Ronald D. Morse Sr.

Ronald D. Morse Sr., 74, of Lenexa, Kansas passed away peacefully at his home surrounded by his family on January 12, 2021. His visitation will begin at 9:30am, followed by a funeral service at 11:30am on Saturday, January 16 at the Crossroads Christian Church, 5855 Renner Road, Shawnee, Kansas 66217. The service will be made available by livestream on the Crossroads Christian Church Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/crossrdschrist/ and will begin approximately 12 minutes prior to the beginning of the on-site service. He will be laid to rest at 10am on Thursday, January 21 in Olinger Crown Hill Cemetery in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Memorial contributions can be given in his name to Crossroads Christian Church.

Ron was born in Denver, Colorado on October 1, 1946 to Ted and Marie Morse. He was raised in the mountains about 40 miles west of Denver, Colorado where his parents and grandparents owned the Morse Timber Company on Snyder Mountain near Squaw Pass and Mt. Evans.

He went to Elementary and High School in Idaho Springs, which involved an 18-mile daily bus ride each direction.

After he graduated from High School, his parents moved to Blackhawk where his parents bought a gold mill and started an assay office. The assay office was leased to an assayer from the School of Mines and Ron became his apprentice.

He married the love of his life, Vicki, in 1966. Vicki was 14 and Ron was 19. After Vicki gave her heart to the Lord in 1973 Ron quickly followed suit. Within a year both were taking classes at what is now Colorado Christian College. Ron was licensed to preach on August 6, 1975. On May 2, 1980, Ron earned a degree in Biblical Education from Colorado Christian College.

When Ron and Vicki got married in 1966, Ron went to work for Key Business Forms in Denver as a printing plate maker. In 1972, he went to work for Data Documents working in Denver, Dallas and finally Kansas City. In 1984, he was transferred to Kansas City to be the Plant Manager of the Data Documents National Laser Graphics Arts facility. In all he spent 36 years in printing and graphics arts.

In 1987, Ron and Vicki started a home-based business called Morse Productions, which manufactures model railroad parts, buildings and accessories. Vicki ran for the business full time for over 10 years and then after Ron’s retirement he took over and the business and it has remained active to this day selling product worldwide. In 1990, Ron became the 159th person to be certified Master Model Railroader (currently there are only about 550 people in the world with this certification). Ron won over 50 first place and Best of Show awards at Division, Regional and National Model Railroad Meets. Both he and Vicki were featured on the DIY television network in regards to Ron’s model railroading and Vicki’s role in running Morse Productions.

Ron was an accomplished artist who started doing sketches and oil paintings of mountain scenery and ghost towns in 1963 (as a junior in high school – when he got his first Jeep). In 1970, he began to photograph the old ghost towns as he found he could not capture them on canvas as quickly as they were disappearing. Within a few years, he began producing numerous travelogue programs on ghost towns and scenic areas of the west. Over the years, he has shot thousands of black and white photos and color slides of Colorado and the west. Then in 2001, he entered the age of digital photography and has pursued it with a vengeance.

His photographs and/or articles have been published in national magazines and calendars 87 times with a total of 436 photographs. Included in those numbers are 15 magazine cover photos and 32 articles with photos and photos that he shot for articles written by other people. He and his team-taught Model Railroading at the Johnson County Community College for 23 seasons. He and his son, Ron, taught Gold Panning and Colorado Encounter’s at the college for many years as well.

Ron loved Colorado and four wheeling in his red 1970 Bronco and then in his Wrangler Rubicon Jeep. He and his sons or friends made annual four wheeling trips to Colorado for over 20 years.

Ron and Vicki began attending Crossroads Christian Church in 1995 and Ron became an elder there on June 5, 2002. Over the years, he preached there at Crossroads nearly 20 times and taught numerous Bible studies.

He freely shared his knowledge of photography by offering in-depth FREE photography classes at the church that was attended by over 400 people since 2009.

Ron shared his photography and his faith in God by sending out a daily “Point To Ponder, Photo and Bible Quiz” for over 19 years.

He was a highly detail oriented person who had kept a Journal/Diary since the 1990’s and at the time of his death it contained 1,982 pages comprised of 795,026 words and 3,462,532 characters not counting spaces. In addition, he also documented his family’s history in pictures, in print and in PowerPoint programs. He loved to restore old family heirlooms and write about family history.

Ron fought severe health issues from the time he was 16 when he was diagnosed with juvenile onset rheumatoid arthritis. In 1980, he was diagnosed with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and was given 6 years to live. In 2014, he was diagnosed with Stage IV Melanoma cancer and in 2015 Stage 3B kidney failure. Then in 2016 the Melanoma Cancer came back.

Ron and Vicki recently celebrated their 54th wedding anniversary.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Ted and Marie Morse, and three brothers who died at birth.

He is survived by his wife, Vicki; his son, Ron Jr. and his wife, Dionne, and their son, Cameron; his son, Michael and his wife, Nikki, and their daughter, Lilli and son, Wyatt; close nephews, Jesse Weedon and Fred Sell and many more; close nieces and many more, Christy Weedon and Amy Conley.