Todd & Michelle's Obituary
Dear Paul and Kate, Melanie and Jared, Bridget and Justin, Sara, Ben and Sarah, Heather, Audrey, Rachel, Matt via hardcopy, and Brian,
cc: file, Andrea, Tony Hafen, Sara and Des Penny,
& Maxine Shirts
Welcome to "Thoughtlets." This is a weekly review of an idea,
belief, thought, or words that will hopefully be of some benefit
to you, my children, with an electronic copy to on-line extended
family members. Any of you can ask me not to clutter your mail
box at any time.
"Sister Lunt gave me a copy of the following at church today:
<![CDATA[ `Z. Todd and Michelle Staheli
Z. Todd & Michael Davis Staheli Will Be Missed. Z. Todd
Staheli left this life on Sunday, Nov. 30th in his home.
His wife, Michelle Davis Staheli joined him Dec. 4, 2003.
Todd was raised in Spanish Fork, Utah where he made
lifelong friends and memories. He served a mission in
Melbourne, Australia. He earned a Bachelor Degree from
Utah State University. He learned to love Logan and one
very special girl. He went on to BYU Law School and
obtained his degree graduating Cum Laude. He was
employed by Shell Oil Company.
Michelle Davis grew up in Logan, UT. She graduated from
high school there and went on to Utah State University,
as well. There she met Todd and he met his match. They
were married in the Logan Temple in 1987. Their lives
together have taken them all over the world. Their
influence, love and friendship have been cherished by
many. Their treasures were their relationships with
people, especially their children. For them there was
no burden too heavy that they wouldn't lift it for you,
no event too insignificant that they wouldn't celebrate
or suffer with you and nothing too precious that they
wouldn't give it to you.
Todd and Michelle were preceded in death by Michelle's
parents, Lynn and Carole Davis. They leave behind
their children, Wesley, Logan, Madison, and Carly,
with many happy memories. They are survived by Todd's
parents, Zera and Victoria Staheli; sisters, Christi
(Jim) Gillman, Kelli (Clark) Hicken, Erin (Dennis)
Wagner, Julie (Glen) Barney; brothers Chad (Jana)
Staheli, Craig (Sarah) Staheli, and Brad Staheli.
Michelle is survived by her sister, Terri (Mark) Sadler,
and brothers, Michael (Sonya) Davis and Craig (Tana)
Davis. In response to requests, a memorial fund has
been set up at Zion's Bank in the name of "Todd Staheli
and Michelle Davis Staheli Memorial Fund." An Open
House will be held Wed. Dec. 17th from 5-8 p.m.
Combined funeral services are Thurs. Dec. 18th at
1 p.m. There will also be a small open house, just
before the funeral from 11:30-12:30. All services
will be held at the Palmyra Stake Center at 505 E.
900 N, Spanish Fork, UT. The Davis and Staheli
families invite all family and friends to come and
remember and celebrate the blessing of knowing,
loving and being loved in return by these two
special people.'
Published in the Deseret News on 12/14/2003]]>
Todd & Michelle's obituary is nice, loving, and carefully
worded. I don't know how words can capture the impact
Todd had in my life, or the impact Michelle had as a
Young Women's leader in our Ward. Some of you might
recall that a few years ago I wrote out my eulogy for
you, in response to a challenge by the President of the
SEG (../9846.html). It was pretty obvious to me that
the words which were written were not written by Todd
nor by Michelle.
There was another article published in the Chronicle on
Friday, December 12th, which I feel is worth passing on:
<![CDATA[ `Slain couple's children fly home to Utah
Rio De Janeiro, Brazil - The four children of an
American oil executive and his wife who were slain
last month in Rio de Janeiro flew back to the
United States overnight Wednesday, heading back
home to Utah.
The 3-, 8-, 10, and 13-year-old children of Todd
and Michelle Staheli - who at one time lived in
The Woodlands - were accompanied by their
grandparents and three other relatives on the
commercial flight to the United States.
The Children were only allowed to leave Brazil
after the 13-year-old daughter gave a statement
about the events of Nov. 30, when she and her
brother found their wounded parents in their
heavily guarded luxury home outside Rio de Janeiro.
