In the sleepy little Valley View Memorial Park there is a treasure that is the first of its kind in Utah. There hidden in the Southwest corner of the cemetery is an onyx-colored plaque in the ground that is hard to ignore. It reads Steven Allan Ford April 7, 1980-September 7, 2010—”MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU ALWAYS.”

This is not a gravesite of some overzealous fan, as it would seem, but indeed the resting place of someone remarkable: Steven Ford, the first ordained Jedi priest in the predominantly Mormon state of Utah.

A licensed minister of the Temple of the Jedi Order, Steve officiated over the first wedding performed by a Jedi Minister on September 5, 2008 when his brother Andrew Ford was married to Candis Forbes. The wedding appeared traditional to the regular bystander, with only one telltale sign: the lightsaber hanging from Steven’s hip.

Steven loved Star Wars and it had such an impact upon is life he began practicing Jediism in his later high school years. A little-known fact is that the Jedi religion is a mixture of Taoist and Buddhism. Steve was a natural peacemaker and these concepts appealed to his nature. 

Sadly, tragedy struck when Steve fell ill of a broken heart. Jedi Reverend Steven Allan Ford took his own life on September 7, 2010. This left a disturbance in the force of his loved ones ever since.