Ogden man mourned, hailed for selflessness

OGDEN — At his brother's funeral Wednesday, Reed Richards said he thought about his own mortality after their Book of Mormon tour was ambushed by armed bandits in a remote area of Guatemala.

Brett Richards was shot during the Jan. 7 attack and died a short while later. He was struck by a bullet as he struggled to pull one of the gunmen off the tour's Guatemalan bus driver.

"As I lay in the dirt by the side of that little van in the Guatemalan jungle, not knowing whether Brett was alive or whether anyone would be alive, I thought about what I had done in my life that was of lasting value," Reed Richards said.

He told the hundreds of people gathered at the Weber Heights Stake Center that he didn't know how to answer that question. But he had no trouble describing the impact Brett Richards had in his 52 years.

An architect, Brett Richards is responsible for many well-known buildings in Ogden, including the visitor center at the Eccles Dinosaur Park and the new Lincoln Elementary School.

Brett Richards also touched the lives of thousands of people as a bishop in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As a leader of the church's program for young men, he used a favorite sport, kayaking, to teach religious lessons.

Still, what mattered most to Brett Richards was his family. All the buildings in the world, a tearful Reed Richards said, couldn't compare to Jeremy, Kari, Jared, Heather and Katie, who range in age from 28 to 16.

Each of the children shared memories of their father during the service.

Jeremy Richards recalled how mortified he was at first when his father was called to lead his young men's group. His attitude quickly changed when he found out they'd be building their own kayaks.

"How cool is that?" Jeremy Richards said.

Kari Richards described her father as selfless.

"He always gave of himself," she said, including on the ill-fated Guatemala trip where he was "trying to help everyone who was there."

Jared Richards said that, despite his sadness, he had to smile Wednesday when he saw a kayak filled with flowers at the front of the chapel. His father "always knew when it was appropriate to be serious and solemn and when it was appropriate to be humorous."

Heather Richards also brought up her father's sense of humor, telling a story about how when she asked him to pass her a roll during a family dinner, he tossed it across the table at her.

For Katie Richards, nothing was more important than being Daddy's little girl — even if that meant overcoming her fears and learning his favorite sport.

"I hated kayaking the first couple of times I did it, but I wanted to do things with my dad," she said.

Brett Richards loved to travel as much as he loved kayaking the region's whitewater rapids, Reed Richards said. Their adventures together included stealing cashews in Beirut and racing camels in Egypt.

"Maybe it's appropriate he died on safari in the jungles of Guatemala," Reed Richards said.

Elder Robert S. Wood of the LDS Quorum of the Seventy, president of the Utah North Area, read a letter from the church's First Presidency. The letter expressed their condolences and their appreciation for Brett Richards' service to the church.

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