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South Valley Riverton Journal

Beyond the byline: City Journal writer Dylan Wilcox

Aug 03, 2022 08:44PM ● By Rachel Aubrey

By Rachel Aubrey | [email protected]

Editor’s note: this series highlights the writers behind the stories found here each month.

Riverton and Bluffdale local life writer Dylan Wilcox has known writing and story-telling most of his life. Born and raised on Hawaii Island and a graduate of Kamehameha Schools on the island of Oahu, Wilcox went on to attend Brigham Young University-Hawai’i. It was at BYU-Hawaii that he discovered his enthusiasm for reporting while working on the student newspaper, The Ke Alaka’i, and decided to major in English and journalism.

Wilcox took two years off of school to complete a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, spending two years in the Philippines. After his mission, while back at BYU-Hawaii, he met his wife, Alejandra from Mexico City, Mexico. The couple graduated together in 2018 and made the move from the islands to Murray in 2019. They now reside in West Jordan.

Writing followed Wilcox to Utah as he is currently a technical writer for Nelson Labs, a global medical device testing company. Despite not having a strong science and technology background when he interviewed for the position, those in the hiring process noticed other skills that had little to do with his writing abilities.

“Dylan is self-driven, motivated and he is social and makes people feel welcome,”

Wendy Mach said, a senior manager at Nelson Labs.

The people skills are something that can’t be taught; however, Wilcox received a lot of on-the-job training in order to become effective as a member of the tech consulting team. Mach, who has been with Nelson Labs for more than 18 years, said that Wilcox’s work ethic has out shined the rest.

“I wish everyone was as positive as Dylan, I never have to worry about him, I know everything will get done,” Mach said.

For any writer, the process of writing begins with note taking and information gathering. The journalism background has come full circle for Wilcox as he uses a lot of those same things in his technical writing.

In addition to being a full-time employee and husband, Wilcox started writing for the City Journals in November 2021. Reporting on local news and events has been a way for Wilcox to share stories that might not get shared.

“The ability that we have been blessed with is something that should be utilized,” Wilcox said. “If you’re able to preserve histories and stories, then they don’t get lost.”

 In January of this year, Wilcox reported on a survivor from the Columbine High School shooting in 1999, Craig Scott, speaking to students and community members at Riverton High School about his experience as a survivor and especially about his sister Rachel Scott who was killed that day. Preserving these stories of survival so that we may learn from them, have become more crucial than ever given the recent school shooting in Uvalde, Texas in May.

Despite all the serious writing and reporting, Wilcox and his wife and their extended family that reside in the Salt Lake Valley, find time for the less serious things such as hiking and camping and finding the best tacos in Salt Lake. They also enjoy farmers markets and spending time with their dog Milo (pronounced mee-low).