Jonathan Scott Taylor - Memories of a Beloved Son Early life in the military Jonathan took his first “step” into mortality on March 3, 1979 in Pensacola, Florida at the local hospital in the middle of the night, during a flooding rainstorm! This was our 2nd duty station after beginning our journey together as a family in Quantico, VA at the USMC Basic School. All the nurses that night said a full moon and a good rainstorm brought in lots of moms in labor! So was the case for us, but Jon wasn’t in any hurry to enter this world. Only after a very long labor was he coached into going for it, and with some help from the doctors he was finally born to wide-eyed, naive, very grateful parents. Jon instantly became our teacher, our inspiration, our challenge, our joy! He was our first born, beautiful blue-eyed baby boy. Luckily, Gramma and Grandpa Wise came to welcome him and serve as back-up for support and hands-on training for a couple of weeks! He did love basking in the Florida sun and being out of doors – a trait that continued through his life
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Military life really began while being stationed at NAS Pensacola where dad, 2nd Lieutenant Michael Taylor USMC, was in jet training. Jonathan even got an introduction into the military world of flying prior to being born as his dad took me - a pregnant mom - up in a very little Cessna airplane for a ride. This was a white-knuckle experience for me!! Jon got to log some back-seat flight time a few months later. He didn’t seem tophased by it when we had to go around a second time to land due to crosswinds – and dad forgetting he was flying a Cessna and not a jet!
As a 3 ½ year old he was drafted into the cockpit of a C-130 as pilot for a few minutes, with dad at his side showing him the ropes, while baby sister Anna and I were in the back wondering why the plane was rocking and weaving back and forth over the vast – and very deep - Pacific Ocean! This was a great finale to his 1st trip to Hawaii where upon investigating a new little creature he was chased by a little sand crab! Early on, adventure, challenge, and a fascination with the ocean and the great creations of this planet and all its beauty became part of his life
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Starting life in a military family meant moving, so we were blessed as a family to live in several parts of the country, coast to coast to coast, finding that there are wonderful people and good friends wherever you go. Our church and military families became our support and best friends! It was always hard to leave them, but that’s military life so next stop coming up was NAS Kingsville for advanced jet training in southern Texas. As Jon grew older he became very adept at drawing the airplanes and jets dad was flying! (pictured with dad in a simulator).
Some big adventures there were the rust-colored water coming from the shower and faucets while living in the small town of Bishop awaiting base housing; watching out for fire ant nests on the playground between the homes on base in Kingsville – they could cover your foot in seconds! ; taking cover when a hurricane in the Gulf was going to make land over Corpus Christi where the pilots (including Mike) took the planes north to Tulsa, Oklahoma and left the women and children to fend for themselves! Jon and I hunkered down in one of Mike’s friend’s bachelor quarters. That was a scary experience in and of itself! Wanting to get home when the worst of it was over, we made our way home in our Datsun 310 with the side windows blown through one side and out the other and with water up to the middle of the tires. Luckily, the house was fine, and we survived it together.
Next duty station was USMC Camp Pendleton, Oceanside, California. While our family was waiting to close on our first house in Oceanside, Jon got to have some alone time with Grandma Lucy Taylor and great-grandma “Big Gramma” in Garden Grove as dad and mom both would head off to work – dad at the Marine base, and mom at a picture framing store. Gramma Lucy and Big Gramma were the best and they and Jon quickly forged an eternal bond. This was the beginning of great adventures as later in life Jon and his siblings would get to fly to California (sometimes on their own -yikes!) and stay at Gramma Lucy’s for a couple weeks at a time, relishing in lots of time exploring Disneyland - like their father before them – LOL! That bond and fascination with Disneyland lasted throughout his and their lives as some of their best memories EVER!
During this time in Oceanside, little sister Anna was born in August of 1981. Competition for attention and someone to hug and bug defined their relationship. Jon loved his little sister! This was a new home with an un-landscaped yard so there was plenty of dirt to dig and play in with his new buddy Brian from next door. One adventure there was getting “chased” by a swarm of bees as they left our neighbor’s chimney on one side to re-locate in some inverted barrels in our neighbor’s yard on the other side! We just happened to be right in line with the flight path and my initial yell was to “RUN JON”! We made it inside just in time. Another day 3-year-old Jon wasn’t so lucky when he ran through a rose hedge with his arms and hands up in the air. His poor little arms got pretty shredded. He never did that again! Oceanside was a great place for our family, but our next duty station assignment was coming up.
