Ronald Preston Raiford

Ron was a lifelong resident of Dexter and graduated from Dexter High school in 1978 where he was an excellent athlete, participating in baseball, basketball, and track. His favorite was track & field. His high school track records held for years, one broken within the last few years. He could be found each summer day of his high school years running between Dexter and Chelsea. His hard work paid off when he received a track scholarship to Eastern Michigan University.

The two tributes published about Ron: one from the Dexter Lions in the hard copy edition of the 6/9/22 SunTimes and in an article titled: "Dexter loses its unofficial mayor who cast light on local athletes, businesses and history" on MLive are beautiful tributes to Ron. He touched the lives of others in so many ways. The last time Ron was together with his friends, the Saturday before he passed, reminded us why this man, who took it upon himself to ‘be the straw that stirred the drink’, got the band together one last time. His thoughts (including his last) were of others. This is the epitome of Ron - four years ago, without telling anyone what he was doing, he got together a large group of friends from EMU, who last congregated 35 years ago. He didn’t send messages through Facebook or texts. He called each person, getting a popular college band together and the group of people who followed them. The band played, and for an evening, were amazing as they always were, and we were back in college again.

He was an accomplished gardener and spent hours tending to his lawn, vegetable garden and numerous perennial gardens because he loved being outside. He cut the lawn to look like the outfield of a ball diamond, shared vegetables, and perennials to everyone he could.

Some neighbors thought of him as a dog whisperer. He corralled loose dogs or helped with training. Ron didn’t need a leash, there was something in his voice that summoned them. He often said, always with a laugh, that he didn’t watch dog training shows for the cute puppies. He was a generous neighbor - mowing, gathering leaves, pet-sitting, plowing snow, once alerting a neighbor when a grass fire was getting close to his house. He called the road commission when the dirt roads needed grading and followed up with a delivery of donuts once the job was complete.

Ron had an amazing memory and head for numbers – he loved working the food truck at the Dexter Lions’ events when he would take and remember multiple orders at once, calculate the orders without a calculator and count the change back.

Ronald is survived by his partner of 28 years, Carol Hutsko, his sister Candy Klapperich and Randy Raiford both of Dexter, Michigan, his brother Bob Raiford of Pinckney, Michigan, his sister Judy Dombrowski of Frisco, Colorado and his sister Linda Boham of Chapin, South Carolina. He is also survived by nieces Natalie and Amy, Sarah and Ryan, Kristopher and Korey, Megan and Aaron.

Ronald was preceded in death by his father Ralph Raiford and his mother Patsy Lou Hunsberger.

A celebration of Ron’s life will be held in late summer. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to The Dexter Lions at https://www.dexterlions.org/ or send a check made payable to The Dexter Lions at PO Box 102, Dexter MI 48130. Donations will be earmarked to a college scholarship set up in his name

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.hosmermuehlig.com for the Raiford family.