John Lee Savage

John “Jack” Lee Savage, longtime resident of Milwaukie, Oregon, died peacefully at the age of 92, on March 24, 2026.

In Jack’s telling, he was born into a farming family in a “dirt floor cabin” in Salem, Iowa, on June 15, 1933, to Mildred (White) Savage and Thomas Savage. The second of four children, he contracted polio around the age of three, a condition that left one of his legs damaged.

Jack had fond memories of attending first grade in a one-room schoolhouse with an aunt as his teacher. He told of dipping ponytails in inkwells and described the tradition of simmering maple syrup on the school’s wood stove for each child to take home at the end of the day.

He spent many summers with his maternal grandfather, Frederic Eli White, who imparted a respect for nature as well as a love of physical fitness. Jack wandered the fields and hedgerows that his grandfather reserved for animal habitat, and, judging from his early writings, he was especially interested in the streams and boggy areas where he watched frogs and fish. He also swam and exercised with enviable fortitude, and by the time he was in high school, he was strong enough to play football and join the wrestling team.

At an uncle’s urging, his family moved to Michigan, where his parents worked for a large machine company that was converted to an armaments factory during WWII. After the war, his father partnered in the purchase of a farm implement store, which he later sold. Traveling as Savage & Sons with a combine and truck, and living in a trailer, they harvested wheat from New Mexico to Michigan, overwintering in Colorado Springs, where Jack and his brothers attended Colorado Springs High School. Despite what seems today like a tough life, Jack had fond memories of life on the road—the peace of riding the combine, the huge quantities of chicken and dumplings his sister delivered at noon for the crew, and returning exhausted to the trailer at the end of the day only to shower and go to bed. Out of necessity, the brothers became skilled and resourceful mechanics, something of which he was quite proud and which they applied in their after-school jobs at an auto shop owned by the Unser family of racing fame.

Jack played football and wrestled for Colorado Springs High School and worked at an ice cream store after school. As a heavyweight wrestler, he placed second in the state championship, and during his time as a defensive lineman, the football team twice won the state championship.

Jack later received a football scholarship to Colorado State College, where he studied fisheries science. He held summer jobs stocking mountain lakes with trout, at one point living in a fire-watch tower.

Jack graduated from Colorado State College and worked his entire career as an anadromous fish specialist and policy advisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, first in Umatilla County, Oregon, followed by Sacramento, California, and, beginning in 1966, at the Pacific Regional Headquarters in Portland, Oregon.

A uniquely skilled writer, scientist, and persuasive speaker, Jack played a key role in developing and negotiating the Pacific Salmon Treaty (PST) of 1985. This landmark treaty between the U.S. and Canada established a framework for the shared management of Pacific salmon stocks, with the goals of preventing overfishing, optimizing salmon production, equitably sharing the benefits, and minimizing disruption to the fishing industry.

Among his other notable contributions, Jack collaborated with hydraulic engineer and UC Berkeley professor Hans Albert Einstein in the application of mathematical models to the study of river habitats, particularly in predicting the effects of water diversion projects on salmon.

Jack began to scuba dive in the early 1960s while living in California. He caught fish by speargun and harvested abalone and scallops. He was an avid fisherman and hunter of deer and elk, as well as ducks, geese, and pheasants. Later in life, he took up underwater photography and bowhunting. Perhaps most significantly, he shared his love of nature and the outdoors with his children and the Boy Scouts he led as scoutmaster. In retirement, he became an avid runner, completing six marathons after the age of 62. He also enjoyed his garden and his pets.

Jack was preceded in death by his wife of 33 years, Constance (Wagstaff) Savage; and brothers, Richard and Bill. He is survived by his sister, Janet (Savage) Gregonis; children, Jennifer (Savage) Laursen, Ann Savage, and Thomas Savage; son-in-law, Tod Laursen; daughter-in-law, Shelly Savage; six grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.

He will be remembered fondly as a gentle man who loved nature.

Private inurnment was held at Lincoln Memorial Park, Portland, Oregon.