Obituary of Ronald H. Lockwood

6/11/1940 – 5/12/2016 Spencerport: May 12, 2016, age 75. Ron was predeceased by his parents George and Mona (Beehler) Lockwood and brother, Russell Lockwood. He is survived by his loving wife of 31 years and caregiver, Judith (Shaver) Lockwood; sons, Scott, Mike (Beth), Randy (Melissa), Donnie (Dawn), Christopher (Natalie), Ronald Jr. (Renae) Lockwood; step-children, Tara Wilder, Troy Shaver and Tanis (Pius) Yorio; grandchildren, Scott (Davida), Stephanie (Spencer) Lynn, Rachael (Chuck) Tobin, Katie (Joe) Ogg, Andrea (Logan) Lorenzo, David D’Urbano, Dylan, Jessica, Ryan, Abby, Myranda, Griffin and his newest grandchild, Sullivan Ronald Lockwood, born May 11, 2016; step-grandchildren, Thomas, Zachary and Carrie Wilder; many great-grandchildren; sister, Lorna West of Houghton Lake, MI; sisters-in-law, Vivian Schultz, Arleen Quetschenbach & Patricia House; many loving nieces and nephews, cousins and a host of lifelong friends. Ron was proud of his military service in the Marine Corps from 1957 – 1961. He enjoyed a rewarding career with the Operating Engineers, Local 832, from which he retired in 2002 as a crane operator. After retirement Ron and Judy began a ministry called Scripture and Song. Ron had a rich bass voice that brought comfort and enjoyment to all who heard him. They traveled around Florida and the eastern United Stated and made many lasting friendships along the way. Ron and Judy enjoyed their church family at Eastside Baptist Church in Punta Gorda, Florida and their “northern� church family at Faith Chapel of Churchville. Winters from 2003 – 2014 were happily spent at Shell Creek RV Park in Punta Gorda where again they made lasting friendships with their fellow campers. Ron loved the Lord and his family and his friends, and they loved him in return. In 2007 Ron was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, but that never deterred him from fishing almost daily on Shell Creek in Punta Gorda on his beloved boat the “Rontoon�. He continued singing, and he and Judy continued to do their programs in churches and nursing homes both in Florida and New York. There will be no prior calling hours. Interment will be held privately in Garland Cemetery. As a last act of Ron’s typical generosity, he has made a donation to the Eye Bank of Rochester. A Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, May 21st at the Spencerport Assembly of God Church at 1 PM. A In lieu of flowers, and in Ron’s memory, donations can be made to the Spencerport American Legion, 691 Trimmer Rd., Spencerport, NY 14559 OR Faith Chapel of Churchville, 125 Bromley Rd., Churchville, NY 14428 OR Eastside Baptist Church, 6220 Golf Course Blvd., Punta Gorda, FL 33982 OR the MS Society, Upstate NY Chapter, 1000 Elmwood Avenue, Suite 900, Rochester, NY 14620 OR the National Rifle Association, 11250 Whaples Mill Rd., Fairfax, VA 22030. Ron Lockwood’s Eulogy……by his wife Judy: On behalf of myself, Ron’s sons and their families, my children and our extended families, I want to thank you all for being here today to celebrate Ron’s life and his home-going. Regardless of whether he was a husband, father, stepfather, brother, grandfather or uncle, each of us has lost a friend. Thank you too for honoring Ron as a marine and all of our wonderful veterans and active duty personnel by acknowledging Armed Forces Day today by wearing something patriotic. I’d like to pay special tribute to our good friend and special neighbor, Gene Walker, who is a 100 year old veteran of WWII. Ron was special even before he was born. His parents were married for 14 years before they were blessed with his birth. He was worth waiting for. He was born in the old Brockport hospital on Main Street, when his parents lived on the Redman Road. His family moved to the house at 2550 Spencerport Rd., when Ron was only 6. Ron started first grade in Kendall. I asked him if they didn’t have kindergarten there, and he said they let him start first grade because he was so darn smart. There was no kindergarten at Kendall. He went to Spencerport when K-12 was THE only school in what was called, Trowbridge. I was a freshman the fall of 1953 when I first met Ron. We would see each other in the halls and say hello, but it would be many years before our paths would actually cross again. As a kid, Ron had many adventures as you can imagine. His good friends, Gary Fanning, Tom Tongue and David Grainer, just to name a few, would ride their bikes from Spencerport to Hamlin Beach and camp there some weekends. The story goes that one night, one of the boys needed to answer natures call and fell over the cliff called Devil’s Nose. He luckily landed on the sandy beach. Another story that was relayed to me was a wintertime story. He and Gary Fanning were hiking along Nichols Street and there was a swampy pond nearby. Ron decided it would be great fun to go jump on the ice to see how solid it was. The fun stopped when Ron went through the ice and got completely soaked. Fortunately the pond was close by the road and some nice truck driver saw him coming up the hill and gave him a ride home. Summers always held special times for Ron and his friends. Ron’s dad would gather up Ron and his buddies and they would all go camping in the Adirondacks for a week. Memories his friends still cherish. When he got older, Ron was able to work at the Duffy Mott canning factory in Hamlin. His job was to keep the