Theodore (Tedd) Alan Ronning

TEDD A. RONNING OBITUARY

Theodore (Tedd) Alan Ronning

August 9, 1954 to September 20, 2024

A long journey with metastatic prostate cancer does have a few benefits. After accepting the inevitable a guy doesn't worry about flossing or having another glass of wine. But one of the biggest benefits is the ability to take care of some tasks so that those left behind will have fewer pieces to pick up. One of those tasks is to write your obituary. So here goes:

Born in Sioux Falls, SD to Adrian and Lois Ronning, I grew up in Hilltop Heights. The neighborhood was full of young families raising lots of baby boomers. It was a great time to be a kid. There were no cell phones to distract us, we didn't wear bicycle helmets and we played outside unsupervised until the streetlights came on. Simpler times for sure!

After graduating from Lincoln High School in 1972 I worked a few meager jobs before settling in as an apprentice goldsmith. At the age of 26, I decided it was time to give college a try, and in 1985 I graduated with a BS in Earth Science from the University of South Dakota. Next was graduate school (or as my wife Peg liked to call it: gradual school). In 1989 I was awarded a MS in Geology from Kent State University in Ohio.

In my professional life I had many titles including Geologist, Hydrogeologist, and Environmental Scientist. My environmental career started at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection in 1987. In 1990 Peg and I moved to Minnesota where I took a job with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. From there I went on to work in environmental consulting and eventually spent twenty years working at Centerpoint Energy and Xcel Energy. I retired from Xcel in 2018. I truly enjoyed a career where I felt I was making an impact and where I was able to work with many wonderful and talented people. Post retirement I enjoyed some volunteer work that included driving patients for the American Cancer Society and driving for the Minnesota State Service for the Blind. I also volunteered as a greeter and as a gardener in the Japanese Garden at the Como Conservatory in St. Paul.

Many hobbies occupied my time (beekeeping, cooking, wine making, gardening, photography, traveling), but the one constant was music. I enjoyed all different genres and loved listening to, talking about, and playing music. Like many boys of my era, I got my first guitar shortly after seeing The Beatles on Ed Sullivan in 1964. Later in life, my dear friend, Doug, gave me a mandolin for my fortieth birthday. I loved the instrument and subsequently collected more mando family instruments than I needed. I played mandolin in an Irish band, a mandolin quartet and the Minnesota Mandolin Orchestra and enjoyed multiple jams with many friends through the years. Doug beat me to the end of life's song, and I hope we will be reunited in that great bluegrass band in the sky!

I was fortunate to have many good friends of all ages and walks of life share their lives with me. One small group of friends was especially important in my life. These lifelong friends date back to high school, and some even back to grade school. I won't name names, to protect the guilty, but you all know who you are. Despite being spread across the country, our band of brothers from different mothers managed to get together regularly, to share milestone events, eat and drink too much, tell tall tales, embarrass our wives, and play music. I'm grateful for all my friends and love you all!

Stepping back, in 1972 I met the love of my life, Peggy Hartenhoff. After dating and cohabitating for years, we were married on August 13, 1983. Caring and loving, Peg has been with me though our many life adventures. She put up with my mood swings and total lack of patience (a notorious Ronning trait) and has been particularly supportive during my cancer journey. I love you darlin' and wish you nothing but the best going forward. Take the opportunity to travel like we wanted but were hampered by my health. And just enjoy being you!

I was preceded in death my parents, Adrian Sheron Ronning and Lois Ann Ronning (Sunde), and older sister Patricia Ann Ronning. Family members that crossed the Rainbow Bridge are one wonderful pooch (Bear), two dogs with issues (Django and Spyke), a lovely tuxedo cat (Boots), and his mother (Lily). I am survived by my dear wife Peg, of Oakdale, MN, an older sister, Peggy Lee Ronning of Beverly, MA, younger sister, Karin Sunde Meagher (Kieron) of Canberra, Australia, and many loved uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces, and nephews.

I was not a religious man and never believed there is a heaven, where a man with a bushy white beard, hands out harps to the worthy, or in a hell where a horned red devil with a trident, forces sinners into a fiery eternity listening to accordion music. I did, however, believe there is a spirit in all of us that will live on in some manner after we pass. The science geek in me remembers the first law of thermodynamics that says energy can't be created or destroyed. As such, I would like to think my spirit and energy will be transferred for good on this earth. As for my body, I don't need it anymore so it will be donated to the University of Minnesota Medical School for research and training.

If you feel so inclined, a donation in my memory to the American Cancer Society will be appreciated. Let me leave you this profound message that an old friend sent to me after we had a long conversation about our mutual journeys with cancer.

"We live, each of us, until we are free of our bodies. It's scary and wondrous."

Tedd