John Clinton Black

John Clinton Black died March 25, 2026, at BeeHive Homes in Thatcher, Arizona. He was born on February 29, 1936, in Basin, Big Horn County, Wyoming, to Clinton Melford Black and Rosa Vida Bischoff Black. He married Myrna Jean Murphy in the Salt Lake temple on June 15, 1961. They had two children, Kevin and Kelly, and lived together in love through many achievements and difficulties until Myrna’s death in 1998.

John served in the Utah National Guard, honorably discharged as sergeant first class. He graduated from Brigham Young University with a B.S. in Design & Drafting Technology (1965), and from the University of Cincinnati with an M.B.A. and a minor in Community Planning (1970). This led to a career as an airport planner, in which over the next three decades he produced airport master plans for new and renovated airports. John was a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

As a young man, he served in the Spanish-American Mission and (after a split) in the West Spanish-American Mission. Over the years he served in callings including branch president, stake executive secretary, high councilor, counselor to a mission president, and regional public affairs representative. He was an inveterate reader (at least 1,000 books) and learner, completing courses after his MBA in airport engineering, airport land use, technical writing, calculus, and civil engineering.

Over the years his interests included pool, hi-fi phonograph equipment, learning to pilot small planes, entrepreneurship, and puzzles. He planted a garden because the prophet said we should, but he came to love tending a little plot of land wherever he lived for the next 40 years. He treated his sons with love and respect: as adults in training and colleagues rather than as perpetual subordinates.

His sons have been inspired by his respect for women, fidelity to covenants, hard work, humility, enthusiasm for learning, and serving wherever one is called to serve. On July 17, 1999, John married Argina Williams Morris, and they were sealed on August 21, 1999, both in the Mesa, Arizona, temple. They were happy together and enthusiastically served full-time, Spanish-speaking missions in Lansing, Michigan, and Tallahassee, Florida. When not on a mission, they would serve in a Spanish-speaking congregation.

He was preceded in death by his parents; his siblings Harvey (AnnaBell, then Susan), Jean (JamesKnowlton), Homer (Madeleine), Francis (Sophie), Carol (Loren Mussler), and Merrill; his wife Myrna; and his grandson Johnathon Moses Black. He is survived by his sister, Evelyn (Gerald Scott); his wife, Argina; his sons Kevin (Winona) and Kelly (Juliet); his 15 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren; and by his stepchildrenDebora Phillips (Ted), Melanie Clayton (the late Boyd), Kevin Morris (Marian), Steven Morris (Helen), Dean Morris (Lorinne), Robyn Skinner (Kent), and Shane Morris (Shannon).

Funeral service will be held at 422 E. University Drive, Mesa, Arizona, at 9:00 a.m. Arizona time on Saturday, April 11, 2026, with a viewing that morning at 8:00 a.m. Interment will follow at the Mesa Cemetery. Arrangements by Bunker’s Garden Chapel, www.bunkerfuneral.com. Should this obituary appear anywhere but bunkerfuneral.com, please check our website for accurate details and service information.