Obituary: Roy Maughan Darley

1918 ~ 2003

Roy Maughan Darley, born September 14, 1918 in Wellsville, Utah, to Evan O. Darley and Maud Perkins Maughan, passed away September 30, 2003.

Educated in Cache Valley, he graduated in music from Utah State University (where he was the first organist of the newly installed pipe organ at the LDS Institute) and later received a Masters in Music from the University of Utah. Additionally he was named an Associate of the Royal College of Music in London.

Following Roy's LDS mission in the Eastern States, he served as organist and program director at the Washington D.C. Chapel, where he met Kathleen Latham. After their May 12, 1944 marriage in the Salt Lake Temple, Roy served two years as a U.S. Army chaplain in Borneo, the Philippines, and Japan. As part of the occupational forces, he entered Hiroshima 60 days after the bomb was dropped.

After the war, Roy was assigned as a Tabernacle Organist, a position he held for 37 years, including one year as organist at the Hyde Park Chapel in London. Roy also served 25 years on the YMMIA General Board and was a member of the General Music Committee. After retiring, he and his wife served in the New Zealand Christchurch Mission, and later they both worked in the Salt Lake Temple as ordinance workers, a labor they dearly loved.

Roy was preceded in death by his wife of 51 years, Kathleen, and three grandsons.

He is survived by five children: Margaret (Robert) Kirkham, Janice (James) Carter, Philip (Nancy Jent), Elizabeth (Van) Gessel, and David (Heidi Daynes); his sister, Edith Swain; brother, David Kerr Darley; 16 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held Monday, Oct 6, at 11 a.m. at the Ensign 4th Ward, 9th Avenue and K Street. Friends may call Sunday evening from 6-8 p.m. at Larkin Mortuary, 260 East South Temple and Monday morning from 9:30-10:30 a.m. at the ward. Interment, Salt Lake City Cemetery.