John Wesley Montague was born on June 23, 1959, in Portland, Oregon. He had one brother and one sister. He died in a logging accident on January 1, 1987, in Otis, Oregon, at the age of 28. John graduated from Lincoln H.S. in Portland, Oregon, in 1978. He was the team leader of his wrestling team.

He started college at the University of Oregon in Eugene, was a member of the Beta Theta Pi Fraternity and lived in the same frat house as his father and two grandfathers. John transferred to Oregon State University in 1981 and graduated in June 1985 with a bachelor's in Forestry. During his studies in forestry, he spent summers on wildfire crews in Waldport, Oregon and with the La Grande Hotshots.