A South Summit patriarch has passed away.

Marion resident Jared Weller fought rectal cancer for nearly three years before dying Dec. 17 at age 77.

“When he passed away he had been home for quite a while,” his wife, Carol Weller said in a telephone interview. “It was quite a struggle. He was very miserable and in a lot of pain the last while. I was just glad to be able to take care of him, and I have a wonderful family and every one of them and their spouses are just top people.”

The Wellers are best known for operating Weller Recreation, a sales and repair shop for all terrain vehicles and snowmobiles in eastern Summit County. Weller began the business in 1962 working on mechanical farm equipment.

Today four of his children (Weller had five daughters and four sons) run the Marion shop.

“There are not as many farmers in the valley as there were, and they enjoy the recreation more than they did fixing tractors and balers,” Carol Weller said.

For two decades, Jared Weller was a member of the Summit County Board of Adjustment, which hears appeals from citizens on planning decisions in the county.

“He loved to serve and he loved to be able to help people,” said Carol Weller, who is 74 years old. “For years, they were never paid anything to do that.”

Her husband also spent several terms on the South Summit School Board and served on the governing board of the South Summit Cemetery District.

“He was a special guy. He did a lot for people in the valley and he would go out of his way to help you if he could,” said Summit County Commissioner Ken Woolstenhulme, a lifelong Oakley resident.

Woolstenhulme recalled playing church basketball with Weller in 1959.

“We used to play all over the county and in Salt Lake a couple of times a week,” Woolstenhulme said.

When Weller was eight years old he moved with his German family to the Kamas Valley from Salt Lake City.

“When they first moved to the valley I was in the third grade, going to the school in Marion,” said Woolstenhulme. “Jared came there during the school year with his family and we went all through, and were good friends.”

Weller was eventually elected to the school board.

“He really didn’t go out and campaign a lot. He talked to people in the shop and they just knew the kind of a person that he was through business dealings,” Carol Weller said.

Meanwhile, Matthew Weller, now a Board of Adjustment member, said his late father encouraged him to serve on the panel.

“He prodded me along, just say that,” Weller joked.

His father needed to be involved in the community, he said.

“He loved to serve people and he wanted to make a difference,” Weller said.