Grand Marshalls are Joyce and Arnold Wilson
These high school sweethearts rode on a motorcycle to the Manti temple to be married and have since been married for 63 years. Of those years, 58 of them have been here in Mapleton where they consider it to be Heaven on Earth with the view of Maple Mountain on the horizon. They love this community and the people here. Together they have raised ten children and currently have 60 grandchildren and 74 great grandchildren with seven more on the way. Family Reunions and Thanksgiving gatherings can always be a party where up to 194 people can attend. Arnold received his PhD from OSU and taught Civil Engineering at BYU for forty years. He paricipated in many projects that included the Marriott Center, the J. Reuben Clark Law Building, the second phase of the Harold B. Library as well as many others on the University of Utah campus. He also served as Mapleton City's engineer and on the planning commission. He has served many positions in the church including Bishop and the Presidency at the MTC. He especially remembers the time when his ward had 4 deacons quorums while he served as a scout master for seven years. Joyce has thoroughly enjoyed raising her family and remembers when she used to cook 16 loaves of bread a week. She is known for her detailed genealogy, scrapbooks, service at church, family history books and for her colorful flowers and gardens. We thank you for your contributions to Mapleton.
Honorary Grand Marshall is Dick Bills
Dick was born in Mapleton in 1929 in the little house on Main Street next to the old fire station on Maple Street. Right now he is the longest living Mapleton resident born right here in Mapleton. He is the oldest of seven children born and raised here by Doug and Lenor Bills. He graduated from Springville High and served in the Air Force as an air craft maintenance and air frame repairman. After four years, he returned to Utah and worked at the pipe plant that used to be Pacific States Pipe Company now known as McWane Ductile. He was introduced to his beautiful wife Erma Lee (passed May 2013) while sharing a slide show of his tour of duty in Alaska. Married on New Year’s Eve, 1953, in Spanish Fork, Dick and Erma Lee shared 61 years of happiness, raising three boys and one daughter. Currently he has 14 grandchildren. He has enjoyed farming, riding horses and sometimes chasing cows through the Mapleton fields and mountains. He is known to say, “Things turn out best for people who make the best of how things turn out.” No matter where you bump into Dick, his smile beams ear to ear. He sure makes Mapleton one of the happiest places on earth.
