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Ronald Lee "Ron" Ingle
Sep 22, 1953 - Apr 15, 2023
Submitted by: Jo Aguirre

© Kingfisher Times & Free Press

Ronald Lee Ingle, age 69, died at his home northeast of Dover April 15, 2023. Along with his late sister Connie (Ingle) Byrum, they were the first twins born at Kingfisher Memorial Hospital on Sept. 22, 1953, to Oren Beryl and Ruth Evelyn (Schmidt) Ingle.
 

After graduating from Dover High School in 1971, Ron attended Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College at Miami, where he met Denise Eileen Cann during their studies for drafting and design. The two were married June 22, 1974, and made their home east of Kingfisher County’s Oak Grove Church, just two miles from where Ron grew up.

Following his father’s footsteps at the same plant, Ron was employed as a maintenance mechanic by the Rockwell International airplane factory in Bethany from 1973 to 2002 when it closed under the name of Gulfstream Aerospace.

Ron and Denise welcomed three children, Jeremy in 1976, Chris in 1980 and Rachel in 1984.

His father Beryl and sister Connie both suffered and passed from congestive heart failure in 1974 and 1994, respectively.

Ron began to experience the disease in 1996.

Five years later on Feb. 13, 2001, he received a full heart transplant at Nazih Zhudi Transplant Institute in Oklahoma City.

Upon recovery, he returned to work for a time at Gulfstream until its closure... being the locksmith, he had all the keys, so was among the last employees to lock up as the lights were turned out.

Now enjoying medical retirement, he continued living life essentially as he had prior to his heart disease... routinely cutting firewood, working on his Model T car hobby, gardening, collecting movies, smoking meat, reading books and wine-making, especially with the area’s natural sand plum and sand cherries.

He also worked to compile his memoirs of life before, during and after the transplant in an autobiography “701-ICU: The True Story of a Heart Transplant Patient” and kept in contact with his heart donor’s widow and family, taking a keen interest in his “adoptive” family tree.

Ron served on the board of LifeShare of Oklahoma, consistently advocated for organ donation and told his story many times in speaking engagements the first few years after the transplant.

He retained many friends in the transplant community until his passing.

Routinely commenting that God had blessed him many times over throughout his life, Ron’s family and friends almost considered him invincible.

He was born with a hernia, dragged by a horse as a child, suffered a broken neck in a 1986 car wreck, endured multiple work-related mishaps including accidentally inhaling four types of toxic gases at one time, beat several cancers and strokes, enjoyed a recent knee replacement and, of course, lived 22 years with no problems whatsoever from his donor heart in all that time, despite the heart being six years his senior.

Among tractor and antique car show folks, Ron was known for his paintless Model T “Rusty Beast” pickup truck featuring an on-board outhouse and a collection of rattling junk.

On the highways and neighboring towns, many would recognize him driving his little gas-saving Smart car.

Both were briefly seen in a commercial he did with Enel Green Power which was filmed on his farm.


Ron is survived by his wife Denise of the home; son Jeremy and wife Monica (Milot) of Dover; son Chris of Pauls Valley; daughter Rachel Ingle and fiancé Kirk Grantham of Dover, and nine grandchildren.


He was preceded in death by his parents Beryl and Ruth and his only sibling Connie.


A memorial service will be held at noon Saturday, April 29, at Dover Baptist Church with Jimmy Berkenbile officiating.
 

Burial will follow at Oak Grove Cemetery.
 

The family welcomes Ron’s friends to write a note or say a few words at the service.
 

The family asks to please consider donating in Ron’s name to LifeshareOklahoma. org.

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