Jon Joel Salmonson

Jon Joel Salmonson died suddenly at home of a heart attack on Thursday, August 7th, 2025. He was born in Great Falls MT on October 8, 1935, the second of four children born to Joel and Olga Strandberg Salmonson of Power MT. It was a joy to hear Jon's stories of growing up in the rural Fairfield Bench area - - a wonderful mix of interesting people and events. Jon graduated from Fairfield High School in 1953, and then earned a BA degree at Concordia College in Moorhead MN, majoring in Philosophy with a minor in English. Classes after that, at the College of Great Falls and at UM in Missoula, gave him a strong major in English and teacher certification.

 

For most of his working career, Jon was a much admired and well-loved teacher - - for 11 years at Seeley-Swan High School in its beginning years, and then with individual cell-study students at Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge for 16 years. Other interesting jobs that he held at various "fill-in" times throughout his life include working at Seeley's Pyramid lumber mill, helping install storm sewers in Great Falls, laying track for Burlington Northern RR, selling sailboats and encyclopedias, and delivering Missoulians. And for three summers, 1965 to 1967, Jon was the proud founder and owner of The Red Door Players, a summer-theater group in Coeur d'Alene ID, producing plays such as "Blithe Spirit", "The Fantasticks", "Brigadoon", and "Oklahoma!". Theater was always a passion for Jon and he would go on to produce and direct numerous plays both within the Seeley Lake community, for example "Our Town", and as a teacher at the high school, including "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown" and "The Miracle Worker".

 

The most fulfilling part of Jon's life was being a father. He married Kay Cromley in Great Falls on June 21, 1964, and the couple was able to raise their two children in Seeley Lake and then Missoula. There are many happy memories for the family of life together in both rural and urban settings.  And then, in the years after the kids became grown-ups, the happy memories are of family vacations together, including a 2015 trip to Sweden, where Salmonsons could reconnect with their Swedish "Salomonsson" relatives and family history.

 

At heart Jon was a man of letters, with a driving curiosity and a lifelong love of books and learning.  But he was also a creative and skilled craftsman and tinkerer.  He leaves an array of hand-crafted items such as a 10" Dobsonian telescope he built with his son in the '70s that is still used today.  In his retirement, after being inspired by a visit to the wooden boat museum in Seattle, he built a beautiful, hand-crafted wooden R/C sailboat with hand-cast lead keel.  That boat would sail on South Lake Union in Seattle.  Other creations include a solar powered decorative water-wheel, custom wooden play-structures for his kids and for his grandkids, garden sheds, bookshelves, as well as an array of original knick-knacks fired in potter's clay.

 

Jon's after-retirement years were busy, productive ones.  He was an active member of the Franklin-to-the-Fort neighborhood group, working steadily toward trying to get more sidewalks in that area. He enjoyed the hard-work hobbies of gardening and landscaping.  Jon always enjoyed Missoula's rich offerings of musical and theatrical performances, especially Missoula's Symphony concerts and the fine-arts programs on MT PBS and MT Public Radio.

 

Jon is survived by his wife, Kay, and by their two children and two grandchildren:  son Jay and his wife Laura and their two daughters, Claire and Margo, of Livermore CA; and daughter Johanna, of Missoula and Seattle. He is also survived by sister Karen Aubert in Wheeling WV, and sister-in-law Cora Salmonson of Polson MT. And Jon always enjoyed visiting and communicating with his eight Salmonson and five Cromley nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his two brothers, Karl and Bruce, and by nephew Kelly, and niece Michelle.