Thomas Duncombe Dee

Who was Thomas Duncombe Dee?

Thomas Duncombe Dee was a Utah businessman.

Dee was born in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, Wales. His parents converted to the Mormon faith in 1856, and the family relocated to Ogden, Utah in 1860.

Dee had been working as an apprentice carpenter in Wales, and soon was building residential and commercial buildings in Ogden. In 1876, he joined industrialist David Eccles and Hiram Spencer in founding businesses in the western U.S. ranging from sugar to lumber to water and shoes and banking.

In 1900, Dee became an investor and first president of the Utah Construction Company of Ogden, Utah. On July 3, 1905, he slipped into water while inspecting a potential site for a dam, contracted pneumonia, and died. In 1906, the community was named Dee, Oregon in his honor.

Dee served for over 20 years as the LDS Church's Sunday School superintendent in the Ogden Third Ward and then in the Mound Fort Ward. For almost two deacdes preceding to his death he served as a counselor to the bishop of the Mound Fort Ward .

Among several other civic positions, Dee served as a member of the Ogden City Council.