Hayden's life sketch is pretty inspiring. I'm grateful for his wonderful example and hope that his memory will inspire my children.
Hayden Kent Simmons was born on December 3, 1997 at St. Luke’s hospital in Boise, the same hospital
as both of his parents. As luck would have it, Hayden arrived during Kent’s finals. As a baby, Hayden was so
chubby, he was often referred to as Buddha Baby and the Michelin Man. Bath time
required two sets of hands; one to pry apart the fat rolls and one to wash.
When he was six months old, Hayden’s
parents moved to Texas, where he built strong bonds with his cousins who also
lived in Texas. He loved to swim in the pool as a baby, and began doing flips
and tricks off the diving board by the age of 18 months. But this was only the
beginning of his adventures.
Hayden received his first set of wheels on his first birthday: a
plastic tricycle. Soon the excitement of riding on the floor had worn off, and
he began attempting tricks off the couch.
While living in Texas, Hayden became a big brother. Poor Baby
Dale endured torture during Hayden’s
many attempts to wrestle with him.
Hayden received his first bike at two, and was free of the
constraints of training wheels by age three. He began riding a motorcycle in
2001 at the age of three and a half. It was then that Hayden and his family
moved to Wisconsin, where his dad, Kent, attended dental school at Marquette
University. Hayden perfected his motorcycle skills at the Capital Drive airport
on the grass airstrip in Milwaukee, and executed his first unplanned “superman”.
Thanks to his exceptional coordination, he rode it out without crashing.
Hayden proved to be a great copilot while flying with his dad
thanks to his observant nature. On one occasion at the age of six, Hayden
noticed a low fuel pressure indicator before his dad did, and suggested they
switch tanks.
After Hayden’s dad graduated
from dental school, the family moved back to Idaho. By the time his brother
Emmett was born, Hayden’s skills as a big
brother had improved. When Heidi was in labor with Emmett on the eve of Hayden’s birthday, Hayden expressed he thought
it would be cool to share his birthday with his baby brother.
When Hayden was about 7 years old, his family was visiting
Grandpa and Grandma Simmons. Early in the morning, he awoke and went to visit
Grandma. “Grandma, do you know what time it is?”
“Yes, Hayden it’s
about 6:00 in the morning.” “No, it’s Racko time with GameBoy.”
Hayden loved playing games, even Pinochle with his aunts, uncles,
cousins and grandparents. Hayden loved family reunions and spending time with
his family, including his 59 cousins.
Hayden was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints when he turned eight. He was so excited about his baptism that he asked
if he could sing a solo at his own baptism. He sang both verses of “I
Like to Look for Rainbows,” a primary song he particularly loved
at the time.
He enjoyed playing soccer for a number of years until he became
frustrated that soccer always seemed to conflict with the best riding days on
the track.
The Simmons family bought a boat after moving to Lewiston. Hayden
had an infatuation with water skiing and barefooting. He would go for ride
after ride after ride behind the boat to the point that the passengers in the
boat would tire before Hayden would. Those in the boat remember having to shut
the boat off so he would stop. He never wanted to stop skiing. He particularly
loved the challenge of perfecting tricks on his bare feet. He mastered one foot
skiing, tumble turns, and body slides. Recently, Hayden became very interested
in jet skis after he helped complete a rebuild of one. He was eager to ride and true to his style he
learned to submarine on his second trip to the river.
Hayden’s first motocross
interactions in Lewiston were with the DeAtley’s
and Keane’s. They were
people he looked up to and admired for their riding skills. His motocross love
started while watching videos of motocross racing from a young age, especially
the motocross video “Crusty 2000”, which he
repeatedly watched as a two year old. His parents vividly remember little
Hayden re-watching the same scenes over and over saying “Green guy crash.”
Hayden loved riding in the Lewiston Supercross nearly every year since
moving to Lewiston. As he got older, he learned to maintain and service his own
motorcycles, even rebuilding the engine. Hayden took his dream vacation with
his family this spring to southern California. While there, he had the
opportunity to ride on the same track with the motocross professionals he spent
so much time watching on TV including Millsapps, Roczen, and Tomak. To those
unfamiliar with motorcross, that would be like a high school basketball player
getting the opportunity to play with a group of NBA All-stars.
