Denece Bowden

Denece Decker Bowden, age 93, died July 13, 2021 in Mesquite, Nevada, of causes incident to age. She was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on November 25, 1927, to Harold A and Julia Hiatt Decker.

On June 9, 1949, she married Daloy Carl Bowden in the Salt Lake City Temple. Although Denece had a long career as a teacher and college professor, she delighted in being a homemaker and mother. Together they loved their eight children: Dennis (Diana) Bowden of Naselle, WA; Renee Bowden Ranney (Nelson) of Mesa, AZ; Gerrit (June) Bowden of Cheyenne, WY; Celeste Bowden of Mesquite, NV; Lynette Bowden Cook (Grant) of Lathrop, CA; Eric (Laura) Bowden of Frederick, MD; Rochelle  Bowden Jue (Ed) of Livermore, CA; and Melanie Bowden Newman (Scott) of Monteview, ID. There are thirty-six grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren.

Her parents, husband, and sister Beverly preceded her in death. A brother, Dale H. Decker, lives in LaGrande, Oregon.

Denece attended school in Salt Lake City, UT and LaGrande, OR, where she was a princess of Evensong, an annual celebration of education at Eastern Oregon State College. She was graduated from Brigham Young University magna cum laude in 1949 and later earned two masters degrees at St Mary’s University of California.

Denece taught English and Latin at Brigham Young University during the 1950s while Daloy did his undergraduate work. Thereafter, wherever Daloy’s work in nuclear health physics for General Electric Company took the family, Denece used her linguistics and literature training to teach classes in nearby colleges as an adjunct professor. Thus she taught at Brigham Young University in Provo, UT; as a founding professor of Columbia Basin College in the tri-cities of WA; at Milwaukee Institute of Technology and at Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI; and California State College in Hayward, CA.

She retired after teaching fifteen years for the University of California at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, CA, where she authored texts and workbooks, including Grammar Review for Technical Writers and Usage Review for Engineers. Her specialty was making grammar enjoyable and understandable via schematics and Venn diagrams for engineers at the Laboratory.

She was also the author of numerous articles on technical editing and English usage. She presented papers at the annual meetings of the Society of Technical Communication. For several years she taught the grammar sections in summer classes at MIT in Boston and at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Denece served in the Relief Society, Young Women, and Primary organizations of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints all her life. In later years she did genealogy indexing for the Family Search Program.

According to her wishes there will be funeral services in Mesquite, NV, and a memorial service and burial in Salt Lake City beside her loved husband.

Funeral Services will be held Tuesday, July 20, 2021 at 11 a.m. (PST) at the LDS Whipple Chapel in Mesquite, Nevada. A viewing will be held 10:00 -10:45 a.m. (PST) prior to the service at the same location.

A second Funeral Service will be held Thursday, July 22, 2021 at 10 a.m. (MST) at the Larkin Sunset Lawn Chapel, 2350 E. 1300 S., Salt Lake City, UT.   A viewing will be held from 9 - 9:45 a.m.  (MST)  prior to services at the mortuary chapel.  Interment will follow in the Larkin Sunset Lawn Cemetery. 

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