Ronald Skilton

Ronald Skilton
May 27th, 1924 - Feb. 14th, 2020
Resident of Walnut Creek
Ronald J. Skilton, long time resident of Orinda, California passed away on February 14th 2020 in Danville, California. Ron was born in Carbondale, Pennsylvania, on May 27, 1924 to Christopher and Lorna Quinlan Skilton
Ron was a mechanical engineering graduate of Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he belonged to Tau Beta Pi, and Pi Tau Sigma, honorary engineering societies. He also received an MBA from the University of Denver. He was a registered Professional Engineer in Pennsylvania.
During World War II he studied in the Navy V-12 program at MIT, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and at the Reserve Midshipmen's School at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. He later served as a deck officer on aircraft carrier Kula Gulf in the Pacific Theatre. Following the war, he was an employee of the General Electric Company for 36 years, starting on the test engineering program in West Lynn, Massachusetts, and later working in Denver, Colorado and various other locations as a sales engineer and as an employee relations manager, in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
He was a member of Mt. Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church in Walnut Creek, and formerly a member of Orinda Community Church. He was a volunteer for John Muir Medical Center, and for local community organizations, church committees and the PTAs of his children's schools. He was a past president of the Northern California Industrial Relations Council in San Francisco. Ron was a pianist and violinist and was active in the Performing Arts Society of Contra Costa County. He enjoyed choral singing and playing piano in chamber music ensembles. In addition to his musical interests, he enjoyed travel, genealogy research, hiking and skiing.
He is survived by his daughter Susan, and her husband, John Kaiser; of Moraga California, and by his son William and his wife, Maria, living in Miami, Florida, and by six grandchildren: Tristan (Stasia), Sara, Amberlie and Cameron Kaiser, Antonio and Isabel Skilton, and a great grandson Jonas Kaiser. He was married for 48 years to Evelyn Schell Skilton, a teacher, who preceded him in death in 2003.
A Celebration of Life service will be held on March 21st at 2 p.m. at the Orinda Community Church, 10 Irwin Way, Orinda California, with a reception to follow.
Memorial gifts may be made to the Mt. Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church, The John Muir Foundation, the Orinda Community Church, or a favorite charity.


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