Kevin Bruce Reeve

Diamond Valley, Utah - Kevin Bruce Reeve, 66, passed away Wednesday, July 5th, 2023. He was born March 13, 1957 in Los Angeles to John Carlyle Reeve and Dorothy Tolman Reeve. He married Susan Rusin, June 28th, 1983 in the Salt Lake City Temple.

Kevin is survived by his wife of 40 years Susan in Diamond Valley, Utah; his seven children, Anna and her husband Andy in Lehi, UT; Christopher in Ogden, UT; Caroline in Madrid, Spain; Meredith and her husband Jeff in Santa Clara, CA, Sawyer in Salt Lake City, UT; Hayden and his wife Kara in Provo, UT; and Dylan in Salt Lake City, UT; his granddaughters Avrielle, Harper, Lilyanna and Lenora; his sisters Kathleen in Tucson, AZ and Alice Morrison in St. George, UT; and his brother Robert Reeve in Valley Springs, CA. He is preceded in death by his parents Dorothy Tolman and John Carlyle Reeve, as well as his brother Kent Reeve.

Kevin was born in Los Angeles in 1957 as the caboose of the family - by 9 years.
Father John was 53 and mother 42, Dorothy.

His older siblings, Kent, Robert, Kathleen and Alice adored him. They insist that he gained his love for Beatles music because those were the records his teenage siblings were listening to.

Kevin’s first job was at Lagoon, Utah’s largest amusement park, working the “dark rides”
including playing the role of Dracula in the Haunted Shack, and scaring people mercilessly.

At 15, Kevin achieved the rank of Eagle Scout, in Bountiful, UT, and later served as Scoutmaster for 25 years in Sunnyvale, and San Jose, CA. He completed Woodbadge Leadership training, and was awarded the Silver Beaver for his contributions to his Scout council.

Kevin served a 2-year Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in New Mexico with his closest friend Ron Waite and Utah State roommate Mark Anderson.

Kevin met Susan at BYU 1982 - First date was to sit on the front row the BYU Marriot Center for a basketball game, and Susan saw him so much intensity in his cheering that she almost said no to a second date. She only agreed after he swapped tickets with a friend and agreed to be better behaved cheering from the 10th row.

Student Body Athletics Vice President
During the era of Jim McMahon, Steve Young, Via Sikehema, Danny Ainge.

Graduated with a degree in Organizational Development.

Kevin married Susan in the Salt Lake City temple on June 28th, 1983 and they just celebrated their 40th Wedding anniversary.

Kevin went to work for the Utah Jazz for a short period selling to Corporate accounts

Then jumped to Human Resources at Westinghouse Marine Division which made the large launch tubes for the patriot missiles.

Apple Computer hired him to support the engineers working on the brand new Macintosh computers. He eventually switched over to creating curriculum for training and loved holding offsite training in the Santa Cruz mountains conducting rope courses and other outdoor activities for Apple employees.

While at Apple, Scoutmaster Kevin came up with a master plan to recycle hundreds of printer cartridges, making thousands of dollars for his scout troop in Sunnyvale CA. Kevin was in hog heaven buying thousands of dollars of equipment for his Boy Scout troop.

On his 6 week sabbatical at Apple, he attended Tom Brown’s Tracking and Survival School to learn wilderness survival skills, and animal and man tracking and pursuit skills.

He eventually left Apple after 8 years to pursue private organizational consulting. One of his programs was a complete organizational redesign using Indian Jones as the theme, including the famous hat and bullwhip. Thousands of employees loved it.

Kevin was hired as the Director of the Tracker School in NJ - all the kids grew up going to the junior Tracker School and Learning wilderness skills, including how to forage for food. (Caroline,10, came home and announced, “I was the first in the mudpit!”)

In 2024 he started his own survival school - onPoint Tactical, geared toward the military, law enforcement and private citizens.

His classes included:
Urban Escape & Evasion
Basic Scout (based on native skills)
Winter Scout
Urban Scout
Recon Scout
Off- Grid Medical

People who have taken his class include Jack Osborne and the Founders team of Facebook.

He spent these last few years teaching thousands of students with his friend Jerry, also known as “Scary Jerry.”

Kevin was also a great humanitarian.

Susan’s best friend needed a place to live for 4months with her 7 children, Kevin and Susan welcomed them into their home for 4 months.

He would leave work and hit Costco coming home with pallets of food for 11 children and 3 adults.

He managed the logistics complexities after 911 when he had to arrange for 120 people to get home to various states when they couldn’t fly.

Over the years many people slept on the Reeve couch while they got back on their feet, while taking Kevin’s classes.

Kevin was an enormous supporter of Susan who became a volunteer Court Appointed Special Advocate(CASA) for the last 8 years advocating for children in the court system.

In 1985, Kevin restored a 1945 Willys Jeep and insisted it was fine to put a carseat in the front and ride around town with Anna.

In 2011, Kevin began customizing a 1991 Jeep, his passion (and nightmare) project for the last 12 years.

In 2010, Kevin helped create and appeared in “After Armageddon”, a 2 hour special on the History Channel that depicted a family after a pandemic trying to escape from Los Angeles.

In 2021, he filmed “On the Road with Jack and Ozzy” Osbourne for the A&E Channel, teaching father and son Survival Skills near Baker Dam in Washington County.

Kevin has tracked an escaped and wounded Bengal Tiger in NJ; tracked lost children in Santa Cruz Mountains and in Colorado; and was filmed by the BBC tracking mysterious “big cats” in Wales, that were eventually determined to be exotic animals that had been released into the forest by their owners and were preying on livestock, which are just a few of his exciting adventures.

His priorities were:
HIs faith in God,
His marriage,
His family, and
His work,
All made possible by his deep faith in Eternal Marriage, eternal families made possible by the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the restored gospel. This is the Template that inspired him and the glue held his remarkable life together right to the end.

Things that inspired him:
His mother Dorothy and her love of family history and family antiques.
His father John and his love for sports and teaching.
Porter Rockwell - Famous Utah Mountain Man and body guard
Louie Lamore novels
The Hardy Boys
Going to the Temple
John Ford and John Wayne movies
Star Wars
Working on and Driving his Jeep into the Mountains
His Snow Canyon 1941 Military Depot diorama
Wood Badge - Silver Beaver
His mother Dorothy and her love of family history and family antiques.
His father John and his love for sports and teaching.

Dislikes include vegetables, the Taliban and Jar Jar Binks.

Final thought: His wife Susan said: “Kevin was always the most interesting person in any room.”
And no one has ever challenged that claim.

Funeral Services will be Tuesday, July 11th at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 1748 Diamond Valley Drive. Viewing to be held from 9-10:45AM and service at 11AM. Interment will take place in the Veyo Cemetery.

Arrangements are made under the directions of Hughes Mortuary, 1037 East 700 S. St. George, Utah, (435) 674-5000.