Ronald Kunish Smith

Ronald K. Smith, 97, passed away on October 6, 2022, at Royal Care of Avon Park, in Avon Park, Florida. Ron was born on September 22, 1925, in Effingham, Kansas, to Frederick and May (Roberson) Smith. In 1943 he graduated from Atchison County Community High School, Effingham, Kansas, but whenever the family visited the area, it was Bittersweet, the one-room schoolhouse he attended for two years, that he took them to see.

A back injury prevented him from enlisting during World War II, and he spent the war years at Pratt and Whitney in Kansas City inspecting “corncob” airplane engines. After the war he worked the harvest during summers to help finance college at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, where he graduated in 1950.

In 1951 he married Phyllis Leah Duff at Topeka, Kansas, and they lived in Wichita where they raised their two children Gerald “Jerry” and Linda. Ron spent most of his career as an aeronautical engineer at Boeing Aircraft Company in Wichita and Seattle. Upon Ron’s retirement he and Phyllis enjoyed their home in Wichita and traveled. Ron also loved gardening and riding bicycle, accumulating over 50,000 miles between the ages of 65 and 80. After Phyllis passed away, Ron married R. Joann Winkler and they enjoyed several years together traveling and living in Wichita and Florida.

Grateful for having shared Ron’s life are his wife, R. Joann Winkler Smith (nee Johnston), his two children Jerry (Robin) Smith and Linda (Joe) Van De Rostyne, two grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. Preceding Ron in death are his parents, Frederick and May Smith, his first wife, Phillis Smith (nee Duff), and his sister and brother-in-law Bertha and Virgil Meier.

Arrangements entrusted to:
Stephenson-Nelson Funeral Home
4001 Sebring Parkway
Sebring, FL 33870
Online condolences may be left at:
www.stephensonnelsonfh.com