John Wesley Hawkins (Redmond ’87)
Posted: November 11, 2025
John died in Salt Lake City on September 26, 2025, two days after his 69th birthday. Born in 1956, he grew up in a large family in Coeur d’Alene, ID, the son of a surgeon and a child-rights activist. A strong athlete, he excelled at running and learned to scuba dive as a teenager.
After high school, he joined the Marines, serving in the Pacific.
He later earned a business degree from Eastern Washington University, where he was elected student body president in 1982.
He found a calling in wildland firefighting. Beginning as a seasonal firefighter in Northern Idaho, he later joined the elite El Cariso Interagency Hotshot Crew in Southern California. Then, in 1987, he became a smokejumper, going on to serve for more than a decade. John jumped out of Redmond (1987-96) and NIFC (1997-2003).
An amiable jokester and US history buff, John enjoyed traveling immensely and liked to spend off-seasons seeing the world. Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam were favorite destinations.
After his jumping years, he worked for the BLM in wildland fire and resource management before retiring to Coeur d’Alene to be near family.
He never married but had a large family of loving siblings, nieces, and nephews. His smokejumper family also remained important to him throughout his life, and during his final illness, five of his closest jumper buddies stood by him as a recovery team. He considered his jumping years to be among the most challenging and meaningful of his life.
