Jon H. McBride
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MISSOULA – Jon Hobert McBride, 74, died of acute heart failure while on a bicycle trek with the “Boys of Wednesday,” a group of close friends, on Wednesday, June 2, 2010, near Missoula. The “boys” biked, hiked or skied every Wednesday throughout the year.
Jon was born in Springfield, Mo., on July 8, 1935, to Hobert and Ruth Rayl McBride.
He graduated from Springfield Central High School in 1953, studied at Drury College in Springfield and worked in white pine blister rust control for the U.S. Forest Service near Haugan. He studied forestry at the University of Montana from 1954 to 1957 and, while attending the university, was a smokejumper and smokejumper squad leader in the 1954 through 1956 fire seasons.
Jon qualified for the Navy’s NAVCAD Program in 1957, and was trained as a fighter pilot, eventually flying the F-8 Crusader from the carrier Bon Homme Richard with VF 191. He also served in an instructor training squadron at Miramar, Calif.
He married Patricia Ann “Trish” Walsh in 1959, in Mountain View, Calif., near Moffett Field where he was then stationed.
Following his discharge as a full lieutenant from the Navy in 1965, Jon was hired as one of the Mobil Oil Corp.’s first corporate jet pilots. While flying for that firm he was stationed in White Plains, N.Y.; Singapore; and Washington, D.C. He retired as Mobil’s worldwide director of aviation in 1995, then returned to Missoula where he had attended college and was based as a smokejumper.
With another former smokejumper, Art Jukkala, he founded a trail maintenance program for the National Smokejumper Association in 1999. Jukkala died of a heart attack that year while on the program’s first project, and Jon assumed its lead. Under his management for the last 10 years, former and current smokejumpers have rehabilitated well over a thousand miles of trails for the Forest Service and the National Park Service and restored dozens of structures including historic lookouts and ranger stations in Montana, Idaho, Alaska, Oregon, California, Colorado, Utah and Minnesota. Jon also founded and managed a scholarship program in memory of Jukkala to benefit children of smokejumpers killed in the line of duty or in war.
His leadership was recognized in a letter from President Barack Obama and an award from the chief of the Forest Service.
He is survived by his wife, Patricia and son Jon of Missoula; brother Joe of Berkeley, Calif.; and cousin Judy of Garrison.
Memorial services will be conducted for Jon beginning at 8 a.m. on July 16 and July 24, in the Museum of Mountain Flying at Missoula’s Johnson-Bell Field.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations may be made in his memory to the National Smokejumper Association’s Good Samaritan Fund, which meets the special needs of current and former smokejumpers. Donations may be mailed to NSA, P.O. Box 4081, Missoula, MT 59806.
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