Sokol, Ronald M.
Dates
- Existence: 1944 - 2013
biographical statement
(1) Alumnus, Monmouth College class of 1968 (BS), class of 1972 (MAT).
(2) Ronald Michael SOKOL
Ronald Michael Sokol, 68, of Rich Creek, died on the morning of Thursday, January 17, 2013. He is survived by his wife, Christine; sons, Ron Mark and Christopher; and daughter, Jessica.
His greatest values were God, his family, and his community. Awarded the Valley Forge Teachers Medal decades ago for excellence in teaching, he considered himself first of all a teacher and was always teaching with generosity and humor, even when not in a classroom. He had the ability to make whomever he was talking to feel valued and respected, and to leave them laughing. He always said, "it doesn't cost anything to leave someone with a smile."
An amateur radio operator since his teens, and believing strongly in public service, he was active in Amateur Radio Emergency Services. His family and friends will miss him greatly.
The viewing will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on Friday, January 18, 2013, at Givens Funeral Home in Pearisburg, Va.
A Memorial Mass will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, January 19, 2013, at Holy Family Catholic Church followed by interment at Sunrise Memorial Gardens in Rich Creek, Va.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital or Knights of Columbus Fr. Prinelli Seminarian Fund.
Arrangements by Givens Funeral Home, Pearisburg, Va., 540-921-1650.
Published in Roanoke Times on January 18, 2013
(3)
Published on Friday, 18 January 2013 14:18
RON SOKOL, K4KHZ, SILENT KEY
-- ASM Joe Safranek, K4JJS
It is with great sadness that our friend, colleague, mentor, and all around great guy Ron Sokol, K4KHZ, became a Silent Key on the morning of January 17, 2013. Ron had been ill for many years but he continually fought his medical problems with great love, help, and support from his spouse, Christine, K4CES.
Ron served in numerous ARRL and ARES positions over the years his last two being Section Emergency Coordinator and then as Assistant Section Manager-At Large. Through many, many hours and days of intense hard work Ron was instrumental in accomplishing many great things for the ham radio world and community in general. Ron had a gift for writing grant applications and helped several schools obtain funds to purchase new technology for the students. Ron was responsible for assisting radio clubs in purchasing repeater systems and personally donated a lot of equipment to several of these systems. A project I was proud to have worked on with him was the Memorandum of Understanding with the Commonwealth of Virginia which provided registered amateurs who were activated to communications duty by any level of government with the protection of workman’s compensation if injured in the line of duty and limited personal liability protections.
Much of what Ron had accomplished was not widely known and he never once bragged about any of his accomplishments. When I was serving at the Public Information Coordinator for the section, many nights I was on the phone with Ron half the night writing and re-writing stories always with the goal of showing our Virginia members in the best light. One night around 10:00 PM I got a phone call from Ron and he said that we need a story on the website about ham radio support to President Obama’s first inauguration. Not a problem, buddy, as I already had started writing a shell for the story…what do you mean we need it by 6:00AM? Tasking from Newington requested this story to be on the website by that time. We finally finished about 3:00 AM and sent it out. Ron was so pleased that the story went national by 8:30 AM eastern time. Comments received back from several other sections about the story praised Virginia for the manner in which our hams were shown to the world. Ron’s response to these comments was akin to “Well, just got my paycheck. We made our folks look good.”
During his tenure as both SEC and ASM Ron reached out to all hams, not just ARRL members. He felt that no matter what patch you wear there is a community of radio operators who just do what is needed to help others. Providing emergency communications, health and welfare traffic, comms for local events, encouraging children in the sciences and mathematics, teaching classes to help others achieve their individual goals of getting their ham licenses, Ron was a positive influence on the hobby and ham radio community in general.
We do not have any information on what arrangements are being made nor what Christine’s desires are at this time. We will post the information as soon as we can. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Christine and her family.
Ron was a good friend and a great man. We shall miss him.