Hundreds filled the Alpine Tabernacle in American Fork on Friday, Nov. 6, to honor Carl Grant Ingersoll, a longtime teacher and basketball coach. Ingersoll died Oct. 28 at his home in American Fork.

He was 94.

Organizers moved the funeral to the tabernacle, a historic building on Main Street that seats about 1,200, because no standard chapel could hold the crowd, Lehi Free Press columnist Beky Beaton wrote. At a viewing on Thursday, Nov. 5, Beaton described tables in the middle of the room covered with photographs, newspaper clippings, awards and badges. Ingersoll's children skipped the formal receiving line. Beaton wrote that people filled the space sharing memories, laughter, hugs and tears.

Born Sept. 11, 1932, in Lehi, Ingersoll graduated from American Fork High School in 1950, according to his obituary. He attended Branch Agricultural College in Cedar City, served in the U.S. Army as a medic and used the GI Bill to earn a bachelor's degree in zoology from Brigham Young University in 1958.

Two decades in the classroom

Ingersoll taught biology at American Fork High School for 20 years, earning the nickname "King of the Classroom," according to his obituary. He led a Future Physicians Club and ran a four-week summer biology course that took students into the mountains to camp and study ecology.

Championship coach

He spent eight years as an assistant basketball and football coach at American Fork before becoming head basketball coach for 10 years. His teams reached the state tournament every season, winning state basketball championships in 1976 and 1979, according to his obituary. After a year at Alta High School, Ingersoll joined the BYU basketball coaching staff in 1980, working alongside head coaches Frank Arnold and Ladell Andersen.

When Lone Peak High School opened in Highland in 1997 to serve Alpine, Highland and Cedar Hills, Principal Jim Starr tapped Ingersoll to start the Knights' boys basketball program, Beaton wrote. Ingersoll coached there for about two years, guiding sons of some of his former American Fork players. Once the program was established, he stepped away.

Local press and community ties

Beaton, who wrote about being the founding editor of the Lone Peak Press, said the newspaper was created to serve the Alpine, Highland and Cedar Hills communities. Beaton covered nearly every game Ingersoll coached at Lone Peak.

Ingersoll and his wife, Gene Oborn Ingersoll, served three missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Their first took them to BYU-Hawaii, where Ingersoll coached basketball and both taught college courses. They later served in the San Francisco Bay Area and at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, teaching institute classes, according to his obituary.

Gene Ingersoll died April 30, 2019. Carl Ingersoll is survived by seven children, 30 grandchildren, 72 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.

Ingersoll lived long enough to attend the 50th anniversary celebration of American Fork's 1976 state basketball championship, held at the school in spring 2026, Beaton wrote. Nearly everyone involved in that title team was able to be there.