David Paul Pehrson

As a child, Dave thrived in a loving, tidy home. His Mother read to him and his Father assigned math problems. This sturdy environment fostered a keen intellect. In his youth, Dave loved mechanical projects, which showcased his obvious talent and creativity. As a teenager, he cherished time with close-knit friends and excelled in freestyle skiing, pottery, junior golf, mathematics and physics. During high school, Dave found economic freedom in mowing 30 lawns per week. Even with this busy schedule, Dave often traveled to fly fish with his Father in the Teton Valley. Dave loved his parents, and particularly loved fishing with his Father.

After high school, Dave spent 18 months in Brazil as a missionary. Dave loved Brazilian culture. Informed by his experiences, Dave began thinking deeply about social, epistemological, and economic issues.

Serious health challenges beset Dave in his early 20s. Dramatic episodes caused by schizoaffective/bipolar disorder led to time in government custody. Following incarceration, Dave beat the odds and re-integrated into society. He pursued higher education at SLCC and the University of Nevada. He worked a day job in various construction professions, primarily as a skilled and productive framer. And then in the evenings, he mowed lawns. When healthy, Dave desired to contribute, create, fix, and maintain. An artisan trapped in the wrong century, Dave found great meaning in his manual work. Of his construction work, Dave wrote: I worked 8 to 10 hours per day and I worked 5 to six days a week. my rate of pay was 15.00 dollars per hour. This job was not for the timid, or snowflake generation. We lifted, nailed, layed out, built, and lifted beams into place using our sheer strength and wits and balance. In many ways, we were professional athletes. but at the end of the game, someone had a new house, or condo, or apartment. I handled and grasped full sheets of plywood. they are heavy. I reached out into the void, one hand on my gun, the other securing wood to be nailed. some may say. he was a simple carpenter. but don’t forget, so was jesus.

During this industrious time, at the end of a season or project, Dave took “breaks,” which his Sister labeled “Ramadaves.” These road trips rejuvenated his spirit. While driving, Dave often listened to Kerouac's On the Road, read by Matt Dillon. Because he had no place he could stay in without getting tired of it and because there was nowhere to go but everywhere, keep rolling under the stars . . . .

Beginning in 2004, Dave’s life brightened thanks to a whirlwind romance with the beautiful and refined émigré Elen Cristina Junqueira. The couple married in 2005. Within a few years, Sophia and Sasha arrived. Dave and Elen worked to renovate a condominium, and parlayed their labors into a lovely house in North Salt Lake.

While much of Dave’s life exhibited contradictions, one area never did: He loved Sophia and Sasha unconditionally and encompassingly. In 2009, he wrote: Elen and Sophia are in brazil for a month and I am missing them more than I thought I would. Shortly after Sasha’s birth, Dave wrote: 2 kids are lots of fun. where's the coffee pot? (Dave spoke with humor, concision and punch, just like his putting stroke.)

Dave and Elen loved young Sophia and Sasha, and provided for them with distinction. Dave worked as regularly as he could manage. He found satisfaction and purpose in contributing to a household with young children. But over time, Dave's health and personal challenges caused further turmoil in the already too-challenging boiling pot of young family life. Dave’s impassioned critiques of American greed and capitalism were heartfelt and informed by study, experience, and careful observation. This deep thinking was neither wrong nor misguided; but it may not have been advantageous for living a traditional American life. Indeed, perhaps some typical opportunities were limited due to Dave’s social anxiety (maybe connected to the youthful incarceration), strong beliefs on fairness, and suspicion of power structures.

Any observer would confirm that Dave and Elen each gave the best they could to make their family work. This included journeys to and stays in Brazil. Yet sometimes even our best is not enough. In 2014, Dave stared down a divorce and the permanent departure of his family from the US. While devastated at their distance, Dave often spoke of his happiness that they could be raised by a loving mother in a healthy, principled, and pastoral setting.

Following this life change, Dave’s defining motivation became earning money to visit his children or otherwise aid them. He ruminated over how to continue to meaningfully contribute to their lives. Yet illness and challenges drowned these noble ambitions. As Dave’s health deteriorated, he was no longer physically able to pursue construction projects and lawn care. He turned to work as a repo truck driver and an Uber driver (which he adjudged as paying “$3/hour after expenses”). Tragically, Dave encountered further bipolar schizoaffective episodes, including traumatic delusions and extended lengthy depression, and then Multiple Sclerosis. Significant lesions in his spinal cord and brain affected his coordination and thinking. This worsened his personal challenges and mood disorders, and caused some estrangement from some who loved him. Perhaps as only parents can do, Dave’s parents never stopped loving and never stopped trying.

Through his pain, Dave’s never wavered in his love for Sophia and Sasha. He reveled in discussing their good humor and intelligence. He constantly game-planned creative but out-of-reach methods to visit them. The separation caused a permanent fissure in his soul. He wept as his health prevented him from parenting as he’d always hoped.

Many brave citizens aided Dave on his journey, including friends, romantic partners, co-workers, physicians, police officers, landlords, employers, Hills, and family members. In bright times, these allies delighted in his incisive wit and jovial eccentricities. In dark times, they hosted, employed, fed, funded, encouraged, searched for, found, and lost him. With inconsistent success, they tried not to judge what they could not understand. Most tragically, one such saint found him following his most desperate hour. We are all so sorry that this happened. We wish Dave instead could have found his purpose and happiness, perhaps in a Jeep on the Rubicon or a motorcycle on the Estrada Real.

Dave will be remembered by many, including his children, Sophia and Sasha, their Mother Elen, parents Gloria and David Nels Pehrson, siblings Marianne Dunn (Bryan), Sandi Davis (Brad), Nicole Reynard, Chad Pehrson (Emily), and girlfriend LaToya. Dave’s lifelong friend Wayne Hill (“homie for life”) passed away in 2021.

A viewing will be Monday, January 8, 2024 from 10:00 am to 11:15 am at the Valley View 3rd Ward, 1925 East Gunderson Lane, Holladay, Utah. Funeral services will follow at the church starting 11:30 am. The interment will be at Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park.