women, working on the line, supplied with apples. I guess it’s no surprise that with his infectious smile, he was able to charm those women into making apple pies for him. Ron was the all-around kid. Besides being very good at academics, he was on the wrestling team along with our pastor Dave Branch. He was in band and won first prize in a state competition when he played Cheri Beri Bim on his trumpet. He participated in chorus at school and choir at Ogden Presbyterian church and his sister Lorna played the organ. Church was always a very large part of the Lockwood family. Sundays were special at a time when folks actually went for afternoon rides and visited friends and relatives. Ron told me of fun times that were had when they would visit the Davis family cousins in Conesus and ride horses. Then there were cousins Harold and Vi in Castile where Ron spent some summers helping Harold on the farm and he always loved the fresh pies Vi made. It was one of those summers that Harold showed Ron how to catch fish with dynamite caps. Not only did they catch the fish in the farm pond, but it blew the dirt almost up to the house. Yes, summers always seemed to be exciting times for Ron. As most teenagers do, Ron decided he wanted to exercise his independence - so he joined the Marines!! During his 4 years in the Marine Corp, Ron was stationed in Puerto Rico, Guantanamo Bay and Quantico. Again he made the most of each assignment and had fond memories of each, and just recently he reunited with some fellow marines in Florida. When he got out of the marines in 1961, he met and married Shirley Smith and together they had a blended family of six boys. To all the Lockwood boys I would say this: you all have inherited the very best from your father - AND your mother. And as it says in Luke 12:14 “to whom much is given, much is expected.� You are fortunate enough to have inherited several natural talents and abilities and your father’s greatest pride was witnessing your many outstanding successes and accomplishments. He was more than proud of each one of you. Ron owned a gas station at the corner of Elmgrove and Spencerport Rd. when he returned to the civilian world. It was at this time he reunited with another childhood friend, Butch Bargo. If any of you knew Butch you know he was a legend in his own time. Elmgrove Rd. was closed to traffic from Spencerport Road to the canal bridge as the bridge was under repair, so Ron and Butch would race go karts from the gas station to the bridge and back. Of course the police were called several times but Ron would show them his second kart which had a nice cool engine and so he convinced them it couldn’t have been him doing the racing. Imagine Ron’s surprise some 30 years later when he found out that the person who lived behind his gas station was the choir director at Parma Baptist Church where Ron had just joined the choir. Isn’t it amazing how God orchestrates things in his own timing. It was in 1966 when Ron joined the Operating Engineers where he was a member for over 40 years. He had a marvelous work ethic and truly enjoyed going to work - no matter how difficult the day or what the weather would prove to be. In the ‘70s, when construction took a downward turn, Ron became an over the road truck driver. He put over a million miles on two trucks and as you can imagine he had many stories to tell. After his life and mine went down different paths, he and I reconnected in 1984 through a mutual friend. We began our married life in December of that year. My children were fortunate to have had an amazing stepfather for the 31years he and I had together and they all had a sincere love and affection for one another. During those 31 years we went on many adventures, starting with our honeymoon on Vancouver Island, Banff, and Lake Louise. Over the years we traveled around the country, going to the west coast, to New York City, and to Florida. We also went to middle America to Missouri and Indiana, to Alaska on a cruise and of course to Florida where we found a little piece of paradise in our beloved Shell Creek RV Park in Punta Gorda. In the late 80s and 90s Ron had amazing success in the Engineers, being master mechanic on the pipeline that ran from Niagara Falls to Syracuse and he was in charge of changing the steam generators at the Ginna Nuclear Facility which was no small task, but again he did it with the same drive he always displayed. After finishing up at Ginna, he worked on the sewer tunnel job here in Rochester where he was the mechanic on a machine called the “Mole�. It was at this time he had his first issue with heart problems and he had to be lifted out of the tunnel in a man basket to a waiting ambulance. Fortunately he was met by Dr. Tim Matthew at the emergency room and he saved Ron’s life at that time. Ron worked with his good friend and fellow engineer, Dick Ross who operated the Mole and Ron kept the rock cutting blades sharp. They finished that job with a fantastic “holing through� party put on by the company who had won the bid. It was at this time Ron decided to go to crane school and he became a crane operator for Webster Crane Service. He loved it. It was from this job he retired in 2002 and then I retired in 2003. We then got to enjoy over 10 years of retirement, mostly at Shell Creek. We always felt blessed to have that much time because his brother and many others we know, never had that luxury. Ron was always the go to guy for whatever anyone needed to have done. When the multiple sclerosis he was diagnosed with in 2007 slowed him down, it was difficult for him to ask for help - no matter what the task. If I asked him if he needed any help his standard answer was “I’ve got it.