Ron Levine

Ron Levine lived an adventurous seventy-eight years before passing peacefully on March 29th, 2025. Born in Willimantic, Connecticut, to the late Leonard and Marcia Levine, Ron grew up alongside his older brother, Jerry, and their childhood was filled with exploration and curiosity. Ron spent his younger years honing skills with the Boy Scouts, mastering the mechanics of laundry machines in the family laundromat, and taking cars apart - only to put them back together so he could race them on the weekends.

Ron liked going fast and pushing the limits, so during college, he raced motorcycles and competed in downhill skiing to satisfy his need for speed. His thirst for all things mechanical led him to obtain a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from New Haven College in 1969 and the nickname “MacGyver” later in life for his ability to fix anything with whatever he had on hand. He graduated at the top of his class and was recruited for a prestigious job at Pitney Bowes working on classified engineering projects. Within a few months, he realized that the desk-bound life of a corporate mechanical engineer was not a lifestyle he could live, so he traded the security of a job for the thrill of travel.

Before Ron left on a long trip to Europe, he spent his days teaching others how to dodge the draft and when his number was picked in 1969, he decided not to dodge, but instead went to his physical after being awake for 48 hours and ingesting nothing but coffee. After listening to his heart, they told him he was unfit to serve and rejected him immediately. Thinking it was the coffee and sleepless nights that did the trick, he never realized that this army doctor was the first one to notice the heart defect that would bring two open-heart surgeries to Ron in his late 50’s.   Free from supporting a war he didn’t believe in, Ron bought a plane ticket to Europe and spent several months traveling through Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Italy, and Greece, including a stay on a Kibbutz in Israel and an overnight in a Grecian jail for stowing away on a boat because he didn’t have money for a ticket. Prior to leaving for his trip, he met Naomi on a blind date and spent his time abroad writing love notes to her, pining to be with her when he returned.

Ron and Naomi were married on June 6, 1971 and spent the next fifty-three years creating a uniquely beautiful life together. After they said “I do”, they moved from Connecticut to Chicago and Ron began a career creating programs for people with disabilities to help them live independent lives through job training and life skills practices. After one insanely cold and windy Chicago winter, they moved back to Connecticut to thaw out and continued working with disabled adults until the next travel bug hit. Friends they had met in Chicago sparked the idea of an adventure, and together, the four of them devised a plan to travel across the US. Ron and Naomi bought an old truck and transformed its bed into a cedar shake house, creating a cozy home on wheels. For the next two and a half months, they traveled the country with their friends, sticking mostly to back roads and embracing the adventure of the open road.

After this trip, they moved back to Connecticut and were lucky enough to move into an idyllic hilltop farmhouse on an old dairy farm they called Windy Hill in East Killingly. Ron, a budding entrepreneur with a keen ability to make money from nothing, found gold on that farm in the form of manure and old farm equipment. For starters, he bagged up the old manure in the barn and sold it to farmers and gardeners. A while later, Ron read an article in Mother Earth News about two women growing alfalfa sprouts in jars. He called them up, asked them all sorts of questions, and then built on their ideas by engineering a hydroponic growing center on his farm from all the old equipment he repurposed. Within a short time, Windy Hill Farms Sprouts was created and they were selling over four-thousand pounds of sprouts a week to the greater Boston, New York, and Hartford areas.

Ron and Naomi had two little sprouts of their own, Mathew in 1978 and Sara in 1980. Ron was a family man and strived to bring adventure, peace, knowledge, and connection to his family. Mat now lives in upstate New York with his wife, Amie, and two daughters, Brie (14) and Harper (9). Sara lives next door to Ron and Naomi with her husband, Jeff, and son, Eli (4).

After an unsuccessful attempt at franchising the sprout business, which is a story too long for an obituary, Ron moved on to fixing up historic homes as a handyman until he and the family moved to Orlando, Florida to restart the sprout business as Mandarin Growers in 1987. In addition to rebuilding a hydroponic growing room in the garage for the Florida reboot, Ron also sold timeshare and security alarm systems. While on a fall vacation in the North Carolina Highlands area in 1993, it was decided unanimously by the family that the fire ants, unbearable heat, and insane levels of crime would be promptly traded for country living just north of Asheville. The Florida house sold within one day of putting it on the market and the Levines rolled up the mountainside with their belongings hitched to the wood paneled Dodge van and the Ford Tempo, looking a bit like the Beverly Hillbillies.

The sprout business was sold before leaving Florida, so once in Asheville, Ron took up selling timeshare again, then vacuums (where he won a car in a sales contest), and then opened up his home inspection business, Premier Inspections. His lifelong experience with fixing and engineering gave him a sharp eye for detail, earning him the trust of realtors and homebuyers alike as a professional who truly knew his craft.

When Ron was 58, that bad heart from the draft physical caught up with him and he had open heart surgery to install a St. Jude’s heart valve, correcting an aortic valve defect from birth. The first surgery didn’t heal well, so two years later, he found himself on the operating table again. This setback affected his ability to continue with home inspections, so he transitioned to working for a home inspection software company until his retirement in 2011.

Ron loved these Appalachian mountains and always said that when he retired, he wanted to tinker in his barn and sit on his porch overlooking the Blue Ridge. He is a man of his word and that’s exactly where you could find him on most days. He was always happy to travel, but he was even happier to be back home surveying his land and letting his eyes rest on these mountains.

Throughout his life, Ron shared his home and heart with a beloved parade of cats and dogs. These furry friends were never just pets, they became trusted confidants, playful companions, and loyal family members who shared in both the quiet moments and the adventures of his everyday life. It was rare to see Ron without a dog following at his heels to comfort him, keep him company, and offer him the unconditional love that only a pet can give.

At 66, Ron noticed a twitching finger that wouldn't settle, much like Michael J. Fox's early signs. After consulting several doctors, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Ron was always a stoic, independent, capable, and deeply competent person, but Parkinson’s slowly took those pieces from him over the next many years.

Ron always remarked that he didn’t think he would live past 30 with his kamikaze ways and family history of young deaths. With a whole ton of luck, a lot of creativity, support from family, and some serious fortitude, Ron lived a beautifully long and fulfilling life. He got to see his children grow into successful adults, meet and know his grandchildren, love Naomi for 53 years, plant a new generation of blight resistant chestnut trees and see them bear fruit, tinker endlessly in his barn, happily mow his mountain acres, and enjoy the peaceful pace of life he yearned for.

For years, Ron had this Hunter S. Thompson quote on his desk, “Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, ‘Wow! What a ride!” For those of you who knew Ron, this quote should make you laugh and cry and holler and tip one back for the hell of a wild and crazy ride he took in this life.

In lieu of flowers, please donate in Ron’s memory to the Asheville Parkinson’s Support Group. It is an immensely powerful and helpful group for people living with Parkinson’s and their caregivers. Both Ron and Naomi received years of beautiful support, education, and camaraderie from this group. https://parkinsonsavl.org/donations-to-parkinsons/

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