Successive Branch Presidents, #2, Leland T. Fife

Leland T. Fife, Second Branch President, Oct. 25, 1923-March 6, 1925

Leland and Elizabeth Fife came to Sparks in 1920 from Ogden, Utah. For a time, they lived at the company owned, Southern Pacific Reserve. South of the street currently named Victorian Avenue, was a number of housing lots set aside for the railroad employees to live. (The homes, trees, gardens and properties have long been stripped and plowed over.) The Fife’s then moved to 515 7th Street in Sparks.

Leland was the second branch president in the Sparks/Reno area, serving from Oct. 25, 1922 to March 6, 1925.  It was during his tenure that the scouting program was instituted and sponsored for the church boys in Sparks and Reno. He, along with Giles Vanderhoof, LeRoy Porter, Peter L. Ferguson and William A Schipper were the pioneers who initiated the charter. He was always interested in the youth of the church and in the community. He sponsored Forensic contests for the branch, encouraged theatrical plays and skits as well as sports activities.

Leland always reached for opportunities to improve. Within two to three months he shook up the branch leadership roster, moved meeting times around to fit people’s schedules and asked the mission president for a bigger missionary presence. The membership responded with increased activity and membership.  

For seventeen years Leland assumed more and more valuable leadership positions on the railroad. He was appointed the Erecting Floor Foreman, then Maintenance Foreman and then finally the illustrious position as General Foreman of the Sparks shops.

Because of his influence in the shops as well as in the community he was instrumental in obtaining summer employment for boys attending high school or the University of Nevada. He was the organizer of the Sparks Southern Pacific Glee Club. He was influential in forming a Parent Teacher Association for the Mary Lee Nichols School and many other civic activities. Although he never sought a political office his name was prominently mentioned for the position of Sparks mayor.

The family left Sparks for a few short years between 1929 and 1931, when Leland was transferred to Eugene, Oregon. It did not take long for them to transfer back to Sparks where they continued with their affairs while raising three boys and two girls.

Brother Fife was then set apart as a member of the District Board for the Nevada District in the California Mission by District President DeVaughn Jones on July 23, 1933. The calling entailed a great deal of travel and a staggering amount of time.

In July of 1937, Leland and Elizabeth packed up their home and left Sparks for good. He had been promoted to a position in Bakersfield, California as the Master Mechanic for the Southern Pacific Railroad. It was a sad goodbye to a family who left their powerful influence on the community. They also left their two oldest boys so they could finish their course work at the University of Nevada. Only a year after the family moved, their son Paul came back to spend a few days before he left on his mission to serve in New York. Newspapers of the day reported on an occasional visit from the family to renew old acquaintances.

Elizabeth succumbed to a lengthy illness in October of 1949. Leland retired from the railroad as a railroad official in San Francisco in 1954. Six years later he then passed away. The funeral was held in the LDS church in Burlingame, California.

Faithful to the end, Leland and his wife were great examples of early pioneer spirit.