September 17, 2026, Luther Andrew Goad.

Andy, as he was known to many, or LA as his sisters liked to call him — passed into the loving embrace of eternity with his family at his side.

Andy was born on October 31, 1937, in Stanford, Texas, to Clarence and Bessie Goad. He touched the lives of many, was well loved, and there are many things he will always be remembered for, such as his warm smile, his gentleness, his selfless service to others, his love of fishing and hunting and the life outdoors, his lifelong inability to dance a basic two-step however much he tried.

Andy came from humble beginnings. His parents were sharecroppers, and he grew up in the dusty, sun-scorched cotton fields of Texas, watching his mother return home with hands bloodied from a long day of picking, helping however he could. Those fields and the fiery heat of the Texas plains shaped Andy’s life, and he never forgot the hard lives people live and the common humanity that unites us all.

If there’s one thing people remember about Andy, it was his uncompromising work ethic and integrity. He never swore or told a lie. He believed in family and the American dream that with sweat and love a man could accomplish just about anything. Likely never a day passed he didn’t wake up before the dawn and head off for one labor or another — a paper route as a boy, shining shoes for pennies at the local airport, taking over his father’s auto parts business when Clarence unexpectedly passed away. He paid his way through dental school shoveling coal in the bowels of the university’s furnace room through the night and waking early for classes the next day.

Andy always saw his life as a dedication to the service of others. He was an Eagle scout and guided countless young boys to lives of probity and self-reliance. He devoted his life to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to which he became a member in his youth when he moved from Texas to Provo, Utah. He was a leader in the church and in the communities his life would take him — from Cleveland to New York to North Carolina and Tennessee, and finally back to Utah. He served three missions in the church with the love of his life, Patricia Anne, with whom he raised three children and always strived, with varying degrees of success, to teach them by his example.

Wherever he was, Andy sought out the simple life, preferring fishing by the riverside to boisterous crowds, riding horses through a wooded grove as the sunlight fell through the trees, greasy spoon diners to hifalutin places he never felt a part. He was a man of the people, salt of the earth. And wherever his life took him, he searched out the goodness in others in a world where such perspectives seem a relic of the past.

Andy was preceded in death by two of his beloved sisters, Marietta and Ouida, and he leaves behind him his sister, Ouanda, his loving wife, their three children, Carrie, Tasha, and Torrey, their families, eleven grandchildren and twenty great grandchildren.

May his life and example shine for others; his tenderness, humor and love of life never be forgotten.

A graveside service will be held Monday, September 21, 2026, at 11 A.M. at the Garland Cemetery.