Info from Jon's Dad

I will look again at adding to the blog. I am not sure if people have the
same information about Jonathan prior to his death. I assume that they do
and it would probably not be of interest to anyone.

Did you know the following: Prior to graduation at BYU Jonathan was
married to a wonderful young woman. They were married for about 6 months
prior to his death at home. He was unable to finish his degree. To add to
the tragic experience, her mother had died many early earlier. She has
since re-married. BYU asked if we would like to come to BYU and receive
his degree and attend graduation, we did (my self, Claire and his sister
Sara). I believe that Jonathan was planning to attend Harvard to continue
his studies in ancient languages. While at BYU, I am not sure of the
dates, he attended a dig in Syria (believe I got the right place) and his
job was to make drawing of the artifacts discovered since all found items
had to be turned over to the government.

Jonathan's grave is in Salt Lake City. I will try and attach a picture to
another e-mail if you are interested. I will need to find the picture in my
camera.

Each year I attend continuation eduation training at the University of Utah
in June for my Social Work Licence (I am a therapist for adolescent females
at a treatment center here in St. George--Red Rock Canyon School--I
specialize in specific behavioral disorders of adolescence).
Claire and I always visit the grave site and clean it up and polish the
marker if it needs it and clean up some other cites if they look like they
have not been visited.

Welcome to Jon's Dad

Dear Bob Gemmill,
If it is not too personal, would you be willing to share some of the details of his passing? I know that many of us would like to know a little more. As I said before, I have been shocked and saddened at his loss, and it has been strange realizing he passed 7 years ago. It was truly a privilege to know your son.
Thank you,
Tracy Holmes

Conspiracy Theory

This is most likely absurd and probably not what happened, but after posting "Incognito", I couldn't get out of my mind, "Is Jon a spy?". He was studying Arabic and ancient middle eastern cultures the last time I spoke with him, and as I recall his father was in Military. It just seems a perfect fit, deep deep undercover work where he had to disappears from everyone, living in some remote location on the globe, passing for a native. Wishful thinking I know, but....?

Dave Sneddon said...

One of my favorite memories of Jon was during an escalating prank war in the freshman dorms. Jon never really got involved at first and those that remember him know that he never did anything small. Jon came up with the idea of stealing every roll of toilet paper from the other dorm. Almost a thousand rolls. He taught us to pick locks and then the three of us spent about 3 hours cleaning out every scrap of paper in the building. Jon insisted on doing it on a Saturday night as it is a religious school and no janitors would be there on Sunday to replace any rolls. We were almost finished when the elevator opened and all the dorm's football team members were waiting to turn us into footballs. Looking particularly tiny next to these bohemoths, Jon didn't say a word and handed each of them a roll of toilet paper and we walked out carrying our huge sacks of all the rest.

We used to play a board game with music - don't remember the name of it but you were supposed to find as many lyrics as possible with a certain word or phrase. No one let us be on the same team and the game often ended up with Jon coming out with the most bizzare lyrics from obscure bands that only he knew.

Aside from all of his legendary quirkiness and humor, Jon was a sweet and kind man. There are letters that I got from Jon at some of the lowest points in my life that had just the right things to say. He cared about people.

March 13, 2008 12:59 PM

Incognito

One of my favorite Jon stories is from 1992 when we were at the dorms at BYU. His ward (congregation) was playing some sort of prolonged game of tag and if you didn't get tagged or were the last one, you won some prize. Well as you all know Jon liked to stand out in a crowd. He always wore his flip sunglasses/glasses, baggy white pants covered in calligraphy, and some interesting T-shirt. Well Jon decided to become inconspicuous for the game. He wore a button up colored shirts, fitted blue jeans and a baseball cap. I would have walked right past him if he hadn't spoken to me. It was the most amazing transformation. It was several days into the game and some people who hadn't been tagged were foregoing meals and avoiding all public areas, but Jon was going about his normal routine and blending into the walls. He won the game.

The blog at the left is from J.D. Falk who was high school friend of Jon.