Lukas Otto Tibbets

Lukas Otto Tibbets was born on June 11th, 2001 to Spencer Jonathan Tibbets and Nicole Jandl Wilcox, at the Davis hospital in Layton, Utah. His brother Hannes was born two years later.

Lukas spent his childhood in Utah, mostly between Kaysville and Tremonton, and graduated from Bear River High School in 2019. After graduation he studied CNC Machining at Davis Tech and went on to become a machinist and graphic design artist at Rock Exotica in Clearfield.

Lukas died unexpectedly on June 19th, 2023 at the age of 22. He is survived by his father Spencer, stepmother Vilma Tibbets, mother Nicole, stepfather Richard Wilcox, brother Hannes, half-brother Nicholas, and step-siblings Jessica, Meybelin, and Rudy. He was preceded in death by his grandfathers Jonathan Tibbets and Franz Jandl, as well as his uncle Joel Tibbets.

A memorial service will be held in his honor on Saturday, June 24,2023 at 1:00 PM at Aaron’s Mortuary, 496 24th Street  in Ogden, Utah.

Lukas
If you had a chance to see the video of pictures earlier, you may have noticed several pictures
of a similar theme, that being someone carrying Lukas. As the family was sending me photos of
Lukas so I could compile them for the video, I saw multiple examples of this. I was struck by the
metaphor of how many people in Lukas’s life have at one time or another “carried” him through
tough times. 
However, Lukas reciprocated liberally. When my father (Lukas’s grandfather) was struggling at
the end of his life, Lukas was living with my parents. Lukas spent a lot of time patiently helping
him. For the last several months, I’ve had the privilege of Lukas living just a few blocks away.
He has come over often to visit, come for “game night” or to help with a project that he got wind
of. 
Just a few weeks ago, he found out from my kids, “Dad has finally lost it, he’s turning the front
yard into a vineyard”. When Lukas heard, he called me to ask if he could come help. A few
minutes later he showed up with an armful of cold beverages and was quick to jump in to help
us. 
Lukas almost never came empty handed. Almost every time he would come over, he came
bearing gifts.  Some were simple, and some took great work and planning. I’ll explain one such
example. My family and I are avid climbers. I love geeking out over climbing gear. Lukas worked
at a company that makes premier climbing gear. We often talked about his work as he knew that
I was legitimately excited by it. He invited me to come tour his work and I gladly accepted. 
When I was there Lukas took me to every station and showed me how each part was designed
and showed me the process basic material stock to the finished product. I was not surprised
that as we walked from station to station He knew everyone's name and they knew him. We
were greeted with a warm smile from everyone we encountered. 
Lukas showed me the machines where the laser engraving goes onto the equipment. This was
his area. He walked me through how he designs each part and how through trial and error gets
it all aligned. Gratefully I've been the recipient of some of the “errors.” perfectly good equipment
but the alignment of the engraving is off a bit. 
A few weeks ago, Lukas presented me with this, a locking carabiner with customized with my
name on it and a “BLT” sandwich. BLT are my initials. I was very moved by the gesture. A lot of
thought went into that gift. 
My brother Spencer, Lukas’s dad was there when he gave me this gift and Lukas asked his dad
if he wanted a custom one as well and what he would like it to say. Spencer told him, “I want
one that says, “ I Lukas, promise to be clean for 5 years” We all had a chuckle, but all those that
knew and loved Lukas wished the same thing for him. 
A few days ago, while I was on the other side of the world just waking up when I got a call from
my son Spencer. He told me coldly that Lukas had died. He said, “I'm not even sad, I'm mad. I
told him if he didn’t stop, this was going to happen.” He told me that he had not heard from
Lukas all day, and that was unusual as they normally talked multiple times a day. Spencer,
fearing the worst and living hours away could not go check on Lukas himself, sent his sister
Eliza to check on him. His fears were realized when she found Lukas. 

I then called Eliza who was still with Lukas. Grace got on speaker phone with me and the three
of us sobbed uncontrollably, not believing it was real. I then called my wife Rosy to tell her just
as my son Joseph was getting home. The three of us cried mightily together. I cried with my
other children, my mom and some of my siblings and best friends. After making the rounds as
best as I could from the other side of the world, I called my son Spencer back. Spencer and
Lukas have been best friends since they were toddlers. When Spencer answered, the tide had
turned in his feelings and the two of us wept together. Spencer said, “There are few people in
this world that I loved as much as Lukas, we had so many plans together.” 
Lukas will be and is already so missed, but there is something we can do that he taught us. I
would like to invite everyone here to continue to “carry” Lukas. Carry his memory, and his love
and generosity with you. In his honor, next time you visit a loved one, “carry” as he did
bounteous gifts. Carry with you his laughter, carry with you whatever he taught you, and lastly
carry your cherished memories of him.