Roger Dean Campbell

Roger Dean Campbell (1977–2026)

Roger Dean Campbell was born on November 26, 1977, and passed away suddenly on Friday, June 26, 2026, in Logan, Utah. He was a beloved son, brother, uncle, and father.

Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, Roger then moved with his family to Federal Way, Washington, where he spent his early childhood loving baseball and wrestling, collecting baseball cards, golf balls, and delivering newspapers on his paper route around the Twin Lakes Golf Course.

As an adolescent, he moved with his family to Fallbrook, California, where he built a vibrant youth filled with dear friendships, music, and art. He was skilled at sketching portraits, carving wood, and could turn most anything into a piece of art and capture humor, joy, and the beauty of human emotion. He left a botanical garden to serve his Fallbrook community as an Eagle Scout and loved spending his free time surfing and finding a quiet sense of peace in the Southern California waves.

As a teen, he was a versatile athlete and played football, baseball, and ran cross country. He developed a love for health, nutrition, and building strength at the gym. He also had a deep love of music and played the guitar, piano, trumpet, drums, and saxophone and could pick up most any song by ear. He often recruited bands of musicians repeatedly throughout his life and found much joy in the melodic vibrations of music. Music truly fueled his soul and he wrote and composed songs for those he loved. He also served the people of Perth, Australia as a missionary.

Roger was a brilliant, life-long learner who possessed a deep, insatiable hunger for knowledge. Rather than chasing traditional accolades, he walked his own intellectual path as a true seeker. He studied a vast array of disciplines at the University of Utah, Salt Lake Community College, Utah State University, and Western Governors University. His studies spanned from the complexities of biomedical engineering to philosophy, religion, and psychology. He wasn’t just collecting information; he was deeply invested in understanding the human condition, his belonging in the world, the purpose of life, and how to help both himself and others find meaning.

Throughout his life, Roger was an incredibly intelligent, caring, and compassionate soul who always fought fiercely for the underdog. Above all, he was a protective big brother to all of his siblings, striving to surround them with love and guidance. As an uncle, he extended that same abundance of gentleness and care to the next generation.

He deeply cared about current global events, people, and politics around the world. He was fascinated by the Founding Fathers and the originating documents of our country—a passion highlighted by a most recent family trip to Washington, D.C. As a fierce libertarian in defense of the Constitution, he valued individual rights and responsibilities. He stood as a firm advocate for greater understanding and the foundational principles of liberty and justice for all.

Roger’s journey was one of immense physical and mental resilience, having survived a traumatic brain injury from a bicycle/car collision in 2022. It was during this crisis that doctors discovered a congenital cyst on his brain, alongside a tumor that he had unknowingly lived with since birth. Against the odds, Roger made a full recovery, fiercely relearning how to speak, walk, and recall his family members.

Roger lived his life with autism and endured profound mental health and neurological struggles that were beyond most people’s comprehension. Because he processed stressful situations differently, his neurodivergence and internal battles were greatly misunderstood and frequently criminalized by a world that often can’t see past a crisis to the human being underneath. While he fought an unyielding uphill battle to find his footing, his family will forever cherish his brilliance, his unshakeable resilience, and the sweet, vulnerable nature that defined his true character.

He is survived by his parents, Scott and Dawna; his sisters, Kelley and Kara, who all loved him fiercely through every chapter of his journey; and his beautiful daughter, Sadie, who was the quiet pride and greatest joy of his heart. He is preceded in death by his two younger siblings, Richard and Kimberly.

A private family graveside service to honor Roger's memory and lay him to rest will be held at the Mendon City Cemetery. His family requests that the public and media respect their privacy during this deeply personal time of mourning, and allow the investigation regarding his death to proceed to its conclusion in quiet peace. Roger is finally free from his storms, his mind is completely at rest, and he is safely reunited with his siblings and grandparents, all eager to welcome him home once again.

As we look back on Roger’s life and the battles he fought to be understood, we anchor our comfort in the sacred words and his favorite scripture found in Matthew 25:38-40: "When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? Or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."