Hayden was active in Cub Scouts and earned his Arrow of Light
award. As a young boy, he looked forward to becoming a Boy Scout, and once he
was, he never missed a camp out. He attended scout camp four times and he
wanted to be a counselor at scout camp.
He had completed all the requirements for his Eagle Scout award and was
only lacking his Eagle Scout project. Fittingly, his planned Eagle Scout
project involved doing a service project at the Lewiston Airport.
When Hayden was young, he showed a natural ability to learn
musical instruments. At 12, the young men at church were asked to sing “Called
to Serve,” Hayden didn’t want his mom--a girl--to accompany them, so he
worked hard to learn to play it himself. He took piano lessons for several
years and even enjoyed accompanying the men in priesthood meeting at church.
When Hayden taught himself to play “One”
by Metallica on the guitar, his parents decided to put him in guitar
lessons. His guitar teacher, Marty Lukenbill, later expressed that he felt a
renewed purpose and desire to teach lessons because he was impressed by Hayden’s natural gifts. He enjoyed fun jam
sessions on occasion, especially jamming with his Uncle Craig when they were
together. Later, Hayden began teaching guitar lessons to his friends because he
wanted to emulate his mentor, Marty.
Hayden loved to bake. At an early age, he learned to make
cookies, bread, homemade Reese's, rolls, potatoes, waffles, and a mean piece of
cinnamon sugar toast. His baking was also an avenue for meeting and interacting
with girls as he loved to deliver cookies to his friends. Hayden enjoyed
entering his baked goods into the Nez Perce County Fair.
If you asked him about his church assignments, he would mention
that he was a family history consultant, and that he participated with both of
his grandmas in family history work. While Hayden was serving as the Deacon’s Quorum President, he designed the
ward fast offering routes under the direction of the bishop. Most recently, he
enjoyed his assignment on the stake youth conference committee. Hayden loved to
serve and be involved, usually arriving to activities early and staying late to
help.
Hayden was a ladies’ man. From an early age he was always
seeking attention from the girls. He was a gentleman, often handing his jacket
to the girls that were cold in Primary, and always opening doors. He was
especially affectionate to his mom, giving her hugs and treating her well. He
was helpful to his seminary teachers. He was thoughtful and caring toward
others, anticipated people’s needs and
stepped in to help.
Hayden loved to go horseback riding with his Grandpa Simmons, and
to share stories about his grandpa afterward. He recounted the story of Grandpa
snoring himself off of his cot. When Hayden asked what had happened, Grandpa
said “Hayden, my cot bucked me off!”
Grandpa was too active for the friends his age and had to recruit Hayden
as a backcountry buddy. They both loved their long trips together and with his
brother and cousin.
Throughout his life, Hayden grew to share his dad’s passion for aviation. He soloed in the
helicopter on his 16th birthday, which was the earliest he could accomplish
that feat. He studied and took all of his exams and was able to earn his
private pilot’s license at 17.
After his check-ride, the examiner told Hayden that, with his skill level, he
could have passed the commercial pilot standard. Hayden truly loved everything
about aircraft and flying. He loved building remote controlled airplanes with
his dad and previous Bishop, John Larson. Hayden’s
RC airplane skills were impressive, and he would fly year round until they
needed time in the shop for repairs.
Hayden was homeschooled and earned his GED at the age of 16. He
was enrolled at LCSC where he had completed his first semester.
For the past year Hayden has been working at Seekins Precision
where he was the shop janitor, gopher, road grader, dishwasher, garbage man,
floor cleaner and any other task he could get the group to give him…and
he did all these jobs with a smile. He
kept a growing list of parts that he had acquired from work and would state
enthusiastically that he doubled his wage through friend’s
parts. He enjoyed rifle and pistol
reloading after his Grandpa Simmons gave him his old reloading supplies. A few
weeks ago, he finished building his first custom rifle.
Hayden’s plans in the
near future included preparing to serve a full time mission, hoping to leave by
the end of this year.
There’s no doubt that
Hayden lived his 17 years to their fullest. His smile and upbeat personality
blessed many lives.
