born 16 January 1950 at Stavanger, Norway, to Grete Bergitte Stølen Rødne and her first husband, Odd Christian Hafsøe, he was struck by polio in the great epidemic of 1954, leaving him paralyzed in the right leg. Subsequently he immigrated to the US, where his mother married again, her second husband Ole Skjeveland nobly treating Helge as his own natural son, so therefore adopted his surname when be­coming a U.S. citizen in 1968, and being a lifelong fearless, ardent advocate of its original, inspired, limited-powers Consti­tution, warned as many as he could of the dangers it was under.

Winning a scholarship to college and wanting to study astrophysics in belief he'd find God thereby, since his mother'd taught him that God was "up there, somewhere," he instead found Him through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Book of Mormon, then studied music composition with Merrill Bradshaw, Robert Manookin, and David Sar­gent at BYU, to begin with aspiring to become a composer, also becoming one of the first musicians to realize compositions with MIDI and computers. He had a deep love for the music of J. S. Bach, which he attempted to share with others to edify and strengthen faith in God. He won a prestigious BMI Student Composer's Award in 1973/74 for his huge, complex, abstract orchestral essay Anamorphosis (never performed), composed some more instrumental and a large body of complex choral music, and created many classical CDs via his Bachware efforts, also working in the computer industry, thanks to help from J. Olin Campbell and Alan Ashton.

He married the love of his life, Kathleen Lund, November 26, 1991 in the Salt Lake Latter-day Saint Temple. He served in many capacities in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, among which were positions in priesthood quorum leadership, home teaching, Sunday School teaching and administration, a stake mission, family history/temple work, music, and as ward newsletter editor for many years. Nothing in this life has been as great a joy as his marriage and member­ship in the Lord's only completely true church.

He was smitten with the musician's worst curse — deafness — living with an infernal hissing and hooting in his ears plus perpetual headache for most of his life on top of post-polio syndrome, endeavored to complain as little as possible, and make as much of a contribution as he could.

Survived by wife, Kathy of Orem, mother, Grete, brother, Erik Skjeveland and sister, Kristin Skjeveland all of Norway.

Funeral Services will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, February 29 at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Chapel on 891 W. 130 N. Orem, Utah. A visitation will be held from 10:30-11 a.m. prior to the services at the church. Burial will be in the Moroni City Cemetery. Condolences may be expressed to the family on this page.