Jason Bruce Marquis (affectionately called “JB” by his Mom) was born in Portland, Oregon on October 19, 1971 to Ronald and Sandra Marquis.

Jason was the baby in the family with two older sisters, Trudy and Michelle. He was an adorable real-life doll to them. He became quite the daredevil as a toddler – his Mom would come running from wherever she was in the house when she heard him yell “reeeeaaadddyyyyy…???!!” because it meant he was about to jump off something high like the top of the stairs! His Aunt Mary remembers walking into her kitchen when Jason was about 3 years old and found he had climbed to the top of her refrigerator! He was an amazing tree climber who would usually do so barefoot and just fly up those branches. He also liked to climb the door frames inside his house like a little monkey, also barefoot.

Long summer days floating and playing at the river with his Mom and sisters was the best! Also spending countless weekends with his cousins Heidi and Cristy, having watermelon seed spitting contests, eating popsicles, racing the old wagon down the steep hill by their house, and staying outside as long as they could until it got too dark and they had to go inside. Campouts at Timothy Lake were one of his favorite memories – always capturing crawdads and making little rock “prisons” they couldn’t escape from. He would run around barefoot in shorts, no shirt and get so tan so easily. His Mom would call him her little cocoa bean.

Jason was the epitome of chill, laid back, go-with-the-flow. His Aunt Lorie remembers once telling him “hurry up Jason” when she thought he was lollygagging, and he said “I AM hurrying!” His room was always messy.

He and his family lived in Portland and a handful of small towns (Hubbard, Woodburn, Eagle Creek), until the family bought their home in Canby the summer of 1982. It was in Canby where he met so many neighbors and classmates who became lifelong friends. The neighbor kids built a dirt BMX track directly across the street from his house – a boy’s dream! He broke his nose on that track. He excelled on the golf team and was a chess team star who took 2nd in the State individual championship one year. He had an impressive Lego collection and collected hundreds of comic books. He graduated from Canby Union High School in 1990. He took architectural drafting classes at Clackamas Community College and drew plans for many dream houses and mansions.

The US Army gained its newest recruit in 1989 when Jason enlisted and received basic training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri the summer between his Junior and Senior years of high school. He served in the 35th Engineer Battalion Reserves and became an expert at driving the BEBs (Bridge Erection Boats) to construct and manage floating bridges. He loved driving the Humvee’s to and from reserve bivouac exercises for the next 8 years.

In 1992, Jason married Tina Karkkainen. They soon realized they had simply married too young and decided they were better friends than spouses. They divorced and remained great friends for the rest of his days.

He earned a living primarily in construction his whole life. He could frame a house or do creative, detailed and ornate finish carpentry. He could build literally anything, but his expertise really shined when creating works of art; furniture, cutting boards, candle holders, lamps, etc. Even a wooden sword and a full chess set with hand carved pieces and case for his sons. He created a mosaic tiled bathtub and sink in Spain that were absolutely stunning! His Mom once asked him to build her a picnic table. The one-of-a kind showpiece he created made from slices he cut from the “eyes” of juniper wood he hunted for in the woods is a gem that belongs on a

showroom floor, not outside on a patio! It never has nor will it ever see the outdoors – it is and will continue to be her dining room table. He created the coolest reclaimed barnwood door for his chicken coop. It’s so awesome, when he moved, his oldest sister Trudy snagged it to be repurposed as her home’s front door.

Jason embarked on the biggest adventure of his life by moving to Spain in 1999 with his then girlfriend Cathy. In 2002 they welcomed their son Tomas who made him a proud Father. In Holland in 2008 he and his girlfriend Monique welcomed their son Alex. Being a Father was the biggest pride and honor of his life. In April of 2013 after Jason’s travel visa had long since expired and he could no longer financially sustain living abroad, he had to come back to the US. One of the hardest things he ever had to do was move back to the states, away from his two boys. He was able to travel back to Europe to visit his boys and Alex came to Oregon to visit, but it was never often enough.

They say left-handed people are more creative – which would explain Jason’s gift of artistry. He started painting in 2001 after his Dad died – he called it “venting angst” – and learned the technique of using oil based paint and stain to create incredible works of art. His paintings were very abstract with the perspective and interpretation to be left up to each viewer. Jason said “My two favorite things about my paintings (besides making them) summed up in one statement. From every side you see something different, and like a Rorschach ink blot, everyone sees something different.” Not so coincidentally, he also named his beloved cat Rorschach.

