- Date Of Birth: November 24, 1937
- Date Of Death: September 5, 2022
- State: Idaho
Gooding Basque Association P.O. Box 517 Gooding, Idaho 83330
John Ensunsa, who combined a lifelong passion of working with people and advancing community organizations and causes in Castleford and the Magic Valley, died September 5. He was 84 years old.
John was the second child born to Gregorio Ensunsa and Lena Achabal on November 24, 1937. Like his older sister, Edith, he was born at home in the country near Castleford.
From a young age, John worked on the family farm and attended Castleford public schools, graduating from high school in 1955. Those early formative years had a powerful impact on him being drawn to agriculture and his desire to be part of the process of raising and harvesting crops. John was a good student and active in the school band and all sports.
College was an easy choice for John.
John loved the U of I, Moscow and the Palouse. He joined the Vandaleers and the Sigma Chi Fraternity, serving as president of both groups his senior year. He and three fraternity brothers formed an acappella singing group called the Singin’ Sigs. John said some of the best friendships of his entire lifetime came from associations made at the university. By the time 1960 rolled around, he had earned a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Economics and was voted in the yearbook as the most eligible bachelor on campus.
Inspired by his years on the Palouse and working on the family farm, John took his first job out of college working for the Asgrow Seed Company as a field associate at their production plants in Genesee, Idaho and Salinas, California then as a supervisor in Warden, Washington. During his stint in Warden, John was invited by friends one afternoon to go water skiing; his friends had brought along Jessie Diane Draney, who worked at a local bank. That afternoon blossomed into a year-and-a-half long courtship, a marriage on September 21, 1963, and a partnership that spanned nearly 59 years.
John and Diane and their son, Dave, born in 1964, moved to Castleford in 1966 to join the family farm with John’s parents. In the early 1970s, Gregorio retired and John farmed on his own. Their first daughter, Gina, was born in 1967 and their second daughter, Julie, was born in 1970, but died shortly after birth. The farm operation expanded over the years and included raising commercial polled Hereford cattle.
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, John was active in Young Republicans and the Twin Falls County Farm Bureau, serving as president of both organizations.
In the mid-1970s and early 1980s, John served two terms on the Castleford School Board and two terms as a board member of the Federal Land Bank. John also became a certified Emergency Medical Technician and was an early member of the Castleford Quick Response Unit, serving as a certified EMT for 20 years.
In response to the nationwide Farm Crisis in the 1980s, John and seven other area farmers formed the Southern Idaho Family Farm Hotline in 1985. Throughout the 1980s, the Hotline handled several hundred calls from distressed farmers and ranchers and conducted seminars in Idaho and northern Nevada, to provide financial, legal and stress advice.
John’s love of all music was never-ending throughout his life and in 1987, he was instrumental in organizing a community choir in Castleford which grew to include members from Buhl and Filer.
In 1988, John went to work part-time as an insurance agent for the Farm Bureau Insurance Company. Initially, he didn’t intend to work full-time at insurance, but he found that he enjoyed his customers and the Farm Bureau team so much that he soon went full-time and worked as an agent based in the Buhl office until his retirement in December, 2009. John retired from farming at the end of the 2017 season.
Throughout his years in the Castleford community, John was an active member of the Castleford Men’s Club, serving as president on a few occasions.
John’s Basque heritage from both parents was very important to him. He was a member of the Gooding Basque Association and the Boise Basque Museum and Cultural Center for many years. He has numerous Ensunsa and Achabal cousins in the Basque Country of northern Spain.
As hard as John worked over the years, he made time for fun and he made time for people.
John will be remembered fondly by many for his kindness, his humility, his affable and playful nature, his unhurried approach to conversations and engaging with people, and the smile he had on his face most all the time. He was a gentle man, he always saw the good in others, he listened before he spoke and he lived life with integrity every day. He was a loving and supportive husband, father and grandfather and he had friends in abundance.
John is survived by his wife of nearly 59 years – Jessie Diane; his daughter – Gina and wife, Tiffany of Portland; son – Dave and wife, Monique; and two grandchildren – Amaya and Nick, all of Boise.
John is preceded in death by his parents – Gregorio and Lena; his sister – Edith; and his infant daughter – Julie.
Gooding Basque Association P.O. Box 517 Gooding, Idaho 83330.
