Elmo Burriss Dial

Services for Elmo Burris Dial, 95, will be at 11 a.m. Monday, Nov. 21, at the Labelle 4th Ward Chapel, 4223 E. 528 North, Rigby. Friends may call Sunday, 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.  and from 9:30 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. prior to the service on Monday, both at the church. Burial will be in Fielding Memorial Cemetery in Idaho Falls. Arrangements are under the direction of Eckersell Funeral Home in Rigby.

Elmo, who lived in the Rigby, Idaho area for most of the last 58 years, died of causes incident to age on Monday, Nov. 14, 2022, at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls.

He was born in Basalt, Idaho to Aaron Burriss (Bert) Dial and Rozena Hansen Dial. He graduated from Firth High School.

He joined the Air Force where he trained as an electrician and then served in Savannah, Georgia.

He married Nila Ruth Staples in 1949 in Goshen, Idaho. They were sealed in the Salt Lake City Temple. She died in 2014.

The couple made their 1st home in Savannah, Georgia, where their 1st son was born. Then they moved to Sahara Village in Layton, Utah where Elmo worked at Hill Air Force Base as an electrician. They added 2 more children to the family before they moved to Payson, Utah, where he farmed and ran a dairy business with his father and brother, Ken. He also worked at Geneva Steel in Orem, Utah, and later at BYU in Provo, Utah, as an electrician; 3 more children were born there. After his father died and the farm was sold, Elmo moved his family to Spanish Fork, Utah, where his 7th child joined the family. He transitioned to working at the heating plant at BYU and finally transferred to Ricks College (now BYU-Idaho) in Rexburg, Idaho as the heating plant supervisor.

Elmo moved his family to Labelle, Idaho outside of Rigby and did most of the work involved in remodeling and adding onto a small basement home he and Nila bought to house their growing family that eventually included 10 children; 3 more children were born while they lived here.

Elmo often rented ground to farm part-time in the summer. For several years he had a small dairy herd though for many years before that the family always had a cow to provide milk.

In 1976, when the Teton Dam broke, he volunteered to help round up the live cattle that were displaced by the water.

When he retired from Ricks College, he and his wife served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Toronto, Canada. After their mission, they spent many winters in warmer climates, including Yuma and Mesa, Arizona, and St. George, Utah.

Elmo was active in the LDS Church and served in many capacities, including branch president, bishopric counselor, stake seventy, scoutmaster several times, ordinance worker in the Idaho Falls Temple, home teacher and many other callings.

He spent countless hours working in the Boy Scout program, before and after he retired.  He built the fort located at Krupp Scout Hollow in Labelle, made a sign for the camp, arranged for the flagpole installation, moved in the train caboose, built the bridge across the slough, put in the sprinkler system and water system and many other projects. He served as a ranger/maintenance man at Island Park Boy Scout Camp for several summers. He earned a district award of merit and the Silver Beaver award, was district committee chairman and a coach counselor. He was also in the Beaver Patrol at Wood Badge.

He made a name for himself cooking barbeque chicken (sometimes steak) at the Jefferson County fair, church functions and almost any time someone asked. For many years he cooked for what was then known as BARC, the Bonneville Association of Retarded Citizens, and continued to do so for several year after Bonnie, his daughter died.

He enjoyed having adventures with friends and family, who all have stories, some crazy, to tell about those adventures. People seldom left a visit with Elmo without his parting admonition: “Come back when you’re not mad”.

In addition to his wife, Elmo was preceded in death by daughter, Bonnie Dial; grandson, Jordan Reilly Dial; sisters, Ethel Baird and Carol Taylor; and brothers, Kenneth Dial and Ray Dial.

He is survived by brother, Don (Carolee) Dial, of Clearfield, Utah; sisters, Joy Olson, of St. George, Utah; Doris (Ron) Dye, of Island Park, Idaho; and Connie (Vern) Bastian, of Malad, Idaho.

He is also survived by 9 of his 10 children:  Boyd (Nancy) Dial of Enoch, Utah; Verl (Jan) Dial of Labelle; Kaylene (Robert) Armstrong of Alva, Oklahoma; Lynette (Dana) Green of Grant; RuthAnn (Syd) Beazer of Labelle; Janet (Rick) Evans of Shelley; Bert (Kelly) Dial of Taylor; Jody (Gena) Dial of Tucson, Arizona; Krista (Cody) Arave of Rigby; 31 grandchildren, 73 great-grandchildren (and 1 on the way) and 1 great-great granddaughter.