Jon, 27, died July 6, 1994, in the Storm King Mountain Fire in Colorado. He was a member of the Prineville (OR) Hotshot Crew that lost nine of their members that day.

He was born April 23, 1967, in Prineville, Oregon.

Jon graduated from Crook County High School in Prineville in 1985 and obtained a degree in wildlife sciences from Oregon State University at Corvallis in 1991. He enrolled at the Oregon Institute of Technology at Klamath Falls in the fall of 1993.

During school he was eighth grade honor society president, a member of the high school golf team, manager of the high school football team and a swimming instructor and lifeguard.

In August 1985 he became a replacement member of the U.S. Forest Service's Hotshots crew at Prineville. Since then he had been employed by the Forest Service as a summer wildfire fighter, smokejumper and squad boss for the Prineville Hotshots.