Ronald Edward Dempsey

A celebration of life service for Dr. Ronald E. Dempsey of St. Simons Island, Ga. Will be held at 11:00 Monday, September 16, 2013 at the First Baptist Church of Brunswick with Dr. Ronny Spillers, Rev. Darrell Joiner, and Rev. Mark Clay officiating. Visitation will be held from 9:30 to 11:00 on the day of the funeral in Twitty Chapel, which is across the street from the First Baptist Church sanctuary. Dr. Dempsey passed away September 11, 2013. Burial will follow the service in Evergreen Cemetery.

Ron was born in Miami, Florida on Jan. 12, 1942, to Walter Roy Dempsey and Bessie Edith Patton Dempsey. He graduated from Miami Jackson High School where he was selected “Best All Round” from a class of 850 students. He then entered Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where he met and married his college sweetheart, Ann Stanford Dempsey. They both graduated from Baylor in 1964 and were married. On April 4, 2014, they would have been married 50 years.

Dempsey originally came to the Brunswick area as a U.S. Marine Corps First Lieutenant where he was assigned as an Air Intercept Techniques Instructor at Naval Air Tactical Training Command Center, Glynco, Georgia. Before Dempsey arrived in Brunswick, he completed a 13-month tour in Vietnam. In October of 1970 he was Honorably discharged at the rank of Captain. After completion of his active duty service, he then served on staff at the Brunswick Junior College (BJC), now known as the College of Coastal Georgia and completed his Master’s degree in Education. While at BJC, Ron served as Chairman of the Special Studies Division. During the formative period, Ron was appointed by the Board of Regents as Chairman Protem of the Academic Committee of Special Studies, the advisory committee to the Board of Regents. He was later elected Chairman by the Committee. He also served as Chairman on the Committee of Developmental Studies for the Georgia Association of Junior Colleges.

Dempsey used his impressive music background, education, and talents, as he recruited and organized a performing group in the mid 1970’s that consisted of 18 high school singers and instrumentalists who prepared 19th and 20th century American music for Bicentennial performances. He performed with them and directed this group in over 50 Bicentennial concerts and, at the invitation of then Georgia Congressman Ronald “Bo” Gin, Dempsey led the group in representing Georgia on Georgia Day in our nation’s capitol.

Dempsey had a great love for “little theatre.” He appeared in at least 37 community shows since the early 1970’s, including performing as Fagin in “Oliver” at Brunswick Junior College and as Henry Higgins in “My Fair Lady” at Saint Simons Island’s Island Players. The production of “My Fair Lady” was so successful, it was extended for an additional 12 unscheduled performances. He also enjoyed having the leads in various musicals including “The Music Man,” “South Pacific,” “Sound of Music,” “Carousel,” “Fiddler On the Roof,” “Kiss Me Kate,” “Lend Me A Tenor,” another production of “My Fair Lady,” “Guys and Dolls,” “The 1940’s Radio Hour”, and “Annie” (presented by Saint Simons Christian School). He has won the Island Player’s Handley Award twice, voted as Best Actor by Fellow crew and players. He was rewarded by his peers when he was named a Life Member of the Island Players, an award that has gone to approximately 15 people in the last 50 years. He served as President of the Island Players for two terms in 2011 and 2012.

Dempsey developed two Broadway reviews for the Georgia National Guard Conventions (including their 65th Anniversary celebration), performed for the National Guard in 2007 and 2008. Dempsey also provided narration and sang in the chorus for several performances with the Golden Isles Symphony Chorale.

Utilizing his can do spirit and keen skills in other areas, Dempsey contributed to local Habitat for Humanity homes. He has also participated as an active member of the Coastal Georgia and Golden Isles’ Walk to Emmaus and the ministry in the Georgia State Prison system, known as Kairos.

His civic contributions can also be highlighted with over 20 years’ involvement in local Kiwanis as 2nd Vice President, Vice President, President, Past President and a Lieutenant Governor in the Georgia District of Kiwanis. He also served as a Committee Chairman of United Way campaigns for several years in Brunswick and Glynn County. He also served as President of the Community Concert Association for two terms.

Dr. Dempsey has been elected to public office twice in Glynn County. In the early 1980’s, he was elected as a four-year Board Member & was selected by his peers to become the Chairman of the Glynn County Board of Commissioners. In the early 1990’s, Dempsey was elected to the Glynn County Board of Education, where he served as a member, and again, was selected as President of the Glynn County Board of Education by his peers.

He also participated in three Christian mission efforts to Brazil, Africa, and Turkey. The work on the trips included building churches and missionary quarters, and the trip preparation included language and cultural training.

His career accomplishments are similarly impressive. He completed his graduate work in Curriculum and Instructional Design and a Doctoral Degree in Adult Education (Ed.d). After his work at Brunswick Junior College, he was hired as one of the first Management Analysts and then Education Specialists at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC). Dempsey left the FLETC to become the Manpower Development Manager of the Brunswick Pulp and Paper Company for 13 years before returning to the FLETC in 1991. At the time of his death, he was a Program Manager at the Leadership and International Capacity Building Division, Leadership Institute Branch. At the FLETC, he was awarded the President’s Call to Service Award. This award requires a minimum of 4,000 volunteer hours in the community. Dempsey had accumulated an extraordinary, documentable total of 16,354 volunteer hours over four decades.

Dempsey is extremely active in the First Baptist Church of Brunswick where he was a Deacon, active in the First Praise Choir, the church orchestra, and His Men, the gospel quartet.

A Bible scholar, he taught the men’s Sunday School class in Adult IV. Other committees he served on were: Beach Trust, Personnel, and Unity, He also served as Interim Minister of Music at First Baptist Church and at 6 other local churches.

Additionally, Ron was honored in the mid-1970’s by the Glynn County Chamber of Commerce (Jaycees) as Glynn County’s “Young Man of the Year.” That award was followed by the Georgia Jaycees who recognized him as one of the “Five Outstanding Laymen of Georgia’ in 1975. The Junior Woman’s Club then selected the Dempsey family as the “Family of the Year’ twice in the 1970’s. They were also the Eighth District “Family of the Year” of the Georgia Federation of Women’s Clubs. .

Ron is survived by his wife, Ann; a son, Jeff Dempsey of Brunswick; a daughter, Dee Taylor and her husband, Eric, of St. Simons Island; and four grandchildren, Patrick Dempsey, Allison Dempsey, Meredith Dempsey, and Emmy Taylor; his sister, Cheryl Cini of Atlanta; his sister-in-law, Mary Lou Stanford of Dallas, Texas, his brother –in – law Ray Stanford of California; his mother-in-law, Johnnie Mae Stanford of Bryan, Texas; and several nieces and nephews.

Pallbearers for the funeral will be Henry Harvey, Kevin Padgett, George Steedley, Jim Jordan, Buddy Knight, Wells Gilgore, Steve Bristol, and Alex Sifford. Honorary pallbearers will be the active and inactive deacons of the First Baptist Church of Brunswick, Adult IV Men’s Sunday school class of First Baptist Church, the Brunswick Kiwanis Club, employees of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, the Island Players, and the Marine Corps League, Detachment #716.

Memorials may be made to the First Baptist Church of Brunswick, Glynn County Toys for Tots, the American Heart Association, or the charity of the donor’s choice.