It was back to southern Texas one more time to NAS Beeville where dad was an instructor in the A-4 jet. Younger sister, Jennifer (Jenny) was born in January 1984. Jon was becoming a great big brother that loved his sisters. Jon and Anna attended St. Phillips Episcopal School where I worked, bartering for tuition, as their PE teacher! This small private school was a great place for these two and we all had a great experience there.
It was here that 5 year-old Jon entered his first art contest and won first place for a beautiful water-colored fish jumping over the ocean! Even at that young age it was apparent he had some talent!
Growing up years: Active duty military life ended and our family moved to Denver, Colorado in June of 1985, living just south of Quincy at Kipling. Jon was quick to find a friend just down the street and he and Joshua were inseparable riding trikes, playing chase, digging and climbing. From this family he learned to love eating fresh home-made tortillas, and that eating jalapenos on a regular basis would keep you healthy.He’s loved both ever since!
While in this home, younger brother Patrick arrived 2 nights before Halloween that year! That quickly became a favorite holiday for both Jon and Patrick even as adults. Jon’s artistic ability literally shined through his grand carved pumpkin designs on Halloween night! The age difference between Jon and Patrick never mattered!They were the best of buddies and Jon always included lil’ “Patch”.
He and Anna attended Sabin Elementary in Denver until in 1987 our family finally settled in Littleton, Colorado. Jon and all his siblings attended Leawood Elementary, Ken Caryl Junior High, and each graduated from Columbine High School. Jon was in the Class of 1997.
During these years our family vacations to Hawaii with Gramma Lucy, Mesa Verde, and house boating on Lake Powell, Lake Mead, and Lake Mohave were highlights for all of us! Water ballooning the passing houseboats while our pirate flag was proudly waving was a great way to end our long weekends on the lake. At least we thought so!
A constant through the years in Jon’s life were his passions for drawing, Star Wars, and Legos, and later in life – online games! From an early age, his Gramma Wise taught him about collector items and how to take care of them so they would retain their value. He latched onto that idea quickly. Other than sharing his collectable figurines, toys, and memorabilia with Patrick he lovingly displayed his treasures, Star Wars ships, and Lego structures of all sorts and sizes. Many were kept in their original boxes per Gramma’s instructions.Some are still in those boxes today!
Drawing came naturally to Jon.As his drafting skills matured, he had an uncanny ability to reproduce what he was looking at in fine detail and proportions.He loved drawing the military aircraft and left pages upon pages of different kinds. These skills continued to improve and became very important in his future jobs and opportunities.
When Jon was 14 he joined the swim team at Normandy Pool with his sisters and even Patrick. This was his first try at it after watching his sisters swim for a few years. It wasn’t easy competing against guys his age that had been swimming for years, but he hung in there and did a great job. One advantage that gave him was he was the only kid in his Scout troop that summer that could swim a mile in the lake to earn that merit badge!! The fund-raiser mile swim at the club had paid off!
It was during his high school years at age 16 ½ that he was diagnosed with Hodgkins Disease – a non-lymphoma cancerous tumor in his chest just above his heart. Jon never once asked “why me”, but instead made it a matter of prayer prior to his biopsy tests that provided the answer that he needed to carry him through. He just plowed ahead, with grace and patience enduring the chemotherapy and radiation over a 4-month period. He would visit his doctor on Fridays, spend the weekend totally wiped out, and then begin each week by attending school. He only missed a few days of school towards the end of the chemo treatment. The nurses at the chemo center were actively trying to set him up with a cute young gal his age that was also there for treatment. They loved teasing this personable, handsome young man and he always seemed to leave there with a smile. His best friend Ryan even shaved his head when Jon’s hair started falling out due to the chemo! He
never complained! Later on his hair came back in curly!
Friends and family: In his free time, Jon loved updating his 1978 Super Beetle Volkswagon and hanging out with buddies! The Kohler boys, Mike Hildebrandt, Kent Madsen, , Severts boys, Ryan Grange, and of course his little brother Patrick, sisters Anna and Jenny all held a special place in Jon’s life. and others. Their adventures could probably fill volumes – especially his and Ryan’s trip to Gramma Lucy’s, Vegas, and the beach! Please read his siblings accounts for more fun info.
At age 20, Jon served an honorable 2-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Washington D.C. South Mission, where he loved serving others and teaching them about his faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ. We were all excited when he was assigned to serve in the same area where our family began some 20 years before. Knowing his dad loves Nauvoo and church history, he drew this picture on scratchboard for him while on his mission! Scratchboard is like drawing in reverse – you remove the black surface to reveal the white. Jon was quite good at this medium!
