Life takes the best of us too soon, sages often say. If so, Josh Ellison, who died Oct. 17 in a paragliding collision, was one of them.
A father, husband, entrepreneur, paraglider and onetime Park City resident, Josh left a positive impact on anyone who knew him, friends remembered.
His wife of 22 years, Brianne Ellison, said this was partially because of his faith. A member of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Josh didn’t advertise his beliefs much, but he lived them.
“He respected people’s boundaries, but I think people knew something was different with him,” said Brianne. “I used to call him the paragliding missionary, although he was doing it way before he became a pilot.”
Growing up in an LDS home in Eugene, Ore., Josh learned the values of hard work and responsibility, she said.
“His family was more like ‘Little House on the Prairie.’ His family lived a self-reliant lifestyle — they baked their own bread and grew their own vegetables,” said Brianne. “Josh had plenty of chores and responsibilities, which he now appreciates. His parents instilled discipline in him and he learned the value of hard work at a young age.”
The couple met as next-door neighbors in Eugene, and within weeks, they were inseparable.
“He was a life-size Ken doll. He was more successful than I knew most 20 year olds to be. He had a ton of friends and a great tan,” said Brianne. “He was good at everything he did, and yes he was sweet.”
Josh’s can-do attitude led him to start his first two businesses.
“Josh was the king of making goals and achieving them,” she said. “He began his first business when he was 24, JE Illusions. He custom painted and airbrushed motorcycles. He opened Royalty Core, where he manufactured truck grilles and other custom parts, about five years later.”
After selling Royalty Core, the family was ready for a change, and they had their sights on Utah, first landing in Bluffdale. Soon after, they moved again.
“Josh had a dream to live in Park City. He is an outdoorsman and adventurist, so this was a fantasy for us,” said Brianne.
Like most things for Josh, his dream came true and the family moved up to Park City.
An outgoing and generous person, Josh got involved in the paragliding community while living here and quickly became a mentor.
“He was the quintessential mentor,” said Kevin Lontz, a Park City paraglider and friend of Josh. “If you’re young into the sport or early in the sport, you seek out a mentor. That’s part of the unwritten rules of the sport. And Josh was a mentor to so many people in Park City, and he would sacrifice flight time on a given day at a given location just to help somebody else out.”
Brianne said the same was true in all areas of his life. In the church, Josh served as a scoutmaster, bonding with the young men and helping in any way he could. He took Brianne and their kids on camping adventures, taught her water sports and to ride snowmobiles.
“He tried to teach me to ski and there were moments where I was doing the pizza with him behind me, just like a father would be,” said Brianne.
While living in Park City, he was retired and spent his time on whatever adventure he could get his hands on.
“He loved working out and pushing himself, boating, water skiing, mountaineering, ice climbing, rock climbing, white water rafting, mountain biking, snowboarding, skiing, dirt bikes, street bikes,” said Brianne.
Of course, paragliding was another adventurous passion he freely shared.
“He loved to teach others (about) weather, condition logistics. He really stressed his teachings to help others to fly more safely and understand the delicate balance of the wing and the air,” said Brianne.
Josh was one of the most skilled and safe paragliders, said Lontz. It wasn’t just a hobby — Josh dedicated himself to being the best he could be.
He’d even won awards for his skill, said Brianne. Competing at X Contest, a national competition where pilots submit their flight track logs and are ranked based on a multitude of factors, he achieved first place in his class and third place overall.
He also competed in the Utah Cup, a year-long cross-country soaring competition sponsored by the Utah Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association. He won the Utah Cup Sports Class, said Brianne.
His skill and passion for flying led him to take up tandem flying.
“His initial goal was to learn to fly tandem so that he could fly his family,” said Brianne. Together, the couple had four kids, and Josh had hoped to share the experience of flying with them. His pursuit of tandem flying is what moved the family to Draper, closer to the Salt Lake Flight Park.
As a paragliding instructor, Josh was one of the best, said Lontz, who said he flew tandem with Josh while he was logging flight hours toward an instructor license.
“I would trust him innately. My son wanted to go paragliding, he’s 14 years old, and I was going to have him go with Josh. He’s the only one I would have had him go with,” said Lontz.
Josh’s commitment to safety was clear to the paragliders who knew him, and to his family.
“Over the years I’ve been asked numerous times, ‘Aren’t you worried about all the crazy stuff Josh does?’ I always firmly said no because I had 100% faith and trust in his abilities,” said Brianne.
Josh had planned to write a book, which included his paragliding knowledge and advice.
“His notes contain a wealth of insights, from life lessons to paragliding techniques. Many of them were texts to friends,” she said, hoping to someday finish what he’d started.
It’s clear through Josh’s notes that safety was of the utmost importance to him.
“Put it this way, my focus is safety. That and only that, safety first in all cases, that’s my mindset 100%. After that priority I try to get high and truly love how beautiful this world looks from those eagle eye views, I truly feel grateful beyond imagination when staying in the air and flying on,” Josh said in his notes.
He took his role as a tandem instructor seriously, writing in his notes: “Tandem flying is a privilege to be greatly respected, earned, nourished, and maintained. Building the skills to become a T3 and flying your friends and family is a privilege and you must stay humble. Continue to learn for years to come. The journey of becoming better is never ending.”
Part of being safe while paragliding relies on knowledge of flight conditions, said Lontz, and Josh was always dedicated to understanding the weather.
“You’d ask, ‘What do you think,’ and he’d write you a Ph. D. thesis on the conditions, this long, incredibly well thought out discussion of the conditions. And then he either be, ‘So I think I’m going to pass’ or ‘Yeah, let’s go,'” said Lontz.
The evening Josh died, the weather conditions were perfect, said Lontz.
Josh had taken off from Salt Lake County Flight Park, in Draper, on a tandem paraglide flight on Oct. 17. In the collision with a hang glider, Josh didn’t survive the fall, but his client, a 30-year-old woman, survived.
“At some level, I believe that Josh was probably trying to protect her when they were in a very tragic free fall,” said Lontz.
At 44, Josh’s life was cut short just weeks before his birthday, Nov. 6. His death left a list of dreams unmet and a crater in the lives of those who loved him, said Brianne.
Following the news of Josh’s death, Lontz organized a memorial flight and dinner at his house in Park City, inviting the paragliding community and those who knew Josh to gather in celebration of their lost loved one.
The flight was held on Nov. 2 at PC Hill, which Lontz called their “club hill,” and nearly two dowzen paragliders attended.
“We’ve never had so many people with paragliding wings at the top of that hill in my five years living here, so it was really cool,” he said. “I believe that Josh would’ve really thought it was rad.”
Brianne was touched by the event, especially knowing the significance of PC Hill for Josh.
“PC Hill was the first place he took me to show me he could fly,” she said. “He went up there as much as he could to get a quick flight in as we were just down the road. He would bring our dog, Denali, who would run down the mountain after him.”
In the wake of their loss, the family plans to stay close to the mountains and the people who remember Josh.
“This is where most of Josh’s family is, the paragliding community which has been so supportive, a lot of his friends. It’s where he was laid to rest. These are the mountains he loved. I want to stay close to them. I want to see the paragliders. He loved it here. It was a playground of beauty to him,” said Brianne.
Josh had designed and built their family’s dream home in Draper, but he never got to live in it.
“Five weeks after his death we are moving into it without him,” said Brianne. “It is a work of art just like his other projects. He did it for us.”
Lontz and those who knew Josh plan to make the remembrance flight an annual event. Brianne has created a Facebook group in Josh’s honor, “In Memory of Josh Ellison,” where people who knew and loved him can share pictures, thoughts and memories.