Maxwell "Max" Richards Cannon Obituary (1924

Maxwell (Max) Richards Cannon died August 24, 2019. He was born May 28, 1924 in Salt Lake City, Utah to Hugh Jenne Cannon and Sarah Ellen Richards Cannon. He graduated from South High School in Salt Lake, and was a radio operator in the U.S. Merchant Marine during World War II. He served in the European, North African, and Pacific areas, and held the rank of Ensign in the U.S. Maritime Service. He held a First Class Radiotelegraph and First Class Radiotelephone license from the FCC. After the war he obtained a BS degree in electrical engineering from the University of Utah while working full time for United Airlines as a radio operator providing communication with the planes. Upon graduation he worked for IBM for 38 years in various engineering and management positions at six different locations. While with IBM he received an MEE degree from Syracuse University and 15 U.S. patents. He married his beloved eternal companion, Elsie Shortt, in the Salt Lake Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on March 4, 1949. They are the parents of eight children: David (Ana Maria), Christine, Julie (Lynn) Ballard, Cathy (Brian) Maurer, Eileen (Russell) Healy, Cindy (Glen) Davis, Mike (Tori), and Steve (Cyndi), who blessed them with 33 grandchildren and 36 great-grandchildren. He loved his family very much, and tried to be a good husband, father, and grandfather. His greatest joy came from his family. He and Elsie encouraged family reunions and visits from the scattered family members. He looks forward to a joyful reunion with his parents, grandparents, siblings, daughter Julie, a grandchild Jacob and others who preceded him in death. Max loved the Lord, and was very active in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, serving as branch president of two different branches, in a district presidency and on a mission board while living in New York State. He served on two stake high councils – in New Jersey and Colorado. He was ordained a patriarch in 1973, and served as patriarch for 31 years in four stakes – in Colorado, Arizona, BYU, and Provo. He served a mission with his wife in Kentucky. He served as a temple veil worker, ordinance worker, counselor in the Provo Temple Presidency, and sealer, as well as many other church callings. Much of his time after retirement was spent doing family history work; he was the Cannon family genealogist for several years. He also assisted his wife with her family history work. In addition to his own personal history, he produced a history of his sweetheart, Elsie. He accumulated brief histories of many of his ancestors and scanned thousands of family pictures for a written and pictorial history of the family for distribution to family members on CD-ROM. He indexed tens of thousands of names for the Church Family History Department. Funeral services will be held at 10:00 a.m., Saturday, September 7, 2019 at the Rock Canyon Chapel, 2445 North 650 East, Provo, Utah. Friends may visit with the family at the Berg Mortuary of Provo, 185 East Center Street, Friday, September 6 from 6-8:00 p.m. Services will be followed by interment at Eastlawn Memorial Hills. Condolences may be expressed to the family at www.bergmortuary.com.