His time as a missionary became a binding thread that carried him through many trials, down divergent paths and back again. In the last weeks of his life he humbly shared his testimony of, understanding and gratitude for our Savior’s atoning sacrifice on his behalf. His missionary spirit was still alive and seen in later years as he’d have gospel conversations with people that mattered most in his life, including his closest mission companion Brett Timothy.
Adult Years: One of his jobs as a teen was at Papa Murphys Pizza. Interestingly, his last few years of work were with Dominoes Pizza. There was a definite love of pizza in the Taylor household and Jon loved to cook and invent new combinations and dishes! In between, other jobs utilized his artistic vision, a love of using his hands and creating things, being out of doors, learning new skills, and allowed him to contribute to people’s lives in a way that he had never imagined.
He pursued an education in Graphic Design from Arapahoe Community College and later in life from ITT Tech. Upon entering an art show at ACC, one of the faculty bought a beautiful pastel still life rendered by Jon. We were thrilled for him, but his dad had really wanted to keep that one! He still wishes he had it.
That training built on his life-long hobbies of collecting Star Wars, science fiction, and fantasy stories, and drawing. The years of building Legos increased his understanding of spatial relationships and construction. He not only made sense of all the directions and hundreds of parts but created wonderfully unique projects. He knew the sets so well that he could dump out a bucket of seemingly random parts and find and gather the specific ones for a set project!
As a teenager Jon enjoyed designing and sculpting unique Star Wars figures that rivaled the commercially made figures. Here again, he won several contests within the Star Wars community for his original creations. Patrick’s memories elaborate on his accomplishments there. Together they created their own website – Blizzard 1 – to showcase his creations. He was very capable at visualizing, creating, and/or reproducing what he was looking at.
Jon was able to apply his design skills in different areas and industries and enjoyed each of them. He worked for Steven Adams, for several years on a part-time basis framing his photography. Steven was commissioned by Chipotle Restaurants to produce artistic black and white photographic images of the interior and exterior of the stores to hang as their décor. Jon framed these photographs and then they were shipped all over the country and other places in the world wherever Chipotle had a franchise.
His work at Mile High Memorial as lead graphic designer was a high point in his work life. Even though working with grieving families was heart-wrenching at times, Jon found great satisfaction in helping these families come to some closure with a monument that beautifully honored their loved ones.Those monuments designed with love and compassion, placed in multiple cemeteries around the Denver and Castlerock areas, will stand as monuments to the gifts and talents Jon was blessed with, that he then used to bless others. His co-worker and owner of the facility, Ron Watson, still claims Jon was the best graphic designer Mile High Memorial ever had, even to this day! Some samples of those monuments will be posted on this
www.jonathanstaylor.forevermissed.com site.
Wedding and family: After returning home from his mission, Jon worked for Foothills Park & Rec as a lifeguard at Lily Gulch swimming pool with some of his best high school buddies – and the younger sister of a past girlfriend! Kourtney had her eye on Jon from her middle school days, but it wasn’t until he returned that they became friends and then fell in love. Jon proposed to Kourtney at his favorite place in the world – Disneyland, at Sleeping Beauty’s wishing well! How could she not accept!
Their dating relationship was a long distance one for several years while Kourtney earned her degree from Colorado State University in Ft. Collins followed by nursing school in Omaha, Nebraska. In September 2007, after three and a half years of being engaged, Jon finally married his sweetheart of almost 7 years, Kourtney Drake, and a new chapter in life began for the two of them.
Jon and Kourtney enjoyed their first few years of marriage with many fantastic travel opportunities including trips to Jamaica (Duns River falls), Grand Cayman (snorkeling with barracuda and stingrays), Turks and Caicos (stingray beach and snorkeling over amazing coral reefs), the beaches of Florida (body boarding, jet skis, and building sandcastles), and an incredible drive down the pacific Coast Highway from San Francisco to San Diego in a red convertible (Hurst Castle, Monterey Aquarium, and of course enjoying a burger and shake at Ruby’s Diner on Huntington Beach Pier)! It was on that trip that they were elated to find out that they were expecting a little one! Jon was so excited to be a dad from the day he foundout!
