Necrology

Ronald Frank Ronacher '57

Aug. 25, 1935-Jan. 25, 2023

Ronald Frank Ronacher ’57 died in Beaverton, Ore., on Jan. 25, 2023. Born in Syracuse, N.Y., on Aug. 25, 1935, he grew up in nearby Liverpool and came to Hamilton from Liverpool Central High School. On the Hill, he was a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha Athletic Club and played on its softball team. Indeed, his yearbook senior entry noted that his departure might mean the team would be short-handed henceforth, such was the collective enthusiasm of his fraternity for athletics.

There was another dimension to Ron’s life at the College: his relationship with Janet Jerman, whom he had met at church in 1953. They were married on Aug. 31, 1957, in Liverpool. They had three sons and a daughter.

Although Ron majored in English literature, graduating with honors in the subject, it was also at Hamilton that he was introduced to a new area of study that defined his later career: clinical psychology.

Not quite a month after they were married, Ron and Janet moved to Athens, Ohio, where he pursued a master’s degree in psychology at Ohio University. The title of his thesis was “The Effect of Added Frequency of Exposure Upon the Visual Recognition Thresholds of Words of Varying Frequencies of English Usage.” He was also employed as a manager of one of the university’s residence halls. 

After Ron completed his master’s degree in 1959, the family left Athens for Salt Lake City, where he entered the doctoral program in clinical psychology at the University of Utah. He completed the program in 1963. The title of his dissertation was “Ulceration in CBA Mice Following Stress at Various Ages.” A “CBA mouse” is bred to resist certain kinds of tumors and is used in an array of scientific experiments.

Terminal degree in hand, Ron moved with the family to Oregon. He had accepted an appointment in the Student Counseling and Testing Services Center (now Student Health and Counseling) at Portland State College (now Portland State University). Ron was attracted to the job because it meant he could work with students of all ages, not just those of traditional college years. He also loved the Pacific Northwest. The Ronachers made their home in Beaverton, and their fourth child was born there.

Ron’s work at Portland State involved helping students deal with test anxiety, and many of those in need of such assistance were mathematics and science majors. He also advised students as they determined their future career plans. Many such clients had come to the university determined to major in, for instance, law or medicine, only to discover in time that they hated these subjects and recoiled at the prospect of a profession in them. At that point, Ron and his colleagues guided them toward finding a more rewarding path.

There were other dimensions to Ron’s work, including assisting students who faced financial difficulty. The center later established the Ron Ronacher Emergency Loan Fund to provide short-term assistance to students in need.

During his time at Portland State, Ron was actively engaged in a number of professional organizations including the Portland Psychological Organization, the Oregon Psychological Association, and the American Psychological Association. He was also a member of three honor societies: Sigma Xi, Psi Chi, and Phi Kappa Phi.

Ron’s avocations were associated with the outdoors: especially fly-fishing, river running (also called whitewater rafting), and mountain climbing. He was active in the Oregon Fishing Club and also a member of the national organization Trout Unlimited for more than 30 years, being one of a small group of men who in 1986 organized the Tualatin Valley Chapter of TU. Ron served numerous terms on its board, assisted with fundraising, wrote articles for its newsletter, and assisted with stream rehabilitation projects, among many other contributions. 

For Ron, being outdoors was therapeutic. As his friend Alex Barkume recalled, when the two of them were out on a river fishing for trout or salmon, there was no discussion of their careers: “I knew he was a professor and staff psychologist at Portland State, but I don’t recall either of us digging too deeply into our educational side … other than anecdotally. And to us, none of that really mattered as much as the passion we shared regarding our preferred sport. Ron, especially, liked to keep his professional side separate from the social side, I think to keep from spoiling the Zen and joy of being outdoors.” So devoted was Ron to this sport that, reportedly, he was still fishing until three months before his death. 

A hook and a line was not the only way Ron connected with nature. With his family, he rafted on a number of notable western rivers including the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. He was also a member of the Mazamas Mountaineering Center in Portland and climbed many of the highest peaks in the Cascade Range, including Mount Hood, Mount Saint Helens, and the Three Sisters, all volcanic mountains with elevations above 10,000 feet. Often, he was accompanied on these expeditions by his sons.

Ronald F. Ronacher is predeceased by one son and is survived by his wife, two daughters, one son, seven grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

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