Bryan Biller

Bryan Biller, 60, of Milwaukie, Oregon passed away at his home surrounded by his family on Wednesday, June 19, 2024. He battled renal cancer for almost 2 years, with it eventually spreading to his liver. He handled his diagnosis like he handled most things, not slowing down for it, until it gave him no choice in his last couple of months. While his diagnosis was horrible, some wonderful things did come out of it, such as learning how amazing his friends (chosen family) and family truly were, things were said that needed to be said on a deeper level, and connection with newly found family that may never have occurred.

Bryan was born on January 5, 1964 to George and Rosa Biller in San Bernadino, California, immigrants from Tonning, Germany. He and his family moved to Eagle Point, Oregon when he was 4 where they built a home and had a small farm. He loved growing up on their farm raising chickens and riding his horse. He graduated from Eagle Point High School in 1982. He went to the college of “get up and work your ass off”, always having multiple simultaneous jobs working both in construction and as a cook in various restaurants when he was young and finally settling into the construction. As a professional, he started working on crews building homes, moved into tool sales and training, had his own general construction business for 12 years and ended his career as a field engineer with a home builder having mastered many trades within that industry. Bryan was an incredibly hard worker, and he expected the same of others working with him. He didn’t have a “stop” button and if you weren’t keeping up with him, that was a problem. He also had the most wicked sense of humor, generally completely inappropriate, saying things that most people wouldn’t even acknowledge they were thinking. To balance that out, if you needed help with something, he was there for you and had 4 of whatever tool you needed to help with the task at hand. He loved entertaining and cooking for his family and friends. He was an amazing grill master and was the cook in the family and kept us all fed. Yes, if we look thin, you’ll know why 😉.

Bryan was ALL IN with everything that he did from cooking to construction and when it related to his family. He had his sports that he loved – cycling, hiking, climbing, and skiing, for which he was awarded Rookie of the Year 2004 for Mount Hood Ski Patrol. He was an exceptional husband and father, completely involved in all aspects of his boys’ lives from sports when they were young, to scouts as they aged. He was an assistant scout master for their troop and was at just about every camping and hiking outing they had for years. He was generous with his time and talents, always available to anyone who needed help. He and Debbie were looking forward to the next stage of life, and continuing to challenge each other, and he was so sad to leave just when it was “getting really good”. He wouldn’t have been the whole, loving, involved person that he was had it not been for his involvement in Alcoholics Anonymous and was proud of his 9 years and 4 months of recovery.

One of the great blessings of his life was to reconnect with the daughter that he and his high school sweetheart gave up for adoption just out of high school. Bryan and his daughter, Sonja, built a relationship slowly over the almost 20 years that they knew each other. He loved her and felt so lucky that they had the opportunity to connect with each other and that we were all able to become a family.

He is survived by his wife, Debbie, his children, Sonja (Luc), Evan and Jake, his grandchildren, Ava, Flora and Julien, his new-found brother, Jon Searl, and so many friends that through the years became his chosen family. He was preceded in death by his parents.

A celebration of life is planned on Saturday, September 7,  2024 at his home in Milwaukie, OR. Link: https://rb.gy/tmujbh. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the BSA Scout Troop 259’s Venmo account in Bryan’s name at @BSAT259-97222 for use towards local scouting activities.

In honor of Bryan’s final wishes, his ashes will be spread by his family near Mt. Ashland Ski Area (where he learned to ski), his parents’ graves in Medford, Oregon, Timberline Ski Area on Mt. Hood, Hug Point Beach in Arch Cape, Oregon, Kahana and Kapalua Beaches on Maui.