Damon Douglas Ziemin obituary

Damon Douglas Ziemin

Beloved husband, father, and son, Damon Douglas (Johnson) Ziemin died Aug. 17 in a tragic electrical accident while visiting the home of relatives outside Moscow in Russia. A resident of Portland, Ore., he was 38.

Funeral services are to include a Mass at 10 a.m., Sept. 3, at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Polson, followed by a reception and a multi-day remembrance on family lands on the Flathead Indian Reservation.

A first descendant of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation, Damon was born at the old Anchorage Native Hospital, in Alaska, on July 2, 1972. He grew up in Polson and Anchorage, where he graduated from Bartlett High School and the University of Alaska Anchorage with a double Russian/Premed major and a minor in Spanish. Damon followed his paternal roots to Russia, where he spent a year in a University of Alaska exchange program in Magadan, Siberia. There he met his wife to be, Lyuda (Terskikh) Ziemin.

In 2009, Damon became a doctor of naturopathic medicine with licenses in Chinese medicine and acupuncture, received from the National College of Natural Medicine in Portland, where he was preparing a private practice.

His family and friends knew Damon as a Renaissance man: Scientist, gardener, wild lands firefighter, chef, world traveler, linguist, musician, Trekkie and Star Wars fanatic, trickster, yard sale enthusiast, and peacemaker. Damon’s enthusiasm for life and gregarious nature were legend. Friend to many, he brought unlikely groups of people together with music and laughter around many campfires.

Damon leaves behind his wife, Lyuda, and children, Maxeem, six, and Aneeka, two. He’s survived by his mother, Kay Dubay Johnson, of Polson; his father and stepmother, Gene and Inger Johnson, of Polson; and his mother-in-law, Svyetlana Terskikh, of Moscow. He leaves his older brothers Marc Johnson, of Kenai, Alaska, and Tim Johnson, of Polson; his brother-in-law Andre Terskikh, of Moscow; stepsisters Julie Tolson, of Polson, and Karen Tolson, of Denmark; his mother’s twin sister, Carol Dubay, of Anchorage; and her children, Nikos Pastos, Melina Pastos, Chris and Andrea Okland, Nicolette Pastos and Zara Pastos, all of Anchorage; aunt Rene Dubay; uncle Kendall Forman, of Polson, and his children Jenaya, Maurita, Michaela, Sheri and Sheryl; Chester Johnson, of Missoula, and Lillian Stephenson, Helen McClellan and Ron McClellan, Larry Myers, Janice Myers, all of Polson, and Gloria and Ed Violette, of Boulder, Colo.

Preceding him in death were his paternal grandparents, Marie Zimin Johnson and Carl Johnson, of Polson; maternal grandparents Abraham Joseph Dubay and Marion Vessey Dubay Pariseau, step-grandfather Patrick Antoine Pariseau, aunt Elaine Dubay Forman, and first cousins Kevin and Ferin Forman all of Polson; and father-in-law Anatoli (Tolya) Terskikh, of Moscow.

He was often found in the Mission Mountains, where his ashes will be spread. His father said, “Damon’s spirit will live on with all of us, in many parts of the world. This morning through an open window we heard the sound of wind in the trees. I immediately thought of when Damon and I were camping in the mountains, sleeping outside, and hearing that same sound of wind in the treetops. When I hear the wind in the future, I will think of Damon and his smiling face.”

In lieu of flowers, donations for the children can be made to the Damon Johnson Ziemin Memorial Fund through any Wells Fargo Bank.