I just learned about Ron's passing today.
Ron was a wonderfully sweet and kind man. He had an irreverent and charmingly juvenile sense of humor, and often told amusing tales from his life. He was also a very smart man, and remained sharp till the end. He had a very large soft-spot, and was generous to a fault.
I met 'Photo Engineer' on APUG many moons ago, and it was because of Ron that I moved to Rochester in 2012. I interned with him and Mark Osterman for a year, alongside Nick Brandreth, who has gone on to make amazing things happen with the influence of Ron's emulsion making know-how and expertise.
I had a wonderful 6 years of life in Rochester, and I owe that initial decision almost completely to Ron. He influenced the course of my life in a meaningful and profound way, and I wouldn't be here in Vienna, Austria today had it not been for Ron's activity on this forum over 10 years ago.
I re-visited Rochester again in March of last year and met up with Ron one afternoon. I brought along some of my latest prototypes of our peel-apart ONE INSTANT film. He had many useful and insightful things to say, and recalled his own work on Kodak's instant system, which was one of his early work projects. He even met Edwin Land once, he told me, at a conference, but that Mr. Land had his nose so high he didn't like him much. We ate some greasy burgers at Schaller's in Greece, NY, right by the lake; Ron's treat. We then went back to his house, and climbed down into the basement so he could dig through his overflowing darkroom to look for some old examples of those early instant tests from Kodak. He never did find them.
Then we walked around his yard and just talked. It was a lovely visit, and I'm glad I got to see him that time. It turned out to be our last meeting.
Ron and his wife Suzi were always fond of having visitors, and my first 'study sessions' upon landing in Rochester were about emulsion technique, and took place at their home over coffee. That first meeting, Ron gifted me a college ruled notebook, and told me if I was going to study photo engineering, I better take damn good notes!
I still have the notebook, and it's chock full of information that is priceless to me. I am still adding to it, though more infrequently, and this morning I entered the passing of Rowland Mowrey. I was just thinking last week that I should send Ron a picture of this well-worn article and thank him again for it.
So, I raise a giant mug of Pittsburgh Brewing’s
Olde Frothingslosh, and sing a hearty toast to our departed friend. Ron, I guess you're in the stop bath now, because you're finally done developing... :'-)
We'll miss you Ron,
Chris Holmquist
holmburgers