Brady Louis Nixon (1970-2023) Obituary and Memorial

Life story

Brady was born July 1, 1970. He was the second oldest with an older brother, three little sisters and one little brother. He grew up in the same house his whole childhood in West Point, Utah. Brady lived 5 houses from his grandparents and spent a lot of his childhood at their house. He used to tell his kids stories about spending the night in their tv room. He and his siblings, who he adored, would sleep in sleeping bags on the floor after spending the evening playing games like Rack-O and Rummikub, which are games his kids still play today. He would wake up the next morning and watch cartoons on their color TV. He loved riding his bike and playing at Kiddie Kollege, the preschool his grandparents owned. One of his favorite family traditions growing up was the pumpkin walk that his grandparents put on at the preschool. It eventually became so big that it had to move locations but Brady loved carving pumpkins and participating in the pumpkin walk, even into adulthood.

He attended Clearfield High School. It was in high school when Brady discovered his love and skill for playing the piano. He saved up for and bought his first keyboard where he spent many hours perfecting Mannheim Steamroller, George Winston, and Billy Joel songs. Brady was involved in student government in high school. He set the example for some of his kids, who later did student government as well. He always described his high school experience as normal until he joined student government. He really came out of his shell and made some of his dearest friends through that. Speaking of friends, he had so many friends. He used to read his kids entries from his high school journals before bed and they became quite familiar with the list of names that would frequent the pages. One of those names they loved to hear was Stephanie. They were best friends in high school and dated here and there but mostly just as friends. Before Brady was leaving to serve his mission in San Juan, Puerto Rico, he asked Stephanie if he could be serious for a minute. They both refer to that conversation as the turning point in their relationship. They wrote back and forth for the two years and when he got home, he wasted no time. He proposed soon after coming home and then on December 12, 1991, they got married in the Jordan River Temple.

Brady graduated from Weber State University in 1994 with a degree in communication and was hired by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to teach seminary in Snowflake, Arizona. Brady and Stephanie packed up their little green house and moved to Arizona for their first big adventure. Cue Meghann, Courtney, Tucker, Spencer and Jordan. Over the course of 8 years, their family was complete. Brady loved his years in Snowflake. He participated in community theater, attended Friday night football games, started a boy band with his fellow seminary teachers and called themselves the Preach Boys, bought their first home, and served in the Church. He thrived as a seminary teacher. He loved getting to know his students and has kept in touch with many over the years. He loved working with the fun faculty at the Snowflake High School seminary and his co-workers became lifelong friends. Brady also earned his master’s in Education while living in Snowflake from Northern Arizona University.

Brady's next adventure involved moving to Orlando, Florida in 2003, where he worked as an early morning seminary coordinator for Seminaries and Institutes and taught institute at the University of Central Florida. He enjoyed traveling around to early morning seminary classes and sharing his talent and skill as a teacher with volunteer early morning teachers. Again, he made lifelong friends with those he touched and worked with in Orlando. Brady also began speaking for Especially For Youth in 2003 and would continue to speak or direct sessions for the next 20 years. While in Florida, he loved spending time at the beach and stopping to get boiled peanuts on the way home, attending theme parks with his family, floating down the Wekiva River with family and friends, chasing down a space shuttle launch with his buddy Kent and the kids, and eating as much Jeremiah’s Italian ice as he could. In Florida, he learned the joys of Broadway musicals, country music, college football and crocs. He and his family would often volunteer at a local theater handing out programs before it started, and then stay to watch whatever musical was being featured. The whole family moved away from Florida with that same love for Broadway musicals and country music. When crocs went out of style, everybody’s love for them died, except for Brady’s. He wore crocs until he physically couldn’t due to the swelling in his feet.

From Orlando, they moved to American Fork, Utah, where Brady taught seminary at Lone Peak High School for three years, and then at American Fork High School for the last ten. A big pull for him to switch schools was to be close to his kids. They had the experience of being taught by their dad and they all feel very lucky to have been. Brady was a gifted teacher and had a passion for teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. He loved to share his testimony and wanted everyone to have the same happiness in their life that he knew from having a relationship with God and Jesus Christ. His influence on his students is immeasurable. One of his favorite parts of his job was who he worked with. He loved the men and women he came to know at Lone Peak and American Fork seminaries. Shortly after his oldest, Meghann graduated high school, He started working part-time for BYU-Idaho in 2013, teaching online religion courses. He used that income to help send every one of his children to college, calling his contribution to their tuition the “dad scholarship.”

Brady began experiencing health issues in the summer of 2016. For a long time up until his diagnosis, his daughter would take pictures of him in the same stance. They would be on family walks, or he would do the classic dad thing of “standing in front of the tv to watch a show he definitely wasn’t interested in”, teaching seminary, smoking ribs, you name it and he would have his hand on his lower back putting pressure on what would be discovered as the large mass near his kidney. After 18 months in January 2018, he was finally diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma cancer and began treatment. For six years it was hard to believe Brady was facing such a challenging prognosis, as he seemed to never allow it to slow him down and was able to enjoy many trips, experiences and lifelong dreams with his family while undergoing treatment. He was always optimistic, cheerful, and never complained. He fought until the very end.

Brady’s most favorite people are his family. He loved them so fiercely. Together him and Stephanie truly made the saying of “home can be a heaven on earth” real. He was the best dad and more recently, the best grandpa. He loved his grandkids and grand dogs. Growing up, regardless of how busy he was, he always made sure there was time for his family. He spent hours teaching each of his kids how to play the piano and boogie boarding with them in the ocean. He watched countless soccer games, attended every choir concert, percussion concert, musical theatre performance and graduation. His kids also spent a lot of time driving with Brady too. He drove each of them to high school, early morning seminary for some, to radiation, infusions, and various other appointments. Dad shared his love of 80’s music and talk radio on those drives and was always happy to spend 1 on 1 time with whoever was tagging along. And they were happy to be there too because he always made people feel like there was nobody else he would rather be with in those moments. Brady loved Stephanie the most. In their 32 years they had together, it wasn’t always easy and they experienced their fair share of hardships. But the love they have for each other was what mattered most and they always prioritized that. They would often go see a movie together on $5 Tuesday, have weekly date nights on the weekend, and go for bike rides or walks. Brady always wrote love notes on the mirror for her and was always excited to see what color she picked after a pedicure. Stephanie would pick up his favorite treats from the grocery store and let him win a scrabble game occasionally.

Towards the end, she became his caretaker. She spent countless hours serving him, being with him, and helping him do things he couldn’t anymore. Stephanie took care of him so tenderly and considered it an honor. Their love was the truest of loves and everybody who witnessed it, could see it. There honestly might not be adequate enough words to express how much he loved my mom. Brady will truly leave a legacy behind. He loved his wife and he loved his kids and grandkids. He loved his friends, students, coworkers, and he certainly loved his Savior. He lived a life marked by kindness, hard work, humility, humor, determination, patience, love, and optimism.

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