Mark Overstreet

My good and dear old friend Ron. 

I posted the photos shortly after Ron died. I waited a year before writing what I said at his funeral.

Ron and I go back 56 years. (This was written in 2011)We were together in  Kindergarten at Captain Raymond Collins.  I still have a little memory book that my aunt gave me to write down what the kids gave for my birthdays, so I could remeber to give them a thank you note.  The entry next to Ron Dumphy read, "cap gun".  We shared a lot of fun times together.  We became very good friends in high school. I must say that he did look out for me on a nuber of occasions when we were young.  There was the time that we were at the Huntington Beach cliffs and I had to much to drink and he left the beach party early in order to sober me up and drive me home. Once at a football game, the year after graduation, at Burbank High School some "big fellows" started to give me a hard time because I was from Paramount ( with my Varsity Jacket on). Ron came over and said, "you O.K. Mark?"  The big fellows walked away.  Life can have many twists and turns, and at times it's not the way we plan it to be, but we do what we need to do in order to make life as breath taking as we can. Ron looked for those breath taking moments and found many.

As long as I've known Ron, he had a big laugh and liked to joke a lot.  That got us into "hot water" with many of our teachers in junior high and high school. It also go Ron through some difficult times in life.  Sport was vey important to him.   In his later years many of his aquaintances didn't know about his sports background. After being the "Athelete of the Year" at Paramount High School in 1968, Ron attended Cerrritos Community College and then went to Cal State University, Northridege.  At Cerritos he was a member of the track and field team, throwing the javelin and wasshot putter. Ron went to the Calif. State Championship meet. He wanted to play professional football and tried out for a simi pro team as a walk on. I would see him on the Cal State Long Beach football field in the afternoons practicing his football punting, day after day.  He have a sack of footballs and then catch a bus back home. Ronald had natural physical talents and he worked hard to develop them even more.  He was admired by many people, including myself.  Ron was a "In-your-face athelete", but was always a good sportman. He often came over to me to add encouragement before I ran in a race, and that ment a lot to me. That same encoragement carried on into our personal lives as adults as we talked to each other about doing well and succeeding in life.

Ronald loved his son and daughter very much and always filled me in on how they were doing in school.  Ron was very proud of their accomplishments.  As fathers, talking about our children was the most important aspect of our conversations.  I'm glad taht our children got to meet each other and got to play togethen even if it was only a couple of times.

It doeesn't seem that long ago, that we were reading, Treasure Island, in a elementary school reading group, joking around in Mr. Kersh's 9th grade math class, driving around Paramount in his "souped-up" 57 Chevy.  In our senior year,( he'd pick me up for school when my car was down and I'd give him a lift when his was down)  having a beer at the CSULB 49er  club, going out to discos on a Wednesday night, or just having a friendly visit to catch up how we were doing in life. (Ron was a"chick" magnet, the only problem was that the "chicks" wanted Ron when we went out to a club). 

God Bless my very good old friend Ron and God Bless all those who he loved and those that loved him.

To my good "old" friends, may we share some good times together int he future. Life is short and I plan to cherish as many moments as I can.  Let those that you care for and love know that you love them, be good to each other and be good for each other.

Lynne Scales (Thurman)

You were our hero at PHS Ron, and helped create many memories for many of us.  Rest in Peace my friend.
Lynne