Ronald William Long

Ronald William Long, Sr. lost his long battle with cancer on December 30, 2010. He was born June 18, 1928 in Flint, Michigan to William Morton Long and Margaret McCormick Long.He graduated from Flint Technical High School in 1946 and began working at the Post Office. In 1951 he enlisted in the Air Force and served until 1955. The Air Force gavehim the opportunity to travel allover the world and he recorded his travels with his trusty Minolta camera. Years later he and his wife, Irene gave many travel logs withthese pictures. He went to work for IBM in 1957 and spent time in Pontiac, Michigan, Endicott, New York and settled in Longmont in 1966. He retired in 1990 after 34 yearswith IBM.Ron loved music and began singing at church when he was 8. Singing was always very dear to him and he managed to recruit people to sing with him wherever he was for the rest of his life. He was a member of the Barbershop Harmony Association for 50 years and held many offices with this organization. He helped found a chapter in Appalachian, New York and nurtured the Loveland, Colorado chapter for five years after it was founded.He loved the outdoors and introduced his children to boating, water skiing, trail hiking and trailer camping when they were very young. His children have wonderfulmemories of roasting apples in camp fires under the stars. When the children were grown he and Irene joined the Longmont Pioneers Camping Club and spent over 25 years camping with these wonderful friends.Ron was also an avid supporter of the Longmont High School wrestling program and also the Western State College wrestling program for well over 20 years. He and his family instituted a Memorial Fund at the high school in memory of his youngest son, Kelly and also the Kelly Brian Long Memorial Scholarship at Western State College. The Longmont High School Memorial Fund supplied new uniforms for the varsity wrestling team and the Kelly Long Memorial Scholarship has assisted over 25 wrestlers toward their degrees at Western State College.Ron was always an active member of his church and always sang in the choir. He was also an avid crossword puzzle fan and spent many hours assembling jig saw puzzles. He was preceded in death by his sons Kelly Brian and Ronald William, Jr. He is survived by his beloved wife of 52 years, Irene and his daughters, Sandra Long, Susan Laser and her husband Tom Agnew and Virginia Laser. He is further survived by grandchildren Heidi Vucich, Douglas Long, Ronda Long, Kyle Falzitto, Collyn Falzitto and Vinny Lombardi and great-grandchildren Ken Metcalf, Erica Metcalf, Tiffany Stradinger, Jade Falzitto and his biological great-granddaughter Jesse Huller. Ron is further survived by his steadfast friend who walked the cancer road with him from the beginning to the end, Bill Gibson.A celebration of life will be held at 1:30 P.M. on Saturday, January 8, 2011 at Ahlberg Funeral Chapel. A reception will follow the service at Hygiene United Methodist Church. Cremation has taken place at Ahlberg Funeral Chapel and Crematory. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to the Ron Long Memorial Fund at Hygiene United Methodist Church.