Necrology
Ronald Allan Ripps '64
May. 6, 1943-Nov. 22, 2022
Ronald Allan Ripps ’64 died on Nov. 22, 2022, in Danbury, Conn. Born on May 6, 1943, in Bridgeport, Conn., and raised in New Haven, he came to Hamilton from the Hopkins School. On the Hill, he majored in biology in preparation for medical school and was a member of Theta Delta Chi fraternity. He sang in the College Choir as a freshman and was in the Biology Club during his junior and senior years.
From Hamilton, Ron proceeded to Tufts University School of Medicine, completing his medical degree in 1968. He then prepared for a specialization in surgery beginning with an internship at Georgetown University Medical School, where, that same year, he met Neville Holter, a nurse on the staff. They would be married on Nov. 23, 1969, in Virginia and would have a son and a daughter. By then, Ron had become a surgical resident at Boston City Hospital.
In 1970, he joined the U.S. Air Force and was stationed as a flight surgeon at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, Kan., an assignment that also took him to Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio. Honorably discharged with the rank of captain in 1972, he began a three-year residency in orthopedic surgery at the Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, which is affiliated with Washington University.
In 1975, Ron began his surgical career when he moved to Danbury, Conn., and began what he later described as a “solo” practice. Over time, other orthopedic surgeons joined him, and the practice eventually became known as Connecticut Family Orthopedics. Ron was director. By 2005, it had grown to include a staff of seven surgeons and a physical therapy department.
Ron’s marriage ended in 1987. Two years later, while attending a medical conference in Ann Arbor, Mich., he met Barbara Kantor, an occupational therapist, who at the time lived in Minneapolis. Their meeting led to a series of letters and phone calls over the next year, and they were married in 1990 in Brookfield, Conn.
His service to the medical profession included accepting an appointment as trustee of the Fairfield County Medical Association and director of Physicians Health Services. In 1991, he also served for a year as attending chief of the orthopedic section of Danbury Hospital. In 2000, Ron was certified as an independent medical examiner, a side practice he continued until 2020. Ron was elected president of the Connecticut Orthopedic Society in 2002 and also was a member of Danbury Hospital’s ethics committee.
In 2008, he retired from his surgical practice, by which time he had performed more than 5,000 operations. For that work and his other professional contributions, he was honored as “Surgeon of the Year” by the Connecticut Orthopedic Society. Ron continued to work in the orthopedic clinic until 2020.
Ron was a passionate fisherman. He co-owned a boat moored in Barnstable, Mass., designed for offshore fishing, and he traveled to the Florida Keys to fish for tarpon, bonefish, and a species known as “permit.” One unfulfilled goal was to catch each one of these in a single day. In the spring, he would travel north to Canada, to the Miramichi River in New Brunswick, to fish for salmon. His family would join him for multi-day river camping trips in Maine, Texas, Quebec, and even Iceland. His other hobbies included ham radio operation, carpentry, model building, and sculpture.
Ron’s view of Hamilton was ambivalent, and he was candid about what he regarded as its shortcomings. He summed up his feelings in his 50th reunion yearbook: “Having been a premed student in the 1960s, when getting into med school topped everyone’s wish list, I really don’t have a lot of fond memories of Hamilton and have no enduring friendships from that time in my life. We should recall college days as having been the most fun times of our lives. For me it was a time when I was introduced to the notion of self-sacrifice as a lifestyle — something that all medical professionals understand all too well. I had to learn to push myself far beyond the comfort levels of study and education and how to be competitive and self-reliant. The only bright spots were houseparty weekends and intramural sports. The winters were never ending, and the isolation of being at an all-men’s school was often overbearing.” Nevertheless, on the occasion of his 50th reunion, Ron acknowledged that he owed the College, “a debt for teaching me public speaking and creative writing, though neither skill was well developed when I graduated.”
Ronald A. Ripps is survived by his wife, as well as his son and daughter by his first marriage.
