John Scott Hamilton's Obituary
John Scott Hamilton, Age 75, passed away in his sleep on May 31, 2025.
John was born to Wesley Scott Hamilton & Carol Joan Bruseth on April 2, 1950, in Lewiston, Idaho. John was not told too much about his early childhood which was thought to be tumultuous. On March 18th, 1954, his brother, David Neil Hamilton, was born. John and Dave had a special relationship, as a challenging childhood can bring for some siblings. John did not have too many memories of his mother and spent a lot of his early years with his great-grandmother, Elsie Henker Norton. She was a great presence in his life. With Elsie, John’s upbringing was tough, but fair. An attitude he would carry with him for the rest of his life. John took great pride in the fact that he cared for his great grandmother in her final years as she lived to be 93. Elsie also brought a wonderful family legacy and many cousins who remained part of John’s life for many years to follow.
John’s life was significantly improved by the addition of Jeanette Martin Lawrence Hamilton by marriage to his father, Wes, on May 14, 1965. At that time Jeanette, or Dolly as she was called, became one of the most important people in his life - his Mom. He loved her to the point of adoration, and she loved him right back. That marriage brought John 2 more brothers, Jeffrey and Mark Lawrence.
John graduated from South Salem High School, where he was a clarinet player in the band. He would later take any opportunity he could to steal Christy’s clarinet (or a recorder from any of his children) and play the Mickey Mouse Club theme. M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E. Funny how some things never leave you :) After high school John attended college at Oregon State University (go Beavers) where he earned not one, but 2 bachelor’s degrees in engineering and business. John attributed his success in college to non-stop hard work, unflappable diligence, and dedication. These are core values he admired in others, and something he himself would use to be successful throughout his life. Those degrees served him well in all stages of his life.
In the mid-70s, John sported a blond perm, 70’s mustache, a panel van, and a motorcycle. While he was working as a contractor for Vern Johnson & Sons in Spokane, Washington, a workplace relationship developed that would turn out to be the love of his life, Susan. Soon they were dating and in 1977 John took his dogs, Mayhah and Othmar, to meet Susan’s (and soon to be his) kids – Christy and Paul.
Jobs at Haertl Construction and Carter Bringle & Associates brought John & Susan to Portland in 1979. John enjoyed being closer to his family where he could enjoy good times with his brothers Mark, Jeff and Dave. John really loved the annual family Thanksgiving and Christmas parties with the big family that were so important to him.
John and Susan married in Reno Nevada on July 25, 1982; they were joined by John’s brother Dave and his parents. That same year, John purchased what would become one of his lifelong passions: a Honda Gold Wing motorcycle, which he proudly rode rain or shine for decades, commuting daily from Oregon City to his job in Salem as a project manager with the State of Oregon. The kids would hear him coming down the street on his motorcycle with the radio blasting, and know it was time to wash up for dinner.
After the amazing year of 1982 (the year of motorcycles and matrimony), John was in for his biggest surprise yet, a child of his own making. September 29, 1983, the birth of his son Randall Scott. Having a child of your own can forever change a person’s perspective on life, and John was no exception. From that moment on, he devoted himself to being the best father he could be.
Throughout their lives, John and his brother Dave shared a love for the water which they got from their dad. Dave had his sailboat and ocean adventures. John loved fishing and water sports. He was an excellent water skier. He shared many stories of stepping off the dock on a single ski, making a couple loops around the lake, and having the boat drop him back at the dock where he would time his handle release so he could step right back onto the dock and never get his hair wet. He would also often tell a story where he fell going so fast it ripped his swimsuit clean off his body… “Does anybody have a towel??” As a father, John passed his love of the water along to his kids by spending countless hours pulling people on water ski’s, and later… knee boards, wakeboards and tubes across Oregon’s lakes and rivers.
Almost all of John’s family vacations and down time were planned around his boat. Summer – Heading to Sand Island on the Columbia or Foster Lake in Sweet Home for camping and water skiing.
Fall – Camping in Rockaway or Garibaldi to chase the ocean run fall salmon out of Tillamook bay.
Winter – Late season crabbing on the coast, or preparing to fish by making his own prawn spinner rigs for spring salmon, or gathering tire lead to mold his own fishing weights that would be used for years to come.
Spring – Chasing Spring salmon in Oregon City, or on the Columbia. Later in the spring, family camping trips to the Brietenbush and Santiam rivers catching rainbow trout and untying countless snags on his children’s fishing poles.
