Ronald William "Ron" Dean

Ronald William Dean's body finally left us on April 6, 2023, at the age of 87. Ron was one of four brothers and had three children, two stepchildren, and 7 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren along with many nieces and nephews. Ron was born December 10, 1935. He attended Franklin High School in Seattle, WA and dropped out of high school in 9th grade to join the Air Force were he became Airborne Navigation Equipment Repairman. He later, through the Air Force, obtained his High School equivalency in 1956. He spent 11 years in the Air Force as an electronics technician. He was stationed at Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, Pforzheim in Germany, Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, and Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi. He worked as a Ground Radio Repairman maintaining Philco TRC-30 Microwave, Carrier Systems, and Radio Communication sets. He was later named as Supervisor of an aircom site, supervisor of a Depot Maintenance, and finally training Supervisor of an Air Force Microwave Station.After his Air Force career, he attended Eastern Montana College in Billings, MT after which he went to work for Ford-Philco. He spent 10 years with Ford-Philco working in various locations such as California, Montana, Greenland, Wyoming, Thailand, New York, and finally ending up in Oklahoma City. He worked on many highly sophisticated projects involving high altitude balloons, Stratospheric Aerosol measuring equipment, signal conditioning, computer-controlled data recording systems, and circuit design. This work was as a contractor for projects with the US Army, NASA, US Air Force, and the University of Wyoming. He was also instrumental in helping create the computer program for the AWACS airplanes.Ron retired as a contractor from Tinker Air Force based in Midwest City, OK in 2002.He was married twice and spent much of his life caring for his wife Irene Crawford of nearly 40 years. His wife passed five years earlier to the day. He was a wonderful husband, father and stepfather to his children. A special thank you goes out to Companion Home Health for taking such amazing care of Ron during his last year or so of life. Life for him was truly better because of the love you gave him.