Ross Dimond Player

Jun. 15, 1925 - Jan. 23, 2012

Date of Service: Jul. 13, 2012

Ross Dimond Player
June 15, 1925 – January 23, 2012

Certain lives sum up their generation. Ross Dimond Player’s life neatly folds into the story of an American generation. Although a common story, it is a story worth retelling.

Ross was born in a little house on the east side of Redwood Road in Salt Lake City, Utah, on June 15, 1925. He was the third child and only son born to his parents, David Lester (Les) Player and LaMoyne E. Dimond Player. A young family at the threshold of the Great Depression, the Players lived off the sale of household goods during Les’s repeated strep infections and subsequent unemployment. In the summer of 1936, the Players moved to Rupert, Idaho, after Les secured employment at the newly-built Amalgamated Sugar Company factory in neighboring Paul. Along with his two sisters and his mother, Ross traveled by bus from Utah to Burley, Idaho. They walked the last nine miles to their new home at 1010 F Street in Rupert.

In Rupert, Ross entered the sixth grade, and there on the school playground he met his future wife, Madelyn Maberly (Player). By all accounts the small town offered a splendid life for Ross who “ran wild” day and night. Ross had a bicycle, a paper route, and a dog that was devoted to him.

Like thousands of boys across the country, Ross joined the Marine Corps before his 18th birthday in 1944. He joined early, avoiding the draft in order to be with classmates from his hometown, the Rupert High School Class of 1944. Ross’s service to his country in World War II was remarkably common among his peers – everyone served. It is stunning that he, and many of his fellow soldiers, remained so completely silent about what was certainly a defining and transformative experience. It is astounding that he survived, returned home, married his childhood sweetheart, completed his education, worked for 40 years, and never mentioned his time during the war in the Pacific, not even in passing conversation, until after he turned 80. Only recently and with tears in their eyes have his children read his WWII Marine Corps service records – records that speak clearly for him now.

While completing Veteran’s Administration paperwork together, Ross told one of his daughters that his goal after VJ Day was to get off the Guam base camp island, pass the psychological evaluation, get discharged, and go home. He knew what to say, and he was going to be convincing. After successfully passing the evaluation, Ross returned to Idaho by bus in April 1946. He was rail thin from fever and dysentery and covered in fungus.

On August 22, 1947, a year after honorable discharge from military service, Ross married Madelyn in front of the fireplace at the Holiday Farm in Rupert, Idaho. The newlyweds moved to Los Angeles, California, where Ross completed his education at the Los Angeles Art Center School on the GI bill – an education financially out of reach before the war. Ross completed his art school training, and he subsequently worked as a graphic artist in Salt Lake City, Utah, for 40 years, remaining loyal to the same company his entire career.

Together Ross and Madelyn raised four girls, Marguerite Player Brown, Maureen Player Sundberg, Sally Player Petersen, and Nancy Player Legler. Not many school kids had prettier solar system mobiles, paper mache birds, or science fair projects than the Player girls. Moonlighting his creativity for a little extra money, Ross was often bent over a drafting table until late at night, sometimes with a sleepy girl at one elbow, other times with only the whirr of the air brush compressor for company.

Ross’s daughters learned perspective, aesthetics, and all things visual at the knee of the best. He was proud that his four girls completed their college educations. As a parent Ross watched for the bogey man while little girls fell asleep, listened to Nancy Drew read aloud after dinner, took prospective boyfriends to task, and gave his daughters dimes to telephone him should the need arise during a date. He waited up. The recipe for his family was consistent: equal parts, hard work and the golden rule (treat people the way you want to be treated).

After his retirement in 1991, Ross and Madelyn returned to the Holiday Farm in Rupert. They continued working together on the family legacy until Madelyn’s death in 2005. The family farm will always benefit from his care and hard work.

He is survived by his children and four granddaughters, Maberly Brown Wimmer, Sarah Marie Brown Odom, Madelyn Sundberg, and Emma Llewellyn Sundberg. They are the grateful beneficiaries of such a fine, quiet, and consistent life – historically common for his generation, but uniquely sweet.

A military memorial graveside service will be held at 2 p.m. Friday, July 13, where military rites will be provided by the Mini-Cassia Veterans Organization.

Funeral arrangements have been entrusted to the care of Rasmussen Funeral Home of Burley.

The family would like to invite everyone to attend a gathering to be held immediately following the graveside service at the Holiday Farm, 215 West 150 South, Rupert.