Joel Sim - “Kilted Patriot”

 

Timothy Joel Sim Jr., loving husband, father, son, brother, friend, mentor, coach, training partner, community leader, and hero, passed away at age 44 on April 16, 2024, in Salt Lake City, Utah, surrounded by his beloved family. 

Joel was born on January 18, 1980, at Hill Air Force Base in Utah. Being born into a military family, Joel lived all over the world. However, he always considered Vancouver, Washington his hometown thanks to his many fond memories there. He always wanted to serve; however, he was unable to due to health issues. 

Joel was known in the professional world as the Director of Operations for Real Estate Administration at the University of Utah, but to the rest of the world, he was the Kilted Patriot, an accomplished member of the strength community who set multiple records. 

Those who knew him describe him as the nicest, smartest, most compassionate, best example of what it means to be a good man. He was stoic, hard-working, intense, fierce and focused. He was a man of honor, courage, integrity, compassion, and generosity-a true titan of a man. 

The family was honored to have the Scottish-American Military Society Utah Post 1847 provide a sword arch and the folding of his kilt at the funeral. 

Joel’s first highland game was in 2006 at Hill Air Force Base. Athletes remember him as a “scrawny little dude in a cowboy hat and a borrowed kilt.” They would later call him “the Godfather of heavy athletics.” 

Joel fell in love with throwing in the highland games. This led to the decision that Utah needed an association to organize games and a place for athletes to go for training advice and friendship. This led to the founding of Utah Heavy Athletics, or UHA. He was president for over ten years. 

When Joel was asked to be the Athletic Director for The Utah Scott Festival, the biggest Scottish festival in Utah, the first thing he did was make sure there were at least two trigs for each event. He did not want “his athletes” waiting in the sun for a trig. He also wanted “his athletes” to have the best implements. Starting with the cabers, Joel researched how to make and take care of cabers, being an eight-time Utah State Caber Champion, Joel was very passionate about safe and beautiful cabers. When the problem of standards not being tall enough presented itself, Joel engineered and built telescoping standards that are some of the tallest standards in the States.  

As a coach, Joel was supportive and motivating. He would be so excited for people when they hit personal records, sometimes more excited than the person who set the record.  

As a judge, Joel was one of the strictest in the state. Anytime the pros were in Utah, Joel was their judge. He was always the Utah State Caber Championship judge. If you got a score of twelve o’clock from Joel, you know you had a perfect score. As one athlete put it, “As strict as he is, he is the judge I want because he is fair.” 

Joel’s favorite quote is “The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.” by Albert Jack and Messianic Rabbi Richard Pustelniak. Honesty, trust, respect, and loyalty were what mattered to Joel, and if your actions reflected these qualities, you had a fierce friend who would do anything for you. This thought process was also how he felt about “his athletes”. He wanted nothing but the best for them. This is the motivation and purpose of Kilted Patriot, to take care of the community that he loved.