DRAPER, Utah — After 38 years, six months and four days in the U.S. Army and Utah National Guard, Col. Lynn Humphreys is finally free to pursue his true passion: repairing Ford automobiles.
The Utah National Guard honored Humphreys, an Ogden native, with a retirement ceremony Monday for his nearly four decades in the military. Leaving military life means Humphreys now has meatier chunks of time for tinkering with Fords, his favorite make of car by no small margin.
Asked Monday to give context to his fondness for Fords, Humphreys proudly displayed the Ford ring he wears on his left hand next to his wedding band. Thrusting out his chin, he solemnly proclaimed, "Oh, I love Fords — always have. The only (auto) company that didn't need to be bailed out."
Beginning in July 2004 and effective until his retirement Dec. 31, Humphreys served as the state chaplain for Utah's National Guard.
"The sad fallout from (the retirement) is we lose the services of an extraordinary pastor, shepherd, officer," Maj. Gen. Brian L. Tarbet said during the ceremony. "I'll miss you. … It's unspeakably difficult what you do and how you do it and how you lift those families and how you lift us along with it."
Humphreys juggled three jobs for most of his professional life: military chaplain; seminary and institute teacher for the Mormon church; and proprietor of Lynn Humphreys Auto Repair, an auto shop he founded in 1976 and currently runs out of an auto garage built on the back of his North Ogden home.
"(Lynn) has enormous energy," his wife, Cheryl, said. "I've never known anybody with the kind of energy he has. He was able to stay up late and get up early and go and do a lot. He was busy with his three jobs, and mostly I raised the (six) kids."
Several years ago, Humphreys retired from teaching institute classes for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at Utah State University. Before bowing out of the Utah National Guard at the end of 2009, he was one of approximately 70 chaplains in the U.S. military affiliated with the LDS faith.
"He particularly has done a great job here at the Utah National Guard in the time he's (been) in the Reserves," said Frank Clausen, director of military relations for the LDS Church and the official endorser of all LDS chaplains. "Even though Col. Humphreys was a senior chaplain, he never sought the limelight in my mind. He was always a very pastoral chaplain; he had time for everybody from the youngest soldier to the commander."
While a college student at Weber State, Humphreys joined the Army Reserves on March 15, 1969. After his six-year stint ended, he left the military for nearly three years. In 1975, he earned his master's degree in guidance and counseling from BYU, and two years later he received a commission to the Army's Chaplain Corps.
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