The following information is provided by Elaine (Ladd) Cope.

Ron served in the US Army out of high school at Fort Sill Oklahoma - the whole time, despite his hope he'd see more of the world in the Army! He had a military funeral with full honors.  He had lived since 1982 outside  Colorado Springs, Colorado which was where he died and was cremated.  Ron was preceeded in death by his father, Lonnie Rash. He is survived by his mother, Wendoline, and his sister, Connie (whose married name I don't know as she'd been widowed and then remarried). Ron worked in surveying and engineering.

In December 1982 he married Joan Dean and they had a brilliant daugher, Kate Rash, who was honestly so gifted in math and science that she got a job with NASA - at a very early age! I honestly think Kate's a genius! 

A few years before his death, he divorced Joan and later married Margaret Scanlon, from Boston, who also lived in the country outside Colorado Springs. Margaret was extremely devoted to Ron during that difficult time of his extended illness.  I never met her but we used to talk frequently on the phone and I felt like I came to know her through it all.  She was a relative newcomer to Ron's life and it helped to connect with somebody from the old days, I think, who'd known Ron since he was a little boy.  None of us friends from the old days could make it to Ron's funeral on such short notice (he'd been in declining health for a long time but nobody knew when the end would really come) but we all remember him fondly - how brave and funny and intelligent he could be!