Ronald Stuart Nelson

Ronald Stuart Nelson, 90, passed on to our Lord Jesus Christ on February 15, 2023, in Palm Bay, Florida due to complications of metastatic pancreatic cancer. Ron was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin as the only child of Silas and Carrie Nelson. He received his Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Wisconsin and served in the US Army as a Specialist 3rd Class as a radar technician. He was an expert marksman. In 1954 he married the love of his life Janice Rae Williams and they cherished every day of their 65-year marriage until her passing on May 15 ,2019.

He is survived by their 3 children and their spouses, John R. Nelson MD, a cardiologist/researcher, and his wife Zarrin; Bruce R. Nelson, an electrical engineer, and his wife Beth; Karen Rae Nelson, a French linguist, and her husband Victor. He is also survived by 4 grandchildren, 2 step grandchildren, 2 great grandchildren and 4 step great grandchildren.

After serving in the Army, he worked as an Aerospace engineer/rocket scientist including management of reliability engineering with Rocketdyne working on programs including Apollo, Jupitor and Thor from 1958-63. He then became manager of configuration management, reliability and quality assurance at the Marquart corporation. He oversaw several multimillion programs in the Apollo program from 1963 to 67. In 1967 he was also manager of coordination and preparing the reliability, quality assurance and human factors program for Tacfire program at Litton Manufacturing Co.

Ron was called to be a Physician and in 1971 he graduated from the University of Louisville, Kentucky. In 1975 he completed his Internal Medicine residency in Fresno, California at the UCSF Fresno-Medical Education Program. He practiced Internal Medicine in Fresno until he retired in 2001.He was very active at Sierra Hospital until it closed, and he was elected president of the medical Staff. His wonder with space continued into private practice with a project with experiments on insulin which were performed on the space shuttle. He and Jan were active members of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church.

He was an avid outdoorsman climbing the lofty peaks, fishing the pristine lakes, backpacking, country skiing and hunting the High Sierra mountains. He shared these wonderful experiences with all his family and friends. He was an expert gold panner and knew the rivers well. He was also an astronomer; when his house was being constructed, he personally built an amazing observatory on the roof to watch the heavens and take amazing photographs. He and Jan were avid square dancers. He was a Mason and a Shriner.

Ron and Jan were both pilots and traveled throughout North America in their Cessna 210 turbo. They made many trips to Mexico with Liga International, the Flying Doctors of Mercy, volunteering their medical services in local clinics.

After retiring in 2001, Ron and Jan became snowbirds commuting between Fresno and Palm Bay, Florida first in their plane and then by motorhome. Ron closely attended Jan all throughout her severe Parkinson’s disease until her passing in 2019.

Viewing (10:00 a.m.) and services (11:00 a.m.) will be held on Saturday, March 4,2023, at Schumacher-Kish Funeral Home and Chapel,111 S. Oak St., La Crescent, MN 55947.