Ronald B. Gill

1934 - 2020

Ronald B. Gill

Born in Iowa on July 1, 1934, Ronald B. Gill was the sixth child of Harry Amos Gill and his fifth with Linda Elizabeth (Kern) Gill; Harry had one child, Alice, with Grandma Gill's older sister Della who died in 1913. Linda and Harry went on to have Marge, Merle, Clair, Pat, and Ron, generally known as Butch in his youth. All preceded him in death.

Butch watched his older brothers go off to World War II, one to the Pacific in the Army Air Corps and the other into Europe with the infantry, crossing the Rhine at Remagen Bridge, collapsing right behind him. Merle went on to Berlin; Clair was on Ie Shima when the Japanese surrender planes landed. Ron always said his interest in history stemmed from watching it be written through his brothers' letters.

In 1952 he graduated from Anita High School, having wrecked his knee the year before. Ron assumed his college plans were wrecked too, having counted on a football scholarship to cover for what his family couldn't, but a supportive teacher found a scholarship for deaf students, which he'd always considered a disability to overcome or ignore: but it got him, with a hearing aid, through college.

Ron majored in forestry at Iowa State University in Ames. Summer field schools in Wyoming and with the Forest Service in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest were always a touchstone for Ron throughout his life. He graduated in 1956 and took a job in Jersey City, across the Hudson from Manhattan.

A year East left him doubtful his future was in the big city, and he took a job in the lumber business in Chicago, moving for lodgings into a large YMCA Hotel in LaGrange, Illinois. In the fall of 1957 he had a group date to a Bears game in Wrigley Field, after which the young schoolteacher he was paired with said "I will never go out with that man again."

Seven months later, Rose Walton married that man in her home church in Kansas, Illinois on July 19, 1958. Ron and Rose were married for 61 years. They moved to Valparaiso, IN in 1961 after the birth of their first child, and Ron knocked down the price of the house they bought in 1963 by helping build it; they brought three more children back to that home. Jeff, Mike, Brian, and Deb and their families join Rose in grieving Ron's passing.

Ron Gill joined First Christian Church in 1965; over the next 56 years he served in every function of the church but choir member or minister, but he was known to preach on occasion. As building committee chair twice, he helped oversee the rebuilding of today's First Christian between 1990 and 2003, along with service as board and elder chair.

A Civil War historian and family genealogist, Ron was active locally and nationally with the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, serving as post commander, department (state) commander, and as national chaplain. He stopped at historical markers of any sort all across these United States, and passed this habit on to his children.

He earned a masters degree at the University of Iowa in business, worked many years for the Georgia-Pacific Corporation, and then by Calumet Harbor Lumber and Supply ("Chicago's Only Sawmill") as general manager the last 22 years of his career. He and Rose spent winters in Pharr, TX, away from Lake Michigan snow storms, these last fifteen years, where he died on March 12, 2020: after getting up early, making a pot of coffee, taking a mug to his recliner, and sitting down with a good book. His loving example of faith, family, and living history will endure.

An outdoor memorial service will be held on Sat., July 25 at 10:00 a.m. next to First Christian Church, 1507 Glendale Blvd. in Valparaiso, IN; masks are requested and distancing will be observed. Honors will be rendered by the David D. Porter Camp #116 of the SUVCW.