Ronald Doyle Reed

Born August 30, 1936 in Grafton, West Virginia to Marion Doyle and Josephine E. (Boyce) Reed. The family moved to Mansfield when Ron was three months old and he lived in the Mansfield area most of his life. Ron was very proud of his parents who moved north to find work during the Depression.

Ron graduated from Mansfield Senior High in 1954. He received BA and BS degrees from The Ohio State University in 1959 and an MA degree from Michigan State University in 1970. He did additional course work at Indiana University, The University of Connecticut, Ashland College and Ohio University. He worked at the old Friendly House Hidden Hollow Camp on Hull Road as a counselor for seven summers and was program director the last summer. While at Ohio State he was the first director of the Indianola Boys and Girls Club and for two years was on the staff of the State School for the Deaf as a recreation supervisor.

State Route 71 passed through the old Hidden Hollow Camp and it was converted into a day camp named Hidden Hollow. Ron was invited to be the director of the camp by Russ and Mary Gimbel, Directors of Friendly House, and he served as the first day camp director and was there for seven summers.

While at Ohio State, he was active in the Student YMCA and served in YM leadership roles at Ohio State, the State of Ohio and the regional level. He was an active member of the First Christian Church of Mansfield for many years. He was a member of AARP, the Farm Bureau, the Butler Historical Society and the Richland County Historical Society and on the board of the Greentown Indian Village Preservation Association. Ron taught Wooster Heights students in Madison Local Schools for seven years where he organized the first resident outdoor/environmental education program in North Central Ohio. In 1965 his outdoor education program received a federal grant from the Elementary Secondary Education Act of 1965 and it was a Project to Advance Creativity in Education for three years. The program grew from one school district of eighty students to over 100 public and private school districts and over 250,000 students from 1961-2004. Ron was the executive director for over 40 years. The school rented area camps-Hidden Hollow, The Wooster Presbytery Camp, The Judson Hills Camp, Camp McPherson, and Camp Otyokwah at different times through the years before the school developed a site of its own-the Mohican Environmental Learning Center (ELC) on Bunker Hill Road. The ELC opened in 1999. For years Ron was a part of the Adjunct Faculty at Ashland University teaching classes in outdoor education and helping to offer college credit at several workshops including the Life and Times of Johnny Appleseed Workshops four times. He wrote several occasional papers for the State Development of Education about how to create a resident outdoor school education program. He also wrote and published a book "Mohican School an Experiment in Outdoor Learning 1961-2005".

He was the owner of Reed & Sons selling books, supplies and equipment for outdoor/environmental education programs in the United States and foreign countries. Ron was a bird watcher and a federal fish and wildlife bird bander. His banding program banded over 16,000 birds. He was a member of the Inland Bird Banding Association. For many years Ron was a member of the National Rifle Association and taught riflery during several summer programs and a Mohican School for many school years. Reed was the fifth president of the Ohio Conservation and Outdoor Education Association (OCOEA) in 1972 and served as vice president for five years and on the board for twenty years. OCOEA is now known as the Environmental Education Council of Ohio. Ron and Deb were both lifetime member of OCOEA/EECO.

Ron was awarded the Findlay-Johnson Award of OCOEA in 1986. In 1982 Ron received the Conservation of the Year recognition by the Ohio Sierra Club at Burr Oak State Park. The Ohio Association of Garden Clubs presented their Daisy Sticksel Conservation of the Year Award to Ron and Deb in 1999 and the Richland County Soil and Water Conservation Education of the Year Award went to Deb and Ron in 2006. In 2002 Ron and his wife Deborah were selected for induction into the Natural Resources Hall of Fame by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

Ron enjoyed baseball and was a manager and coach for the Southwest Little League for twelve years and a board member for three years. He followed the Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Browns and The Ohio State Buckeyes and held season tickets to all three several years. He and his wife had gardens on their farm and he liked raising potatoes and tomatoes.

Ron married Deborah Rex of Massillon in 1973 and was a loving help mate in marriage and an assistant in many roles at the Mohican School for over 36 years.

He is survived by his wife and sons, Timothy Doyle Reed, Dr. Daniel Boyce Reed (and his wife Kristy True Reed) of Bloomington, Indiana and Ronald Andrew Reed of Columbus, Ohio. He is also survived by grandchildren, Zoe Reed and Adrian Reed and step grandchildren Jessica and Connor True, also of Bloomington. Ron loved his family and enjoyed spending time with them. A memorial service will be held at Mohican School, 5370 Bunkerhill North Road Butler, Ohio 44822 on Saturday, June 23, 2018 at 2:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers a contribution can be made to Mohican School and/or take a child for a walk in the woods in honor of Ron. Ron also suggested a communication with his favorite bird the tufted titmouse.