The couple had apparently been attacked with an
ax while asleep. Todd Staheli, 39 died soon after
and Michelle Staheli, 34, passed away last week
while hospitalized in a coma.
There was no evidence of a break-in at the home,
although Staheli's daughter told police Wednesday
that a window in the home had a faulty lock on it.
The bodies of the American couple were also flown
back to Utah late Wednesday.
Staheli was Shell's vice president for joint
ventures in natural gas and power in southern
South America. From 1999 to 2001, Staheli worked
out of Shell's Houston office.
The killings were unusual in crime-ridden Rio de
Janeiro because they were committed outside the
city's crowed shantytowns and were apparently
not drug-related.']]>
I will write more next week. As stated above, the
funeral is this Thursday. Even though we can not
afford it, Andrea and I are going to go up to the
funeral to personally tell those four lovely kids
how proud we are of them, and how we will do
whatever we can to help them get on with the rest
of their lives. I pulled from three previous
Thoughtlets, and put together a 50 page epistle
about Todd & Michelle, which I will send up to
one of the brothers later tonight. I also found
several digital photos of Todd, Michelle, and the
kids, which I will forward. We don't have money to
help, and hopefully these will be of some benefit.
I don't expect any of you have money to help either,
and I will still pass on the following, which was
received from Paul Sullivan, in case I'm mistaken
on this account:
<![CDATA[ `Todd Staheli and Michelle Davis Staheli Memorial Fund:
Services will likely be held on Thursday December 18th
in Spanish Fork, Utah for Todd and Michelle. Many
have asked about a memorial fund or a way to send money
for flowers for the children. I received the following
from the family:
From inside the USA:
To: Zion's First National Bank, Salt Lake City, Utah 84101
Routing #: 12400054
Account #: 031512569
Reference: Todd Staheli & Michelle Davis Staheli Memorial Fund
From Outside the USA:
To: Zion's First National Bank, Salt Lake City, Utah 84101
Swift Code: ZFNBUS55
Routing #: 12400054
Account #: 031512569
Reference: Todd Staheli & Michelle Davis Staheli Memorial Fund']]>
We have heard that the family has had to pay the $12,000
legal bill to get the kids out of Brazil, as well as
purchase the airplane seats to fly them to Utah. Shell
has not been there to help, and we heard Paul Sullivan
is going to be coordinating Shell's efforts, so things
will quickly get back on track. I'm sure we will have
a more accurate account to pass on after going to the
funeral this next week.
The week before last, right after I sent my Thoughtlet
out about Digging Ditches (0348.html), Uncle Tony sent
me a very nice note correcting me on Best Practices at
Calf Springs Ranch. I didn't want it to get lost in
what I wrote last week, and so here is his comment:
<![CDATA[ `Roice
I can tell you all about using primer cord on the ranch
to clean ditch. I'll give you a little history about
how it got started.
I went down to the ranch alone for a while to relax,
believe it or not I did work once in a while and in
doing so I had my truck which had a considerable amount
of various types of explosives, among which was several
thousand feet of primer cord. As I drove up your Grandpa
said good to see your here grab a shovel and start
cleaning ditch from the crapper down to the end. Glenn
will help you, I'm going to the head of the meadow and
change water. Oh how I enjoyed that welcoming. Glenn
and I started down to the crapper to get started and as
I took a look at the ditch I had a brain fart. I went
back to the truck and got a roll of primer cord and
took down and we commenced to lay it in the ditch. I
put a stick through the roll of cord and sent Glenn
down the ditch and I came along with a little forked
stick and shove the cord down in the mud. We laid out
2000 feet and came back and I was just putting the
detonator on the cord when Grandpa showed up and he
was plenty pissed about what I was doing. I had never
seen him so upset I heard words that I didn't know he
knew. When I told him what I was doing he told me
several times how stupid I was many times with much
emphasis on how lazy I was and he even discussed my
ancestry, in a very unkind way. I just sort of
ignored him and lit the fuse and told him it might be
wise to step back a little way. When the shot went
off he walked down the ditch to see how much destruction
I had caused, he went clear to the end of the ditch and
back before he said a word. Then his first comment was
what is that stuff, where do I get it and how do I use
it. After that question he said that is the first
thing you ever done right in your life. The ditch was
cleaned for 200 feet just like it had been cut with a
mold and there was no sod to chop up. Glenn was quite
sloppy in his use and didn't do a very good job with
cord but your Grandpa got quite proficient with it.
