Obituary: Chris Michael Stromsness

The Honorable Chris Michael Stromsness, formerly of the Siskiyou County Superior Court, passed away on August 30, 2025.

Chris was born in Auburn, Washington on April 30th, 1942 to “Strom” and Hallie Stromsness. From his father, Chris inherited a passion for fishing, especially for steelhead, and an interest in the law. He likely started his appreciation for strong women with his mother, a former Rosie the Riveter.

His family moved to San Francisco for a few years after the war and then to Corning, which is the place anyone who knew him would tell you he was raised. He was joined along the way by his two sisters, first Karen and then Trulie.

He formed life-long friendships in Corning and forged memories he talked about the rest of his life, including his time playing football for Corning High and a homerun he hit in a softball game.

After attending Cal and graduating with a degree in Anthropology in 1964, Chris started at Hastings Law School (since renamed and the same law school his father had attended) and went to work at a law firm in San Francisco. Two years later, on the 4th of July, he met Sharon Swanson and a year after that, in 1967, they were married. They remained married for 47 years until Sharon’s passing in 2014.

In 1968 the newlyweds gave up city living and moved to Dunsmuir, CA, where Chris had been offered $400/month to work for Howard Jones as an attorney. Chris had sent letters to all of the attorneys in Northern California in places he might like to fish and Howard’s offer was the best he received. As a small town attorney he was sometimes paid in a cord of wood or in pork chops as he did work on contracts and estate plans. The move to Dunsmuir was a conscious decision to pursue a good and simple life.

Dunsmuir was Chris’ home for the next 53 years, where he and Sharon were pillars of the community. Chris and Sharon welcomed Rune to their family in 1972, followed by Bjorn in 1974. A devoted parent, Chris was a Boy Scout Troop Leader, a baseball coach, a soccer coach and generally present and involved. Chris read Kon Tiki and Horatio Hornblower books to Rune and Bjorn as they lay snuggled up on the couch. He was, by those who knew him and those who knew him best, a good father and a good man.

Chris and Sharon were also very involved in St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, first located in Dunsmuir and then relocated to Mt. Shasta. Chris served as Senior Warden at the church and could be seen greeting churchgoers at the door with a program and if you listened closely you could hear him substitute “true cod” for “true god” during the recital of the Nicene Creed. 

Chris served as City Attorney for both Dunsmuir and Weed and was a Justice Court Judge in a small log cabin courthouse in McCloud. He was later elected as a full-time Municipal Court Judge in 1992 serving in Weed and Yreka. Chris retired as a Superior Court Judge and earned the honorific “Your Honor.”

Chris was very involved in his local Rotary Club and could be seen setting up tables and chairs or manning a booth at numerous community events. He served on other committees and entities like the Dunsmuir High School Scholarship Committee and the Siskiyou Domestic Violence & Crisis Center Board.

During his time in Siskiyou County Chris developed an interest in bird watching. That interest bloomed and Chris could often be seen with a pair of binoculars and it gave him an excuse to spend more time outdoors. He was involved in the local Audubon Society. Chris’ “Life List” stands at about 2,000 species from around the world, a number that fluctuates some even now as species are grouped and split. He was trying to add to that tally even in the last months of his life.

Another passion Chris had was fishing, something he got from his father and passed on to his son. He was primarily a steelhead fisherman, making annual trips to the Klamath River for “half-pounder” steelhead and making several trips, later in his life, to the Babine River in British Columbia, a place his father had spent significant time and where there remains a spot on the river called “Strom’s Pool,” named after his father. His largest fish from the Babine was an estimated 25 pound buck steelhead, caught on his last trip to that river. Chris kept a record of every day he fished in small notebooks he kept in a shirt pocket. He would record every fish caught and most fish hooked. The rise and fall of the Klamath River can be tracked in those books, a river with which he had a long and close relationship. 

After fishing for decades using bait and spinning gear, Chris took up fly fishing in 1993 and it revitalized his interest in his local waters and beyond. He went on to fly fish in Florida, Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, Mexico, the Bahamas, Hawaii, Canada and more. It was a passion he pursued until his last day on the water, on the Yuba River in 2023 with Bjorn and a guide, where he got to land a silvery trout that may have been a half-pounder steelhead.

Fishing and Birdwatching were ways Chris enjoyed the outdoors and he held a deep love for the natural world, believing strongly in conservation. He gave of his time and his coin to conservation causes and even went to Washington, DC on more than one occasion to lobby in favor of conservation legislation.

Chris and Sharon loved to travel and did so often. When his boys were young the family took two cross country trips, one up through Maine and into the Maritime Provinces of Canada and another all the way to Key West, FL. When Chris and Sharon became empty nesters, they traveled far and wide including several trips to Europe, including Norway, France, England and Italy, as well as trips to New Zealand, China, going on safari in Africa, travels to South America and many trips around the country.

Chris was a passionate sports fan, following both Cal sports, as well as his beloved San Francisco Giants. He also followed the 49ers and Warriors.

Chris was well known for his passionate aversion to cheese in all forms and his love of salmon in all forms (as long as there was no cheese). He loved a good apple pie. He was quick to smile and extremely slow to anger. He was affable. He was curious, during his Dunsmuir years he was known to read three newspapers a day. He hated getting his hair wet in the pool and he was a very bad square dancer. 

Once Sharon passed in 2014, Chris continued to travel and went fishing often, usually in his float tube with one of his many fishing friends. During these years Chris found friendship and companionship with Solveig from Yreka. 

In 2021 it became obvious that mounting health challenges meant staying on his own in Dunsmuir was no longer possible and Chris moved to the Bay Area to be closer to his children and grandchildren. He moved into Piedmont Gardens in Oakland, where Rune looked after him closely, getting him out birding and taking him to several Giants games. Chris also got to watch grandson Oliver play soccer, coached by Bjorn, and enjoyed big holiday meals with family. While at Piedmont Gardens Chris found friendship and companionship with Sylvie and the two often watched old movies together.

Chris was preceded in death by his wife, Sharon, who passed away in 2014, and his sister Trulie, who passed away in 2016. He is survived by his sister, Karen Giffin, son Rune and his partner Mike, and son Bjorn and daughter-in-law Renee, as well as his grandchildren Dylan and Oliver, whom he loved dearly. 

He led a full life and it is the sincere wish of his family that his memory be a blessing. 

Instead of flowers we ask that you give in his memory to some of the causes he cared about such as Save The Rain, the Siskiyou Land Trust, the Dunsmuir Botanical Gardens, or The Nature Conservancy.