Timothy Holst was a clown — and dedicated Mormon

When Timothy J. Holst's death in S? Paulo, Brazil, on April 16 was announced two weeks ago, dozens of circus-related Web sites were filled with remembrances from long-time friends and colleagues from Holst's 37 years with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

But Holst, who has family ties to Utah, was also widely known as a "missionary at large" for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As a former Deseret News entertainment writer, I interviewed Holst on several occasions and learned that his membership in the church was not something he took lightly.

During his extensive travels with the circus (as a clown living on the circus train or as a globe-trotting talent scout), he frequently found opportunities to talk about the church.

In 1987, he and Kenneth Feld, president of Feld Entertainment, which produces the circus and several touring ice show companies, traveled to the prestigious International Circus Festival in Monte Carlo, where Feld was a judge.

The editor of a Swedish newspaper interviewed Holst, who mentioned that he was looking for ancestors in Sweden. (He also served an LDS mission there during the late 1960s.) Holst later received a copy of the newspaper article commenting on his genealogical interest, and a few months later he was sent a large envelope from Sweden containing information and photographs of possible relatives.

Holst graduated from the Ringling Bros. esteemed "Clown College" in 1971 — magna cum laude, and worrying that his bright, red rubber nose would fall off.

When he had settled into rehearsing as a clown for the upcoming 1972 season, someone knocked on his apartment door. It was another Tim — Tim Torkildson, who had observed that there was something special about Holst and wanted to know more. In a New Era story in April 1973, written by then-associate editor Lowell M. Durham Jr., "Tork" tells of being baptized by Holst just a few days before leaving on their first 45-city tour with the circus, and earning Holst the nickname of "missionary clown."

Just two years later, Holst was married (to Linda Wilson in a precisely timed ceremony in the Salt Lake Temple when the circus made its yearly stop in Utah). Traveling on the train, they maintained a year's supply of food in their railroad car — often taking advantage of regional produce in the cities they were traveling through.