That is the history of Primer cord on the Calf Springs
Ranch, Your Grandpa used it for years to clean ditch and
it worked very well.
Tony']]>
I found this a fascinating account, and hope each of you
will learn there are normally more than one account about
how and why something happened, whether it worked or
whether it didn't work, etc.
My week was spent finishing up the Prototype Infinite
GridSM Packaging of Geophysical Development Corporation's
Rock Properties Database of the Gulf of Mexico. It has
been a lot of work. I've enjoyed the work. I present
the results tomorrow. Hopefully they will like what I
have put together with Les Denham's help. And hopefully
it will result in a contract to provide some financial
stability for us for the next several months. Maybe, if
Mike Dunn gives permission, I will share some of the
images I generated. They are pretty, and I think there
is exploration insights in them. Time will tell.
I had an interesting meeting on Tuesday with one of
John Benard's friends, Charlie Chambers. I gave him
a proposal for funding Dynamic Resources. He seemed
very positive. On Friday, Joe Roberts conferenced
Swede Nelson and me together with him, and we talked
about the Core Labs project with Geo-China. It was
a good discussion, and hopefully there will be some
results come from this. There always seems to be a
lot going on work wise, and hopefully we can turn
some of it into regular steady income.
Scott was ill, and so Andrea went Home Teaching
with me. We were out from 3:30 until about 5:30.
Tonight was the 10th Annual Christmas Concert held
jointly with Epiphany of the Lord Catholic Community.
Father Dinkins told us tonight he has now worshiped
with us 5 times, and he is still a Catholic. He also
said he expects to remain a Catholic this next year.
I like him. It was the first of the 10 concerts I
have not sung in. After listening tonight, I decided
it is a lot more fun to sing in the choir and to go
to the practices than it is to just listen to the
music. The music is nice, and it is nicer to sing it.
In the spirit of past years, here is the program:
<![CDATA[ `Welcome: President Michael D. Pickerd
Hymn: Far, Far Away On Judea's Plain
Invocation: Bishop Camp
O Holy Night: Choir, Youth Choir, Children's Quartet
Narrator: Anne Skye
O Come, O Come Emmanuel
How Sweet is Love: Soloist Hollie Camp
Night of All Nights
Kings of Orient: Hand Bells
Away In A Manger: Congregation
Joseph Dearest, Joseph Mine
The Gift: Choir, Children's Quartet, Hand bells
Picture A Christmas: Children's Quartet
Silent Night Medley: Choir, Congregation 3rd verse
I Wonder As I Wander: Soloist Melanie Tonight
Sing We Now of Christmas: Choir, Hand bells
Psalm 150
Plack and Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD for Father Dinkins
presented by President Pickerd
Benediction: Father Dinkins']]>
I would call this week an emotional recovery week.
Not a great week, not a bad week, just a week to
catch our breath, get a lot of work done, and think
about what is really important. For instance, as
we watched `White Christmas' and ``It's A Wonderful
Life' on Saturday evening, Andrea and I addressed
a couple of hundred Christmas Cards. You kids are
what is really important to me, and hopefully this
effort to write to you each week, shows in some way
this is true. I will be interested in any thoughts
any of you have about Todd & Michelle's Obituary."
I'm interested in sharing weekly a "thoughtlet" (little statements
of big thoughts which mean a lot to me) with you because I know how
important the written word can be. I am concerned about how easy
it is to drift and forget our roots and our potential among all of
distractions of daily life. To download any of these thoughtlets
go to http://www.walden3d.com/thoughtlets or e-mail me at
rnelson@walden3d.com.
With all my love,
Dad
(H. Roice Nelson, Jr.)