For many years he owned a blue and white Campion boat named the “Lazy Susan” that had a cabin in the bow. He would love to come home on a Friday evening, load up the boat with food, sleeping bags, (and whichever kids wanted to go with him) and go straight down to the Willamette River to throw his anchor in his favorite spot and fish. Once it got dark, he would put the camper back on the boat and sleep all night on the river. An hour before dawn he’d wake up, pull the cover off the boat and have the rods in the water fishing for spring chinook at the earliest possible moment. With a small porta potty on board and enough food, some weekends he wouldn’t touch land again until Sunday night! He made sure he could talk to the house on top of the hill in Oregon City (home base) by installing a 30+ foot antennae on top of his shop so he could get a clear signal from the boat on the CB radios on channel 32.
Later on there was a very memorable vacation to Lake Shasta where he rented a houseboat for the entire family with his brother Dave and Dave’s wife Ellen. It was 117 degrees that weekend and the boat had no air conditioning. The lake was over 85 degrees so there was no escaping the heat. At this point, he had 3 grandchildren on board and while there were definitely some miserable attitudes, John wasn’t one of them. John didn’t even have to go on land - he could just jump from boat to boat and keep offering to tow people around the lake to ski, fish, or swim. He was at home on the water.
One of the things he liked outside of boating was visiting his cousin Tom Penner and having family reunions at his house in Pendleton during the round up (Let ‘er buck!). Family connections were few and far between for John and he treasured these visits along with the holidays at Dolly’s house far more than many people realized. Plus, the parties in Pendleton never failed to produce some interesting stories…
And as you can see from some of the above stories, John was a natural storyteller and a great conversationalist. He never failed to make a great first impression on anyone. Whether it be a waitress or bartender, a fellow fisherman, or a future real estate client, he always had just the right thing to say and a first class smile to go with it. These skills really served him well when he approached the burnout stage of his career in project management and needed a change.
His wife Susan got her real estate license in the early 1980’s… Not to be outdone, John read the book on real estate law and ethics and got his license by challenging the real estate exam shortly after so he could sell real estate on the side, or help Susan with her clients in the evenings. They began working together to sell HUD houses in the Portland area and became quite good at it as a team. This HUD side hustle became a real business in 1999 when HUD put out a contract for a statewide listing broker. John and Susan wrote a proposal for the contract and were awarded the first statewide HUD contract under the name Elite Realty Ltd. Between Susan’s military background and office experience along with John’s attention to detail and charisma, they were a small but mighty force in the local real estate industry. John would become known in the area as the “HUD guy” and people respected the way he handled other agents and clients alike. As a peer he would patiently and diligently aid his fellow brokers in navigating the HUD sales process which varies greatly from a traditional sale. As a negotiator he would use his hard nosed “tough but fair” attitude in conjunction with his charisma to negotiate the best deals for himself and his clients. John was also incredibly detail oriented in work and in life. He always took and kept organized notes, and he always delivered everything he said he would on time and 100% as promised or better. His son Randy joined his company in 2007 and became a Principal Broker with Elite Realty Ltd. in 2010. John loved to work, and often said he didn’t want to retire because he couldn’t imagine what he would do with his time if he wasn’t working. He eventually closed the physical location of Elite Realty Ltd. around 2018. But Elite Realty, now run by Randy, is still listing HUD properties today.
After retirement John really leaned into his loving relationship with Susan and his dog Rex. By the way, few people love dogs and cats the way John did. He would always stop and talk to dogs he met “Oh Hello” and cats have been known to follow him home on more than one occasion on his walks through the neighborhood. John, Susan, and Rex enjoyed many extended vacations in their motorhome at the coast going to the casino, walking on the beach, and flying his drone taking photos of the landscape. He loved to see his family, and his children and grandchildren as often as possible.
John is survived by his wife of nearly 43 years, Susan; his son Randall and daughter-in-law Chelsea of Oregon City; his daughter Christy and son-in-law Clint of Oregon City; and his son Paul and daughter-in-law Audrina of Columbus, Georgia. He also leaves behind 10 grandchildren who adored their Grandpa, his brother Jeffrey and sister-in-law Chris Lawrence of Dallas, Oregon, and his sister-in-law Colleen Lawrence of Seaside, Oregon. He will also be missed by an extensive family with many cousins, nieces, nephews and friends.
He was preceded in death by his father Wesley Scott Hamilton, mother Jeanette Martin Lawrence Hamilton, his brothers David Hamilton and Mark Lawrence, his beloved grandmother Elsie Norton, and of course the countless salmon caught at the end of his fishing line during hundreds of happy boat days.
John’s life was a testament to the importance of hard work and living life with joy and humor. His legacy will live on every time we gather on the water, fire up a motorcycle, tell a good story, or simply take the long way home.
The family encourages you to honor John’s memory by going fishing, telling your favorite family story, or turning up your favorite classic rock song — just the way he would have liked it.
The family will be having a service on Thursday 6/19/2025 at 11:00AM at the End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center.
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