Ronald Paul Mason

He was born on December 31, 1943, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, but grew up in Fullerton, California. Ron graduated with a BS in Chemistry from the University of California at Riverside in 1966 and earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1971 followed by post-doctoral research at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

After four and a half years as a research chemist at the VA hospital in Minneapolis, MN, he moved to Cary, NC, where he was a Principal Investigator at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) in Research Triangle Park, a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), for 40 years. He made pioneering contributions to the fields of free radical biology, biochemistry, and toxicology. He co-invented the Immuno-Spin Trapping technique used in his research for the detection of free radicals and made extensive use of Electron Spin Resonance. He published prodigiously over his many years of service at NIEHS and provided research opportunities for numerous scientists from all over the world.

Ron enjoyed traveling, camping and fishing and was active with the Y Guides and Boy Scouts when his children were young. He was a voracious reader, had a keen interest in history, and a lifelong interest in rocks and minerals.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Ernest and Mary K. Mason, and his brother, Larry Mason. He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Mary J. Mason; their children, Gene (Maricela) Mason, Edward (Sandy) Mason, and Claire (Nick) Green; his sister, Linda (Bob) Sims; their grandchildren, Andy, Alex, Emma, Owen and Zoey; his sister-in-law Patti (Rick) Newman; their nieces Michelle (Blaine) Tolison, Erica (Scott) McCollough, and Juliene (Luis) Christensen; and 5 grand nieces and nephews.

His family will forever be grateful for the life they shared with him; for the lessons he taught, the memories he created, the questions he encouraged them to ask.

The family would like to thank the doctors and nurses of WakeMed Cary and Transitions LifeCare in Raleigh, NC, for the care and compassion they showed Ron in his final days.

To honor Ron’s persistence to overcome Dyslexia or to honor Ron’s love of National Parks and Nature the family suggests contributions be made to the International Dyslexia Association or The Nature Conservancy via the links below "Donations".

Family and friends are invited to a viewing and visitation with the family at 6:00 in the evening on Tuesday, September 1, 2026, at the Brown-Wynne Funeral Home, 200 Southeast Maynard Road, Cary, NC.

Family and friends are likewise invited to attend a funeral Mass on Wednesday, September 2, 2026, at 1:00 in the afternoon at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church, 804 High House Road, Cary, NC, followed by a reception from 2-4 p.m. in the parish hall.

If you cannot attend but would like to watch a live stream of the service at its scheduled time, please go to https://www.stmichaelcary.org/live-mass/ . To watch the Mass at a later time, follow the previous steps, then scroll down to "Parish Streaming Channels". Once there, you can click on our Funerals and you will find a link to view.