Roger Burnham McFarland

On March 9, 2025, Roger Burnham McFarland enjoyed his last hours visiting with his kids and his grandkids in his hospital room, laughing and telling them he loved them. Then, at 10:18 pm, he laid back to rest and passed from this world into the next.

Roger was no stranger to hospitals. At the tender age of seven, he was diagnosed with polio and moved to a hospital far across Los Angeles County. His father, Oscar McFarland, and especially his mother, Jessie Burnham McFarland, lovingly traveled for hours by streetcar to visit him, but he missed his siblings and friends. Roger was cured but mistreated while in the hospital and carried physical and emotional burdens for the rest of his life. He enjoyed Boy Scouts and youth activities in the Las Flores Ward.

In 1959, Roger was called to the British Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, where he learned to love the working-class accents of London and Ireland’s green landscapes. He later studied at Brigham Young University, living in a dark basement in the Tree Streets and surviving on boiled eggs. Relatives introduced him to Sandra Sue Reimer, who was the love of his life. He proposed to her on the banks of the Provo River at Springdell and later shared a shake to celebrate at Stan’s Drive Inn on 9th East.

Roger and Sandy moved to Glendora, California, where Roger earned his MS in Library Sciences from USC and then worked as a librarian at Mount San Antonio College. In Glendora, Roger and Sandy welcomed four children: Rob, Rick, Heather, and Betsy. Tax cuts and educational restructuring led Roger and Sandy to make the terrifying choice to leave California and to move to Orem, Utah, to start a new auto parts business. Roger’s brave move allowed him to still use his excellent librarian’s cataloguing skills, and he was honored by the Orem Chamber of Commerce for his business acumen. Roger and Sandy served in a branch presidency at the Missionary Training Center in Provo. Years later, after marrying off several of his children and welcoming his grandchildren, Roger turned around and sold the business so that he could take care of Sandy as she slowly succumbed to her battle with cancer. Under his care, Sandy made it to the new millennium, and she passed away in January of 2000. Having exhausted his resources, Roger once again bravely pivoted and returned to Brigham Young University as the stacks manager of the Harold B. Lee Library. He worked well into his 70s, leading a band of merry student book shelvers as they re-organized the library’s collections. After retirement, Roger was a passionate genealogist, Sunday School teacher, and a great support to his widowed daughter Betsy and her two boys. In spite of his inner pain, Roger worked hard to maintain relationships with his family in his own unique way.

Roger was the life of the party at the Cove Point Senior Living Center in Provo. In his life, he never passed up a good pun (or even a bad pun), danced like Popeye to make his kids eat spinach, and even sometimes let other people be right about things. We will miss his wide-ranging curiosity, his fascination with music, politics, literature, and his love of Scottish songs, of the gospel and of his family.

Roger was preceded in death by his wife, Sandy; his son-in-law, Kelly Isom; and his in-laws, Dan Bickmore, Doug Jones, Donna Reimer, and Elvin Braman. He is survived by his four siblings, Marilyn Bickmore, Donna Jones, Bobbi Boden, and Jim McFarland, and his in-laws, Don Boden, Deb McFarland, Todd Reimer, and Jane Braman. He will be honored and remembered by his children Rob McFarland, Rick McFarland, Heather Bean, and Betsy Isom, his son-in-law Ron Bean, his daughters-in-law Mary Ann McFarland and Dawn McFarland, his 16 grandchildren: Jessie, Tyler, Karissa, Zach, MaKailey, David O., Madeline, Meghan, Will, Hannah, Macklin, Sebastian, Joss, Adam, Eli, and Ben, as well as his seven great-grandchildren. He is also survived by his dear friend, Gloria Bird. We thank the beloved residents and staff of Cove Point, especially Sissy Williams.

“…And I shall hear, though soft, your tread above me, and all my grave will warmer, sweeter be, for you will bend and tell me that you love me, and I shall sleep in peace until you come to me.”

Services will be Saturday, March 15, 2025, at 10:30 a.m. at Wheeler-Sundberg Funeral Home, 495 South State Street., Orem, Utah, with a viewing held from 9:00 am - 10:00 am prior to the services. Burial will be at 2:00 pm in the Ogden City Cemetery, 1875 Monroe Blvd, Ogden.

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