Ron was born in the small country town of Murrurundi N.S.W. on the 21 January 1932, to Stanley and Jeannette McClenahan. He was one of three children having two brothers, Stanley, and Kevin.
In 1943, following the separation of Ron’s parents, his father took in a housekeeper Ruby and her daughter Barbera, to look after the boys whilst he worked night shift on the railways. That meeting led to Stanley and Ruby getting married in 1945.
In 1947, at age 15, Ron began to yearn some adventure and went bush and grew up quickly around towns like Coonamble and Parkes doing casual work, as a farmhand bunking down wherever he could get a roof over his head.
In 1950, aged 18, Ron thought it was time to do something serious with his life and moved to Nowra on the South Coast to join the navy as a trainee aircraft fitter. His initial training was at HMAS Cerberus, south of Melbourne. He served aboard HMA Ships Vengeance, Albatross and Penguin.
In 1953, Ron married a young lady called June.
1954 marked two very important dates in Ron’s life, the birth of his first son Bruce and the reprieve he received from the Navy from being posted to Korea during the latter stages of the war. Garry was born in 1956 when Ron decided to leave the Navy and move to Sydney and worked in a papermill in Seven Hills.
Ron joined Hawker De Havilland at Bankstown Airport as an aircraft fitter in 1958 and subsequently the family moved to Yagoona in 1960, as part of a housing commission swap, just in time for the birth of son number three, Rodney.
After spending 17 years with Hawkers at Bankstown Airport, Ron left the Aircraft Industry in 1975 and as a further sign of his versatility, thrust himself into selling life insurance with MLC. Two years later, however, he concluded that life as an insurance salesman did not have the job security he needed, so it was then that he commenced his long-term career as a Contract Courier with Avante Couriers in Sydney where he worked for 20 years. In this time Ron built an enviable reputation as a highly reliable and respected servant to the courier game by both his peers and clients.
In 1990 they built their dream home in Batemans Bay, where Ron continued to work in Sydney for another seven years until he decided to “ hang up the boots “ in 1997, aged 65.
After several years June’s health problems caused them to leave the bay in 2008, to St. George’s Basin to be a little closer to the family. Her health continued to decline despite Ron’s remarkable attention to her daily needs and welfare.
In 2013, Ron and June again moved, this time into the Coastal Waters retirement village in the basin which contained an on-site medical facility specializing in dementia care. Ron worked tirelessly day and night to take care of June, however the impact on his own health led to June being admitted to the on-site facility in 2014.
June lost her fight in 2017 and Ron continued to live in the village home until 2020 where he also fell victim to early dementia and later a battle with cancer. His failing health led to him being admitted to an aged care facility in Glenfield, Sydney where he sadly passed away aged 89 on 04 April 2021.
