Dalton Van Legacy

The Dalton Van Legacy was started in remembrance of an amazing and talented young man who died tragically in a vehicle rollover accident on June 13, 2020. At the time of his death, Dalton had become nationally recognized in both trap shooting and welding. Although talented, Dalton succeeded primarily because he demanded perfection of himself and didn’t stop working until he achieved it. Dalton kept working at his goals until he met the standard that he had set for himself.

Competing in trap shooting and light rifle as part of the Utah High School Rodeo team, Dalton won the Utah High School Rodeo State Championship in 2018. Later that year he went on to win the High School National Championship in trap shooting in 2019. He also captained the Utah State Trap Shooting Junior Team.

In addition, Dalton competed for the Uintah Basin Technical College (UBTech) Skills Team in welding. He won the state gold medal for two years in a row and went on to compete at the national level where he won the silver medal and received an invitation to compete at the World Welding Trials.

Dalton enrolled in UBTech’s welding program while attending Union High School. When he graduated from Union High in 2019, he had obtained his 900-hour welding certificate. Dalton set a record for completing the certificate in the shortest amount time in UBTech school history. Utah State University Eastern granted him a welding scholarship and, at the time of his death, he was pursuing a welding engineering degree. Because of all of his time and hard work in the program, USU awarded Dalton an advanced welding certificate posthumously.

Dalton’s life was cut too short—he left many hopes and dreams unfinished and we can’t begin to count all the things that he didn’t get to do or try. What we do know is that he would want to help others who have big dreams but just need a way to get them started.