� Never once did he say, why did this have to happen or did he wish he’d never been afflicted with it. He figured it was God’s will, that God had a plan, and Ron was going to make the most of it no matter what. MS allowed Ron to be an example to many, even a hero to some as folks saw first-hand that he didn’t let the MS control his life. With the help of fellow engineer Terry Clements and good friend Bill Crawford, they rigged up a ramp system whereby Ron could drive his chair out onto his boat, affectionately called the Rontoon, and sit at the wheel and go all over that creek. We both always said “anyone who doesn’t believe in God needs to come out on this creek. Man could never come up with a design like this�. He loved taking families with little kids for a ride and he always knew where the alligators would be sun bathing and the kids always were amazed. It was during those years that we both grew to love country gospel music and Ron’s singing talents came back loud and strong. Together we began a Scripture and Song Program which we had the pleasure of presenting in campgrounds and churches all along the eastern seaboard, here in the Rochester area, and in the home states of some of our Shell Creek friends. It’s impossible to know how many lives were touched by his soothing but strong base voice. So many wonderful comments came to us saying how much the programs and Ron’s singing had touched their lives. As time went on, the MS began its slow progression of stealing from Ron’s body. His strength began to be compromised, he was in his wheelchair constantly except when he was in bed. His lungs became congested easily and it was difficult for him to push enough air out to be able to sing in programs as he had before. This was a huge disappointment for him as singing was such a dominant part of his life. It was at this point we made the painful decision to sell our little place in Shell Creek and we said goodbye to a magical lifestyle and many people we had grown to know and love. We know God had his hand all over that whole scenario as Ron was in the hospital five times the first year and 5 times again the second year. One of the most painful things I witnessed, was early on in the MS journey, when we happened to be at an event where the Star Spangled Banner was played. He struggled to stand, using his two canes because he was a patriot through and through, he loved his country, and he wanted to honor his flag. Once a marine, always a marine. The words semper fi are not just a slogan. When folks would notice his marine emblem on the back of his chair, they would shake his hand and thank him for his service or just say semper fi. It always warmed his heart. As years passed, he enjoyed seeing all of our children, 9 in all, grow to be successful in their chosen field of employment. Then there were grandchildren, and even great grands, all of which held a special place in his heart and they have all made us proud. Our latest grandchild, Sullivan Ronald, was born a little over a week ago. How his grandfather would have loved to have held him and given him rides on his lap in the wheelchair just as he did with the others when they were still small. Yes, we have all lost a friend - but as his wife and caregiver, I have lost my soul mate - and it’s been extremely difficult saying a long, slow goodbye to the man with whom I shared almost half of my life. I already miss him and will continue to miss so many of the qualities that he possessed. I will miss his ready smile, his almost boyish giggle, and his sense of humor. You could tell by looking at him that he was a very strong man but ironically, it was his gentleness that endeared him to us all. AND, I have to admit - I’ll miss his cooking. He was very creative in the kitchen. He loved to cook and so he did, always with garlic - he said if it wasn’t worth cooking with garlic, it just wasn’t worth cooking. I will miss his McGyverisms, too. He was a master at using duct tape and/or super glue and paper clips to fix things. Yes, Ron was special - and now he’s on his newest and most exciting adventure ever. - one that he looked forward to. I know for sure he’s already been recruited to that heavenly choir. He’s walking straight and tall again on those streets of gold. Ron and his good friend from Shell Creek, Bill Crawford, used to get into lengthy discussions about religion with each other. Bill’s advice was always DON’T GET READY, BE READY. Ron was ready!! He told me that many times. While Ron WAS READY, we weren’t ready to let him go but how thankful we all are to know that he is out of his wheelchair, and hugging his mom and dad once again who I‘m sure were there waiting for him. How do I know that? 3 times within the last week and a half of his life I woke up to him loudly calling DAD, DAD. Another night he was calling his mother. We both saw that as a sign. SO NOW I AM THANKFUL AND GRATEFUL TO GOD THAT AT LAST RON IS EXPERIENCING THAT WONDERFUL PEACE THAT PASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING. Arrangements entrusted to Thomas E. Burger Funeral Home, 735 East Avenue, Hilton, NY. http://www.burgerfuneralhome.com