Jon and Kourtney were blessed with a sweet little son, Dallin James, on Easter Sunday, April 24, 2011. Dallin was the light of Jon’s life and he loved being a dad! Jon was a fun dad, always coming up with games to play which of course always included a wide array of sound effects to go with whatever game he and Dallin were playing. Jon would have Dallin rolling with laughter.
As Dallin grew, Jon reveled in sharing his love of Legos and Star Wars with his son. They would spend hours in the basement putting Lego sets together and setting up elaborate Star Wars scenes with homemade cardboard sets and action figures. Jon also enjoyed playing baseball and soccer with Dallin any chance he could get! Jon loved his family!
The rest of the story: Jon rarely got a cold or the flu, but when health problems hit, they were big! Once again, Jon found himself faced with a severe health challenge that was not recognized for what it was until it almost destroyed him. He was finally diagnosed with severe sleep apnea that had crippled his ability to work, to function in his family, to make sound choices, or to be happy. The perfect storm of trials had hit their family and heart-breaking decisions had to be made. These struggles changed their lives and the structure of their family. Even through these changes though, Jon and Kourtney humbled themselves and were able to focus on Dallin and his well-being, worked together and became and remained best friends again. They shared wonderful times together that witnessed their love for Dallin, and their respect and love for each other.
Not long after this period Jon faced yet another major health challenge, that again was not recognized for what it was until it was in a severe stage. He was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, and upon evaluation his heart was only functioning at about 12% capacity due to his aortic valve calcifying as a result of the cancer radiation treatment some 20 years prior. He had gained over 90 pounds of extra fluid weight and surgery was required ASAP. They were able to replace his aortic valve with a nice big cow valve that would allow another valve to be placed within that one in the future when it was time. He gradually lost most of the extra fluid, started feeling better, and was able to work on getting back into life.
Jon was blessed with a job that helped him get back on his feet. This was with a small surveying company, JVC Consulting, owned by a great couple, Jim and Mary Heinritz, in our church family. These were the perfect people for him to work with at this time in his life as they understood his struggles and trials and could support him in his recovery. This was also a new learning adventure for him, and he loved working outside once again and applying his skills in a different direction. Jon loved the people he worked for and with! They were always amazed when he could look at a lot and draw it to almost perfect scale with no instruments. It was a sad day when this couple made the decision to move to another state, but Jon was in a better position to move on as well.
Dominoes became his final workplace, and work family. He loved working there, meeting the customers at their homes and getting acquainted with many as they ordered often and he was there to serve! These people were so good to him and showered him in great tips because of his good nature and timely service. He became well known in the neighborhood as he got around and had friends in many places that he frequented during the week while noticing ways that he might help them. During the covid 19 requirement to wear masks, Jon had several co-workers and local friends ask about his home-made mask wondering where they could get one! He enlisted my help (mom) and he found people to distribute about 25 masks to. They were thrilled!
The world of fantasy and strategy beckoned Jon throughout his life. Because of this interest, he was able to form some strong and meaningful relationships in a small online gaming community over several years where he was supported with acceptance and love. Two of his best friends came from this community. – Michael Roberts and Crystal Lavine. He was never able to meet either in person, but they became family to him as they worked and played together, learned from and challenged each other, comforted and encouraged one another. Learning from and supporting each other in deeply held beliefs was refreshing and sustaining for Jon.
All of Jon’s friends from his childhood on were dearly loved by him, and each contributed to a special part and time in his life. We are eternally grateful for all the good people in his life!
Jon had a gentle nature and a great sense of humor, a forgiving kindness and compassion that developed in him through his many trials.One of his favorite framed pieces of art was the picture of a lighthouse being blasted with waves from all sides engulfing the lighthouse, but the light within is never extinguished. On reflecting on Jon’s life, his was much the same. His love of family, friends, and his testimony of God’s love, tethered him to solid ground and kept his light alive even while he was blasted on all sides by the refiner’s fires of life.
His sister Jenny likened his life to the Hero’s Journey (google that one!).The memories recounted by family members and loved ones during our memorial zoom gathering and posted on this website add greater insight to Jon’s life, accomplishments, trials, successes, and contributions. He indeed lived the Hero’s Journey and has been called home to continue to the next chapters of that journey surrounded by loving family and friends on the other side of the veil. We miss being in his presence and feeling his gentle love and bear-hugs, but we know that he is not far away, and is continuing his quest to bless the lives of those around him.He taught us how to love, repent, forgive, trust in God when life is bleak, and to never give up! We will rejoice when we can be together again – forever and always!
Jon, we love you!