He was an imaginative dreamer who never gave up hope. Even in the final stages of his cancer, he outfitted his truck with a second battery hooked up to a power converter so he could be comfortable out in the woods using his water kettle, microwave and winch without it draining the normal truck battery. He even fabricated a “crow’s nest” rack for the top of his truck’s lumber rack so he could park and get comfy and watch the wildlife. He was still talking in his final days about future projects he had in his mind that he fully expected and intended to complete.

In 2020 Jason purchased a 1956 Dodge Lancer Custom Royal that became his project car. His dream was to rebuild it and have it running when his son Alex came to visit last spring. Sadly, that dream never came to fruition. Jason shared the very specific details of his wishes for his beloved Dodge, and nephew Jesse will carry the torch of breathing life back into that old Dodge for his uncle.

Jason was an avid reader. It became a ritual for him to read to his girlfriend Jenn while she cooked. When Jason worked on a construction project out of town, he and Jenn would sit on the phone for hours each night while he read to her over the phone. His favorite author was Clive Barker and one of his all-time favorite quotes was “True joy is a profound remembering; and true grief the same.” We are feeling the truth of that quote all too well since his passing.

He put great importance on family and being a loyal friend. He didn’t like everybody, but if he liked you, it was easy to just be his friend. If he liked you, you were “in!”

He was a super fan of the San Francisco 49ers and Portland Trailblazers. He mastered the art of bonsai. He loved gardening. He loved plants and trees and nurturing them and watching them grow. He wrote short stories and poetry. He loved the TV series Supernatural. He would grow his hair long and then cut it off. He was a hippie at heart. His Facebook profile intro reads: “Liberally conservative redneck punk anarchist hippie. Artistic carpenter, painter, writer.” He loved the Oregon Country Fair. He ran the Portland Rugged Maniac endurance race with his best friend Chris in 2014 and without any training or conditioning, he placed 32nd out of hundreds in his age group. At the finish line he said, “that was easy, no prob whatsoever!”

Jason had a very wide-ranging love of music that included things like The Cure, Echo & the Bunnymen, Butthole Surfers, Dead Kennedy’s and Skinny Puppy back in high school. Then graduated to Hatebreed, Suicidal Tendencies and Gwar, among many others. He said he liked any music with imagination and emotional content. He admitted several years ago that he even liked the Bee Gees but joked for us not to judge him for it. His Mom once secretly spied him at 9 years old using their back porch as a stage as he lip-synched and blasted Another One Bites the Dust with the gusto and passion of Freddie Mercury himself!

Jason always had a gentle and kind nature, loving all animals and rescuing many critters in his lifetime. His first pet was a cat named Sox that he rescued as a tiny little kitten from a chicken farm. Jason said “Sox got bigger and bigger until he became 12-15 pounds of belligerent farm-cat who would happily swipe at anyone. But with me – his boy – he was always patient.” His current cat Rorschach was also a feral kitten he rescued, who grew up to be his constant companion. He adopted countless dogs and cats, and as a kid had pet mice, hamsters and even a ferret. He has held or petted a monkey, snakes, frogs, farm animals, a bat, a piranha, various reptiles, and even a crocodile. Just this past summer he rescued a baby blue jay that his friend’s dog had found in his yard. He fed it every hour or two as he nursed it back to health. He said he got worried it would lose its instinct to survive in the wild because the blue jay had decided Jason wasn’t scary at all. He set it free two weeks later and it took flight, free to fly where it chooses.

Jason fought hard battling metastatic pancreatic cancer for over two years before taking his last breath holding his Mother’s and sister’s hands on December 5, 2024. During his last weeks he and his cat Rorschach moved to his Mother and Step Father’s home where his Mother was able to provide the comfort and care he needed.

He is preceded in death by his Father Ronald (1997) and his girlfriend Jenn Donnelly (2018).

Jason leaves behind his children Tomas and Alex; his Mother Sandy Monaco (Tony); his sisters Trudy Roberts (Charlie), and Michelle Stagl (Stan); Niece Stacia Roberts (Matt), Nephew Jesse Roberts (Nicole); and Great Nieces and Nephews Ausia, Lydia, Shaden, Ryder, and Bruce.

One of Jason’s favorite quotes does a good job of summing up how Jason lived his life: “The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause. The mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.” ~ Wilhelm Stekel

Jason’s ashes will be interred with his Father’s burial plot at Zion Memorial Park Cemetery in Canby. Details about date and time will be announced at a later date.

Jason’s all-time favorite song was How Will I Laugh Tomorrow by Suicidal Tendencies. We are asking ourselves the same question right now Jason. How will we laugh tomorrow when we can’t even smile today?