RONALD L. EARLEY 
March 10, 1938 – Sept. 23, 2015
The first thing many people noticed about Ron Earley was his lighthearted sense of humor, but spending more than a couple of minutes with him revealed a whirring intellect and a passion for making the world a better place.
“I had only one rule with Ron,” said his wife, Maureen. “No jokes before 6:30 in the morning. We really used to laugh together.”
A prolific inventor and entrepreneur, Ronald L. Earley died Sept. 23, 2015. In addition to his adoring wife, children and grandchildren, Ron left behind a legacy of ideas both modest and grand.
Maureen and Ron met when she visited Springfield from England for a cousin’s wedding. A member of Maureen’s family tried to set her up with an Englishman at the wedding. Ron walked into the room, and Maureen kissed him on both cheeks, the customary European greeting.
“It was the wrong guy,” she said, sounding slightly embarrassed even today. “We were married a year later.”
Maureen describes Ron as being “the best of America: lovely, outgoing, kind, open … Everyone was a friend to him.”
Ron was born March 10, 1938, to Clarke and Helen Earley of Springfield. His childhood was filled with loss and uncertainty, but Ron’s positive outlook and self-reliance kept those experiences from tainting him.
“Ron wasn’t a quitter,” Maureen said.
“He never moaned about it. Most of his friends didn’t even know he had a bad childhood. That’s probably why he was so kind to people. He had several people in life who were his mentors.”
As a child, Ron lived with foster families in several places across the U.S., but he ended up back in Springfield for high school, where he graduated from Lanphier. He then served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1958 to 1962. When he returned to Springfield, he worked for a couple of publishing companies, then for the State of Illinois as a printing supervisor, where he retired after 30 years.
Along the way, Ron earned a reputation in Springfield as a creative and inquisitive tinkerer. Ron had more than 60 inventions to his name and a handful of patents to go with them. Among his more successful inventions is the Grip ’N Rise cane accessory – a simple plastic knob that slips over a cane, offering a firm grip for a fallen person to pull themselves up. He also invented a mobile home insulation system, a beeper to find luggage at an airport, a motorized swimming pool cover, a garage door screen and dozens of other ideas – several of which have now become commonplace. For many years, Ron’s Mega-T iced tea mix was made in Springfield and sold in at least seven states.
Maureen says Ron’s inquisitive nature may have run in the family, noting that Ron’s grandfather was a watchmaker and inventor from Berlin.
“He always took it for granted that his mind worked that way,” she said.
Many of Ron’s ideas – especially his cane accessories – came from wanting to help someone.
“He was always sympathetic to people,” Maureen said. “He certainly didn’t have a head for money, because he gave away many of his inventions.”
Maureen recounts a situation in which Ron’s kind disposition was tested by a particularly bad idea. A man whom Ron invited over for dinner explained with apparent eagerness an idea to put screens on hubcaps so people could watch television as cars go by.
“Even Ron was struggling to say something nice about that idea,” Maureen said with a laugh.
One of her favorite memories of Ron is when he invented a natural alternative to salting icy sidewalks, instead grinding up the sweet gum balls that litter many Springfield residential streets. Maureen said Ron broke her food processor grinding up the seed pods and then moved on to her blender.
“I got some nice new equipment out of that,” she joked.
Maureen says Ronald was eternally grateful for his life, especially their granddaughters, who called Ron “Poppy” and enjoyed watching movies and reading books with him.
“He would look around and say, ‘Aren’t we lucky?’ ” she said.
Mike Farmer met Ron through their mutual involvement in the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce. Farmer, the former director of the Office of Planning and Economic Development for the City of Springfield, describes Ron as “a charm.”
“Ron was just a perfect gentleman, with an awful lot of enthusiasm and genuine passion,” Farmer said. “He was a one-of-akind guy, always out to help people.”
Farmer recalls being impressed that Ron never let the health issues he developed toward the end of his life slow him down.
“He was determined and selfless,” Farmer said. “For all the positive and wonderful things about him, that was the thing that stuck with me the most.”
Contact Patrick Yeagle at pyeagle@illinoistimes.com.
