Earl Richard Lubbers
Earl Lubbers was born on June 16, 1937, in Faribault, Minnesota, to Earl Eike Lubbers and Anna Boyum Lubbers. His early childhood carried him from Minnesota through Cherokee, Iowa, before his family settled in Tucson, Arizona, the city that would shape so much of his life.
At Tucson High School, Class of 1955, Earl became a standout athlete. Playing on Coach “Bud” Doolen’s final team, he helped carry the squad to the championship game of the Arizona State Tournament and earned All-City, All-State, and All-Tournament honors. His talent took him to the University of Arizona on an athletic scholarship, where he lettered in basketball and became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.
Commissioned a Second Lieutenant through R.O.T.C., Earl served on active duty at Fort Knox, Kentucky; Fort Hood, Texas; and Fort Lewis, Washington. Following his military service, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he worked as a sales representative for Texaco Inc. and as an administrative assistant for Utah Construction and Mining Company.
In 1966, Earl returned to the University of Arizona, where a federal stipend allowed him to earn a graduate degree in Special Education — the beginning of his life’s true work. He would go on to teach in the Tucson area for thirty years, in the Vail School District #20 and at the Arizona State School for the Deaf and the Blind, where he not only taught but also coached basketball, sharing the game he loved with students who inspired him. A devoted Boy Scout leader for many years, he served as Scoutmaster and Troop Committee Chairman and was honored with the Silver Beaver Award. A big presence and personality, but also gentle, humble, and endlessly patient, Earl had a rare gift for putting others before himself, and generations of young people were better for having known him.
In 1973, in Tucson, Earl married DeeAnn Peterson, and in doing so became the “father he didn’t have to be” to her sons, Brent and Bert. Together Earl and DeeAnn welcomed their son, Ryan in 1977. Earl loved DeeAnn with all his heart, mind, and energy, and he loved their children completely and equally, never once distinguishing by how they came into his family. He was present at every game, every school event, every moment that mattered, a steady and dependable figure his children could always count on.
Earl brought a rambunctious sense of fun to family life creating endless memories of road trips, hiking, and made-up stories told around the fire or in the tent. He loved the movies and sporting events, and delighted in taking his children, and later his grandchildren, to any event at all, always with a giant popcorn and a giant soda in hand. He loved to fish, and while his older children can attest that the skill did not come to him easily, his grandchildren reaped the rewards of his patience and practice, pulling in fish on nearly every outing. He adored his grandchildren, every one of them, and cared for them with the same boundless, even-handed love that defined him.
Earl and DeeAnn shared a deep love of learning and of the wider world. Upon retiring from teaching, the two served in Brigham Young University’s China Teacher Program, living and teaching in Xi’an in 2001–2002 and in Qingdao in 2004–2005. Earl cherished his years in China and held a deep affection for the Chinese people, maintaining close friendships with his former students for many years afterward.
Above all, Earl was a lifelong learner who was rarely without a book in hand. Endlessly curious, he read voraciously and enrolled in courses at community colleges wherever he lived, never tiring of the chance to study something new. He subscribed to a service, first on DVD and later by streaming, that brought recorded lectures from some of the world’s finest professors into his home, and he listened to and absorbed their teachings for hours on end. Remarkably well read and largely self-educated, he held a special fascination for the vastness of the universe and for humanity’s ever-expanding understanding of how it all works.
In 2020, Earl and DeeAnn made their home at the Sagewood retirement community in South Jordan, Utah, where Earl built a warm and welcoming life and was dearly loved by many. He often spoke of how grateful he was for that decision and for the friendships they found there. Through a variety of health challenges, he drew strength and comfort from the residents, employees, and caregivers who became part of his world. It was a fitting place for him to spend his final years — surrounded, as he always had been, by community and by love.
Earl was preceded in death by his parents, Earl Eike Lubbers and Anna Boyum Lubbers; his sister, Ruth Ann Lubbers Patzman; and his beloved wife, DeeAnn Peterson Lubbers. He is survived by his three children, Brent Dover (Catherine), Bert Dover (Gena), and Ryan Lubbers (Raquel); and his eleven grandchildren, Blake Dover, Justin Dover, Katie Dover, Tai Dover, Riley Dover, Cosette Dover, Travis Dover, Desiderio Lubbers, Caetano Lubbers, Tiago Lubbers, and Anna Isabella Lubbers.
A gentle and humble man who measured his life by the people he lifted up, Earl gave his family a lifetime of devotion, patient love, and unwavering presence. He will be deeply missed.
A short graveside burial service will be held on Saturday, August 1st at 10:00 a.m. at the Mt. Pleasant, Utah Cemetery. A separate Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, August 22nd at 10:00 a.m. at Sagewood Retirement Home, 11289 S. Oakmond Road, South Jordan, Utah 84009, followed by a catered lunch.
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