Ronald Cleveland Shover

1927 - 2017

Ronald Cleveland Shover

Age: 89

Ronald C. Shover, SMSGT VTANG (Ret)

May 4, 1927 - January 13, 2017

Ronald Cleveland "Snowball" Shover died peacefully in his sleep in the early morning hours of Friday, January 13th at his winter home in DeBary, FL following several months of declining health. He was 89 years old.

Ron was a native Vermonter, the fourth of six children born to Cleveland Harold Shover and Jessie (Spicer) Shover in Richford, Vermont, at the height of the Great Depression. In 1950 Ron married the love of his life Marion Carter. They lived in the Burlington and Underhill areas during their early years of marriage, later settling in Richmond and raising four children together. For the past three decades Ron and Marion spent summers at their home in Worcester, Vermont and winters in Florida.

Ronald was a WWII veteran, enlisting in the U.S. Navy at the age of 17. He later signed on with the Army National Guard and was called up for active duty for the Korean conflict as a field medic. Eventually Ron ended up with Vermont Air National Guard full time, where he was in charge of the base medical clinic. Ron worked for the Air National Guard until his retirement in the fall of 1980, achieving the rank of Senior Master Sergeant.

Having wide and varied interests, Ron began singing as a young boy and was well known as the "Nightingale of Richford". As an adult, he sang in several choirs, a barbershop quartet, and an all-male group in Deland, FL named "Great Expectations". In Burlington and Richmond he was a tenor soloist, often singing on Christmas eve for various churches in the area. Some of his other favorite interests through the years included: oil painting, fly fishing, hunting, training bird dogs, skydiving, bowling, golfing, gardening and taking his family on summer camping trips.

Ronald was predeceased by his parents Cleveland and Jessie, his siblings William, Douglas, Mae and Geraldine. He is survived by: Marion his beloved and devoted wife of 66 years, his last remaining sibling, George, his four children Pamela, Kathryn, James and Ronald, his grandchildren Angela Ross, Jessie Carlisle, Christopher Sutton, Jhana Hart, Emmalee Bartman, Jeffery Shover, Elijah Shover, and Ethan Shover, two great-grandchildren Hannah and Laila, and many nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews, cousins and other extended family members.

Interment will be in the spring at the Vermont Veterans Cemetery in Randolph Center Vermont followed by a "Celebration of Life" service (date to be determined).

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