Neal S. Baldwin

Our beloved friend and family member Neal Stanley Baldwin, 72, passed away on Monday, April 1, 2024, at Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County. He was a resident of Rock Springs for more than four decades and died following a long illness.  

Neal was born on January 4, 1952, in Republic, WA, to Richard Baldwin and Margery Robinson. He grew up in the forests of the Northwest on a variety of US Forest Service Ranger Stations until his father was transferred to the region 5 district office in Missoula, MT, when Neal was starting high school.  There he graduated from Hellgate High School in 1970, and then he went to work in Montana’s timber industry before coming to Rock Springs to start his career as a trona miner in the early 70 ‘s.  He had an older sister, Sky Baldwin of Austin, CO, and a younger brother, Rex Baldwin(deceased) of Rawlins, WY. 

In the late 1980s, Neal survived a near-deadly mine roof collapse. Doctors didn’t think he’d walk again, but through sheer will, he was able to return to work a year and a half later and stayed to retire from Genesis Alkali after more than four decades of service in October 2022. Neal was known for standing up for his coworkers and was a member of USW Local 13214. He often bragged that he was the oldest worker still down in the mine, and that he thought it was the perfect job. Although Neal was a miner for the majority of his life, he also spent years in Sweetwater County as an entrepreneur as well, he owned and operated the Dairy Queen and opened A Plus Glass, in Green River, Wyoming. He was a man of many trades and a proud business owner.  

Neal found peace and freedom riding his Harleys across the West and traveled to Sturgis every year. He was very handy and deeply artistic, which came out in many different ways throughout his life: from creating exceptional stained-glass pieces, to dreaming up tattoos only he could have imagined, to writing poignant short essays on life and motorcycle riding. He jokingly remembered that he never, however, turned in any of his English composition papers. 

Neal’s proudest accomplishment was helping care for and raise Thomas O’Brien. Not a day went by when Neal didn’t tell someone about all of Thomas’ successes and how fortunate Neal felt to have Thomas and his wife Marissa in his life. All of his family was very important to Neal. He never missed a Baldwin family reunion and enjoyed keeping track of his relatives.  

 
 Neal is survived by:  his sister Susan Sky Baldwin; stepsisters Brooke Nelson and Brenda Kameenui; Thomas and Marissa O’Brien, his nephews James Baldwin and Sam Baldwin (his wife Brittany Baldwin and their daughter Emery), Jacalyn Bruley (her husband Joe Bruley and their son Turner), sister-in-law Jone Baldwin, and his best friend Annie Parady (her daughters Sarah, Katelyn, and Annalise).  

 He was preceded in death by his father, mother, stepmother Barb, and beloved brother Rex Baldwin.  

 Neal loved the land around Rock Springs and prayed his soul could return to protect it. We hope he is out there riding free, and as Neal said in one of his essays, “They (tourists) are seeing vast miles of nothingness, wondering how anyone would want to live here.  I look around and see everything important to me, the beauty”. 

A Celebration of Life will be held from 2-5 pm, Saturday, May 4, 2024 at the Fraternal Order of Eagles Aerie 151, 211 B St, Rock Springs, WY.