Ron died September 26, 2014 in Libby, Montana, at the age of 73. He was born in Colville, Washington, on May 27, 1941. He grew up in Washington and Oregon, and was very active in football, baseball, basketball and track throughout his youth. After graduating from Kettle Falls High School in 1960, he went to work as a firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service during the summer months and attended college for two years at Eastern Washington College in Cheney.

Ron jumped at Missoula and Grangeville for eleven seasons and had 98 fire jumps. Ron worked in fire and fuels during his entire Forest Service career. In 1984, he became incident commander on one of the 18 Type I national fire teams. He served in this capacity through 1988.

He was fire management officer for the Fisher River District, Kootenai N.F. from 1972 until he retired in 1994.