Arthur Rich Watkins (July 1916- February 2012)

Abundant life? Indeed. So much that my Grandfather wrote a two-volume, 1400+ page personal history about it. Here are some highlights of my Grandfather's life:

Madie, Myself, Grandpa, Dad

• Born July 31, 1916 in Salt Lake City, Utah
• Grew up on a turkey and cherry farm
• Served an LDS mission the Swiss & German Mission from 1936-1939
• While serving in Austria, he stood within 30 yards of Adolf Hitler in 1938 while  Germany and Austria were being unified
• After his three year mission, he stayed in Europe for an extra 6 months to learn French!
• Married Ruth Hansen in 1941
• Graduated from BYU with a Bachelors and Masters in Germanic Languages
• Drafted into World War II as an Intelligence Officer. Intercepted German messages
• While stationed in Italy, picked up Italian
• Graduated from Stanford University with a PhD in Germanic Languages
• Long career as a Professor at BYU
• Taught German, Russian, French, Norwegian, Gothic, and Italian (there may be more that I don't know about)
• He was actually fluent in German, Norwegian, French, and Italian and still read the Book of Mormon in those languages on a daily basis in his 95th year
• Twice served as a Mission President: Vienna, Austria and Padua, Italy 
• Was always reading a book and learning
• Fathered 8 children, 42 grandchildren and 112 great-grandchildren (includes expecting)
• Touched the lives of thousands of individuals 
• After waiting 12 years to be re-united with his wife Ruth, he peacefully and happily died February 23, 2012

He may not have a beard like the Dos Equis guy, but he is right up there with The Most Interesting Man in the World for his wealth of traveling, and life experiences. He was a Husband, Father, Grandfather, Great-grandfather, Professor, War Veteran, Mission President, Gardener, Linguist, Ice-cream Connoisseur, Etymologist, Philosopher, Historian, Friend, Disciple, Priesthood holder, and Example. We always knew he could have dominated in the game show Jeopardy. As a family, we couldn't be happier to celebrate an abundant life.