Obituary: Jacobsen, Ron D.
Ron and Wava were married on 18 June 1950 and spent over 62 years together.
He is survived by his wife, daughter and two sons, two daughters-in-law, five grandchildren, and one great-grandson.
He is predeceased by his sister, who lost her battle with cancer in 1994 and two brothers, one killed in action 7 days before hostilities ended in Korea in 1953, and the other who succumbed to Alzheimer’s complications in 2009.
Upon graduation at age 17, he entered the U.S. Navy where he served with some distinction for 27 years as a marine electrician and officer.
He received 13 awards and a number of citations for his services.
Among his duties outside the field of electricity was his participation in the atomic bomb test at Bikini Atoll in 1946 and in some of the early studies of site decontamination and rehabilitation.
He spent some time at the Nevada test site for hands-on experience in the late 1950’s.
Ron was a part of the occupation force and served in Japan for a very short time, stationed aboard ship while there, after World War II.
In the ensuing years, he spent time in Korea, Japan, and the Philippines with several visits to Okinawa, Formosa and Viet Nam.
He made port calls in Pusan, Inchon, Manila, Singapore and Hong Kong.
He also spent nearly a total of two years off the coast of Viet Nam in three ships during the American effort during that war, and was “in country” twice in Da Nang.
He was a crew member of the cruiser Topeka during the attempt to pull our POW’s out of the North Viet Nam prison complex known as Hanoi Hilton in 1970.
He answered calls for help on mine sweeping equipment repairs and calibration in mine warfare ships of the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Forces, the Republic of China and the Philippine Navies.
Ron was commissioned an officer in 1962 and served in two combatant ships as well as Chief Engineer on the USS Winston, an amphibious support ship.
When he retired, he was on the staff of the Commander, Cruiser-Destroyer Forces, U.S. Pacific Fleet.
After his retirement from the Navy, Ron served as the director of maintenance at Spokane Valley General Hospital before its expansion, then was recruited for maintaining the Liberty Lake sewer system as the collection and treatment systems were being built and put on line.
He “retired” completely in 1983 but later spent a year with the YMCA in Spokane to restore some of the facilities that had deteriorated over the years.
He also spent several years as custodian at Christ Lutheran Church, sang in the church choir for over twenty years, served on the church council for a short time and on two committees for nearly 15 years, as well as other voluntary tasks for this congregation as they came up.