Lavar King Isaacson "King"

July 15, 1934 - July 4, 2025

Heber City, UT - Lavar King Isaacson ("King"), passed away July 4, 2025, in his 91st year. King was born on July 15, 1934, to Lavar Samuel and Gladys King Isaacson in Salt Lake City, Utah.

King grew up as a bright, energetic and independent child. At age sixteen he had a job at a grocery store and purchased his own new car. He graduated early from South High School and started college at the University of Utah. He earned his bachelor's and PhD degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Utah. After working in California on the Apollo 13 project for NASA, designing the heat shield, he returned to the University of Utah as a professor. He was blessed to have Henry Eyring, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Utah, as a personal mentor. This relationship started when King was a student in his class. Professor Eyring continued to guide him, especially in the early years of his service as a professor. His career spanned from receiving his PhD in 1962 for his dissertation on the thermodynamics of ionizing air, to his final publication in January 2018 entitled "Entropy Generation through the Interaction of Laminar Boundary-Layer Flows: Sensitivity to Initial Conditions." King's PhD in mechanical engineering was one of the first such degrees granted by the University of Utah. He built his own wind tunnel in his new research lab with spare parts he found from military equipment.

King was well known as a superior teacher. He received a university-wide distinguished teaching award in 1994. He taught over 5,000 students and had former students reach out to him shortly before his passing, wanting to thank him for his mentorship and guidance on many fronts, reaching back into the 1950s. He thrived on teaching complex concepts and helping people advance in all aspects of their careers and lives in general.

King was an excellent father and family man. While a student at the University of Utah, he met and dated Gwendolyn Nancy Olsen. They were married on September 14, 1961, in the Salt Lake Temple. King and Gwen were blessed with three children, Lynette, Nancy Ann, and Thomas Martin. King unfailingly supported his children in their musical, academic, church and sporting experiences, rarely missing any event. King, as a literal rocket scientist, combined brilliance with humor. Family dinners together were very important to King. Our favorite times as a family included energetic and funny conversations around the dinner table, often causing King to be unable to control his laughter.

The family grew up traveling and camping during the summers. Family trips primarily included camping on the Boulder Mountain in southern Utah and King and Lyman family reunions. Other trips included Jackson Hole, Yellowstone, Canada, Lake Powell and Oregon. King loved to take his family on adventures and poured a lot of energy into making trips fun. He had a deep love for his ancestors and family history and of the connection to the land around the Capital Reef National Park and Boulder, Utah, where some of his ancestors settled. We often went on "Isaacson Drives" that many times involved the family getting lost, as expected, but having great adventures along the way. He took his family in a two-wheel drive truck with chains on the wheels, with all five of the family on the single bench seat, over the Boulder Mountain in Utah before the road was paved and in the snow. He was unafraid to explore. He also loved photography and would periodically put together a slide show for the family on Sunday nights, reliving all of the adventures.

King was a lifelong member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with a deep and abiding testimony of Jesus Christ and His gospel. His primary calling over the years would be a Gospel Doctrine teacher. He was unparalleled as a defender of the faith, especially having many discussions with his professor colleagues at the University of Utah. As with everything he did, he poured his energy and soul into his calling and taught many inspiring lessons in the Monument Park 3rd Ward in Salt Lake City. He always kept his scriptures by his side and to the end of his life he faithfully continued to pray over his meals and for his family.

King provided his family with a legacy of love for the Gospel, faith, hard work, excellence, laughter, fun and a complete commitment to family.

King is survived by his children, Lynette (Tod) Berg, Nancy Ann (Keith) Warr, and Thomas Martin (Virginia) Isaacson, 12 grandchildren, three great-grandchildren with two more soon to be born, his brother Samuel (Twila) Isaacson and sister Shauna (Dale) Rasmussen. He is preceded in death by his wife, Gwendolyn Isaacson, after almost 60 years of marriage, his parents, his stepmother Edith Isaacson, his sister Ann Marie Jenkins, and his sister Lola Hanks.

A viewing will be held Friday, July 11, 2025, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Wasatch 3rd Ward, 2215 E. Roosevelt Ave., Salt Lake City, Utah. A Graveside Service will be held Saturday, July 12, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. at Larkin Sunset Gardens Cemetery, 1950 East 10600 South, Sandy, Utah.

The family would like to express thanks to IHC Hospice, especially nurses Steve and Audrey, as well as Heber Valley Assisted Living for their thoughtful care of King.

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by Deseret News from Jul. 8 to Jul. 9, 2025.

Memories and Condolences
for Lavar Isaacson

Sponsored by Russon Brothers Mortuary - Bountiful.

5 Entries

Kathryn Cannon Larsen

Yesterday

I wore kings band frat pin my senior year in high school. It was so good to read about his accomplishments and his family

Kevan Crawford

Yesterday

Condolences to his family. I am so sorry I missed this by 4 days. I was meaning to reach out to him about my time as a grad student and professor in Mechanical Engineering. He has been on my mind for the past few years. I needed to pick his brain about a problem I am having at the U.

I took his complete series of graduate thermodynamics courses, equilibrium, non-equilibrium, and statistical. King was on my MS degree committee. He made me defend my MS work for 6 hours one afternoon. He chuckled afterward and told me not to take it personally. He explained he was targeting another professor on my MS committee. We remained good friends after my ordeal.

He wanted me to shift from nuclear to thermodynamics and work in his lab, but I was too invested in nuclear to make the jump and I was UofU Manager of Nuclear Operations. After the malicious targeting for whistleblowing I have been through for 35 years, I no doubt would have been better off had I made the jump to work with King.

When I was a grad student we had several discussions about the relationship between science and religion, and I learned a lot from him. We also discussed lab funding approaches that he seemed to have no problem with.

I returned from being a professor at Texas A&M to be a research professor in Mechanical Engineering for a few years. I am going to miss his wisdom, ethics, and professionalism that is missing in humanity. I needed to tell him he was right about Professor So-and-so.

Blaine Brown? Are you the one I know?

U of U Price College of Engineering

Planted Trees

Roger Mares

July 13, 2025

I was fortunate to have a few classes and labs (Undergraduate/Graduate) from Dr Isaacson. What was great about him is he would sit and just talk for a long time joking.
One time in his Gas Dynamic Laser lab a few of us wanted to see if we could get results and spent quite a few hours heating up for test equipment to run heated gas through nozzles. He came over to just sit and talk. In addition, when I received my BSME I showed my extended family the MEB where I spent many hours studying and when we met him there he opened lab to let them see testing lab. I eventually earned my MSME.

Blaine Brown

July 9, 2025

I was a university student for 12 years in both engineering and medicine. Never did I have a professor as gifted at teaching as King Isaacson. I'll always remember his course in thermodynamics. I wish I could have taken additional courses from him. As his family, you can be rightfully proud to have had him as a sibling, a father, and a grandfather.

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