Russell Barrett Jenson

Russ Jenson, beloved husband, father, son, brother, friend, and “the toughest dude most of us ever knew,” left us early Sunday morning on December 8, 2024. He lived, loved and worked his entire life with a charismatic and boundless happy energy. His final way station was the home he had lovingly built and remodeled over 30+ years, filled with loving family and friends. The last words he heard were “I love you.”

Russ was born October 29, 1959 in Portland Oregon to Kay (Kimble) and Warren Jenson. As an infant, he returned to Challis, Idaho where both sides of his family had deep roots along the Salmon River. Russ spent significant periods of his childhood happily bouncing between three sets of loving grandparents, and formed much of his values and identity from rancher (Wynn Kimble), entrepreneur (Buck Jenson) and WWII war hero (Russ Deardon) who had been born early in the 20th century. To the uninitiated, Russ might have seemed a bit rough around the edges, but one would be hard pressed to find a finer gentleman in his generation. He brought an old-world ethos and manners to every interaction and relationship. 

For part of his childhood, Russ and his family lived at Grandpa Kimble’s cabin at Peach Creek, 16 miles down the Salmon River from Stanley Idaho. It was pretty bare bones. There was no power or plumbing. The fridge was a cooler in the creek, and the bath tub was the hot springs at Sunbeam. Russ thought it was the best place in the world. Grandpa had about 100 acres, with grazing rights up the canyon. Summers were spent helping herd the cattle and flood-irrigating the meadow on the bench. In the fall, Russ and his older brother attended grade school in Clayton with a total enrollment of about 10 kids. 

Russ was a lifelong athlete, from an early age. His family had a horse, which Russ learned to ride without a saddle. When they ultimately settled on the outskirts of Boise, Russ learned to ski at Bogus Basin. He and his brother would hitchhike up to the lifts every chance they got. In high school, Russ played football and ran track, but his greatest success was in wrestling, where he won the state championship his senior year. He never struggled to “make weight,” since he had a unique insight that the sport was more about strategy and confidence than brute strength.

Although Russ was awarded a full ride wrestling scholarship to UC Boulder, it was transferred to Nebraska after his first year. Russ declined, since “Nebraska is flat.” He floated between Chicago and Miami for a brief period, ultimately settling in Sun Valley in the early 1980’s. His stepdad taught him the carpet installation trade, which allowed him to live, ski, hike, fish, mountain bike and race dirtbikes in one of the most beautiful places on earth. Life was good. 

In 1986 Russ founded Sun Valley Rug & Tile. He also married Janine, and welcomed son Blake, and then Clayton a few years later. Life was even better. Russ and Janine went their separate ways, but Russ continued to love shredding it with his boys, every chance he got. When you met Russ, the first thing he would do is brag about his sons – how sweet, smart, funny and athletic they were. They were his rock stars. 

I met Russ in 1999, shortly after moving to Idaho from NYC, and immediately recognized someone different from anyone I had ever met. One of our first “dates” was a logging expedition, retrieving trees he had purchased from the Forest Service up near Peach Creek. We pulled them on a trailer over Galena Summit driving 10 miles an hour, since any faster speed would have pushed the truck over the edge of the road. How could I not fall in love with him? 

We married in 2002, and brought son Max and daughter Annabel into the world. Together we worked and played hard, never seeming to have enough hours in the day to accomplish everything we wanted. Russ started fabricating stone slabs, and built Sun Valley Rug & Tile into a thriving small business with a dozen employees. He taught son Blake the ropes to succeed him rather seamlessly by the end of last year. He added on to, and remodeled our home extensively, doing much of the work and design himself. He built a gorgeous 2800sf log cabin, mostly with his own hands and tools, at his beloved Peach Creek. He skied Baldy, hiked and biked the mountains of Central Idaho, and surfed the shores of Maui every year, claiming those spots were both gym and church, rolled into one. As many chances as he got, he watched sons Blake (coach) and Max (player) grind out win after win on the ice with their Suns Youth Hockey team, and ultimately win the U-18 National Championship in Minnesota in April 2023. Life was amazing.

Russ was a mythical cat with at least nine lives. He rolled a van off Galena, hit a deer riding his mountain bike, broke a man’s femur with his jaw in a ski accident on Baldy, got his ankle caught (and shattered) in the wheel of his dirt bike in a race, got stranded 8 miles into the wilderness on a snow machine after dark in January, found himself upside down in a snowstorm while piloting a Cessna, accidentally entering restricted airspace over Nevada which earned him an angry F-15 escort, and broke his back in two places in yet another dirt biking snafu from which he then drove himself 75 miles to the hospital in Ketchum. He got matching tattoos with his daughter, the only event Russ identified as “near death.” We thought he had a couple lives left; that his miraculous luck and perseverance would see him through. It’s still inconceivable that he could be downed by something as inconsequential-sounding as “small cell” lung cancer, but here we are. 

In addition to his four children, Russ is survived, adored and desperately missed by me (Andrea), mother Kay, sister Camille, brothers Kip (Kathy) and Jon (Sarah), Aunt Gloria, cousins Rochelle (Jimmy) and Jason (Emily), mother in-law Diane, our dogs Paco and Rosie, and many cherished nieces and nephews. Russ also leaves behind an extended community of beloved individuals he considered family: shred-buddies, dear neighbors, respected clients and fellow tradesmen, treasured employees, and many of our kids’ friends and their families. 

We will hold a celebration of the warmth, joy, humor, love and accomplishment that shaped Russ’s life this summer. Our family welcomes donations in Russ’s memory to either Hailey Ice (haileyice.org) or Hospice and Palliative Care of the Wood River Valley (hpcwrv.org).