Joseph E. Rawlinson

May 9, 1915-September 30, 2011

Joseph E. Rawlinson was born on May 9, 1915 in Delta, Utah. His parents were Eli Wilford Rawlinson and Dora Pearl Day. Both parents graduated from Snow Academy in Ephraim, and his mother also graduated from Brigham Young University. Joe’s father was a school teacher, salesman, and farmer, and his mother also taught school. Joe’s parents had another child, Laura Rawlinson, in 1918. Joe’s father died in December, 1918 from Spanish Influenza. The family then lived with Joe’s maternal grandparents, Eli and Eliza Day in Fairview, and with Joe’s father’s sister, Laura Morrey in Joseph, depending on where Joe’s mother was teaching school. Joe’s mother married David Sanderson just before Joe turned seven. David Sanderson was a widower with two sons, Curtis Sanderson, born in 1911, and Leland Sanderson, born in 1913. The family returned to Hinckley, Utah, next to Delta, where they lived until Joe completed his junior year in high school, when they lost their farms and had to move back to Fairview. While in Hinckley, a half brother, David Van Arden Sanderson, was born in 1924, and a half sister, De Reta Sanderson, was born in 1928. Joe herded cattle, played the trombone, loved to read, hunted and trapped animals, rode bicycles and horses, loved to dance, and skipped a grade.

During his senior year of high school Joe tried to improve his dancing. A friend who danced the same way said dancing was “just like pushing a wheelbarrow full of bricks.” Joe graduated from North Sanpete high school in the spring of 1932 and the family purchased a farm in Hinckley for $40.00 and moved back to Hinckley. During the summer Joe managed to earn and save $10.00 to start college at Brigham Young University.

Joe completed a year at BYU by working picking apples for $.25 an hour among other jobs, and improved his dancing, becoming a student dance instructor, but he was unable to stay at BYU because of economic hardship. After a summer of not being able to find work and riding trains, he was invited to live with his aunt Mary Jane Rawlinson Geertsen while he attended the University of Utah. He was fortunate enough to get a job doing secretarial work for the university. He met his future wife, Myrtle Ruth Jensen, at a dance at Covey’s Coconut Grove. Joe graduated from the University of Utah in 1936 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and Business Administration. He went to work at Utah Oil Refining Co. Joe married Ruth in 1936 in the Manti Temple. Joe worked for the Forest Service in Logan, Utah, and then for the Internal Revenue Service, training in Washington D.C., and working in Wichita, Kansas, Butte, Montana, and Salt Lake City. Joe and Ruth had three children, James, Jolene, and Nancy. Joe passed the C.P.A. exam in 1942, winning the Elijah Watt Sells Award for having passed it second highest in the United States. Joe served in the Navy during World War II. After the war he was divorced in 1946 and was transferred to Los Angeles in August, 1946.

Joe married Elaine M. Andersen on June 2, 1947. They had 6 children over more than a decade, Rex, Anina, Cheryl, Mark, Lisa, and David. In December, 1952, Joe resigned from the Internal Revenue Service and went to work as a C.P.A. for Serene, Koster, and Barbour, C.P.A.’s. He thereafter decided to go to Law School at night and graduated from Loyola University School of Law in June, 1958, Order of the Coif. He took the California Bar Exam and was told by the Dean of his law school he passed it second highest in the state of California. In 1959 he became a full partner in Serene, Koster, and Barbour. He thereafter left Serene, Koster, and Barbour, to practice law on Highland Ave. in an old two bedroom prototype home which was next to the model home of the future at the corner of Highland and Wilshire Blvd. that had been displayed by home builder Fritz B. Burns before turning the corner complex into his offices. Mr. Burns displayed real live reindeer on his roof every Christmas.

After World War II, Joe had decided to save and invest ten percent of his income, and one of the advantages of working for Fritz B. Burns was the opportunity to invest with Mr. Burns, and Joe was one of Mr. Burns’ partners in many ventures. Joe also had many other clients and investments, but Joe always wanted to return to farming although he had to leave it as a teenager because of hay fever. He became involved in Orange ranching near Visalia, and because of his ability to spot good farm land and a willingness to be actively involved in the management and improvement of his ranches he was successful in ranching.

Joe practiced law and accounting full time until 1979 when he went to work for Mr. Burns’ charitable foundation as its third President, after Mr. Burns and Mr. Burns’ son Pat. Because of Joe’s charitable responsibilities with Mr. Burns’ charitable foundation he never retired but worked until the day he died, September 30, 2011, at the age of 96. Modeling himself in many ways after Mr. Burns, Joe set up his own foundation, but he was extensively involved in his own charitable giving long before he met Mr. Burns. Joe was an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints his whole life. He was unable to go on a mission as a young man because of poverty, and as an adult he was unable to leave his charitable responsibilities, but he worked tirelessly for the church in many positions throughout his life and was constantly generous to others, both in time and money. He was fond of referring to Genesis, stating regularly that “all the days of thy life” meant people were not supposed to retire. It was only partially tongue in cheek.

Joe did not smoke or drink and was an avid dancer, walker, and tennis player, but was also a survivor of kidney cancer for over twenty years. He never enjoyed good health, often suffering from bronchial problems and arthritis from a young age, but was in particularly ill health at the end of his life, although he walked 4 miles a day at lunch until he could only walk 3, 3 until he could only walk 2, and 2 until he was no longer able to walk without falling.

Joe was predeceased by his former wife, Ruth. Joe is survived by his wife Elaine and all his nine children and their spouses, except for his son-in-law, Frank Kniffing. He is also survived by twenty-one grandchildren and twenty-five great grandchildren.

Arrangements under the direction of Gates, Kingsley & Gates Moeller Murphy Funeral Directors, Santa Monica, CA.