Daniel Bonham, a member of Carpenters Local 156, died March 3 after slipping and falling while hiking in Silver Falls State Park. He was 56.
According to Oregon State Police reports, Bonham, a frequent visitor to the park, was reported overdue from a hiking excursion earlier in the day, March 2.
OSP troopers, state park rangers, and Marion County Sheriffs Office Search & Rescue responded at approximately 11:15 p.m. and began searching for him. At about 2:45 a.m. his body was spotted near Winter Falls, 100 feet below the trail. Due to darkness, difficult terrain, and ice and snow on the trails, his body wasn’t recovered until 7 a.m. on March 3.
Bonham served as executive director of the Oregon and SW Washington Fair Contracting Foundation from 2005 to 2010. He began working at the labor/management-owned agency in 2001 as a compliance investigator making sure that men and women working on construction projects received the full compensation to which they were entitled.
He left to start his own private investigation agency.
An active member of Salem-based Carpenters Local 1065, Bonham served as recording secretary, as a delegate to the Pacific NW Regional Council of Carpenters, and as chair of the political action committee. He held those posts until February 2011, when the local was merged with various other Carpenters locals to form Local 156.
At the time of his death, he also was secretary-treasurer of the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign.
He was active in the trade justice struggle, Latin American solidarity, third-party politics and a host of other progressive causes.
Daniel Frank Bonham was born Aug. 7, 1955, in Upland, California.
After graduating from Chaffey High School in 1973, Bonham moved to Rexburg, Idaho, to attend college, followed by a two-year church mission from 1974 to 1976 in Central America: Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Honduras, where he became fluent in Spanish. From there he went to Brigham Young University in Utah and studied English.
He married the late Michelle Paddeucci and divorced after seven years. They had two children: Ammon, 29, and Vanessa, 25.
He married Shalom Mueller in 1987. They had two children: Elsa, 21, and Jacob, 18.
Bonham worked as a construction carpenter before moving to Woodburn, Oregon, in 2000, where he joined Local 1065.
Bonham is survived by his wife and four children; one grandchild; his father, Lyle Bonham of California; step-mother, Darlene; a sister, half-sister, and two step-siblings.
A memorial service was held March 10 at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Woodburn.
A memorial fund has been established to assist the Bonham family. Donations can be made at any West Coast Bank to the Daniel F. Bonham Memorial Fund.
