Ronald W. McKirdy ’50

Ron died Sept. 12, 2005. He was in poor health at our 55th and was visiting a daughter in New York when he died.

Ron was a member of Elm Club and majored in public affairs. He earned an MBA from the Wharton School at Penn and served as a Navy ensign during the Korean conflict.

His professional career was entirely with Procter & Gamble. It included executive assignments in France, Belgium, and Switzerland that covered 18 years. At his retirement in 1984, Ron was vice president of acquisitions in Cincinnati. From his retirement home in Key Biscayne, Fla., he and his wife, Elly, traveled 28,000 miles, crisscrossing the U.S. with their black lab, Charlie, to see much that they had missed during their years in Europe.

After his wife's death from cancer in 1993, Ron progressively "unretired" with numerous business ventures. Among those was a boat business in California, where he owned a ranch with a trout stream and bass lake. He donated a large part of the ranch to a nature conservancy. He was an avid birdwatcher who had more than 600 sightings.

We share the loss of Ron with his children, Mark, Dyanne, Kristin, Janis, and Kimberley, and his seven grandchildren.

The Class of 1950