Ronald R Shoemaker

Ronald Rutherford Shoemaker, a 55-year resident of Phoenix, AZ, died on April 5, 2017. He was born in Farmington, Iowa on June 30, 1938, the fourth of seven children raised by Willard and Lelia (Becker) Shoemaker. While attending Farmington High School, the baseball coach asked him and his friend P. K. Ware to fill in one day for the missing umpires, igniting a lifelong passion that would take him to the 1982 Little League World Series and bring countless friends into his life. After serving as a flight mechanic in Korea after the ceasefire, he returned to San Francisco, CA where he met Carol Hiltabidle Thorne, and they were married on September 4, 1960. They raised three sons, Thomas (and Sonia), Richard (and Kathy) and Michael (and Lori), and during their 53 years together they were the center of an expanding brood that included 11 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. He is survived by his children and grandchildren, as well as his sister Linda (and Terry) Perrenoud of Donnellson, IA and brother Leroy Ardell Shoemaker (and Dorine) of Rochelle, IL He was preceded in death by his parents and sister Betty Rider and brothers Marvin, David and Paul. In part driven by his Nazarene upbringing and his fifty-seven years in the Roman Catholic faith, and in part by life experiences from which he learned so much, Ron endowed all his children with a sense of hard-work, laughter, baseball, political awareness, and family loyalty. His expressed desire was that his final services would not be a somber affair, but rather a celebration of his family and his friendships. The Vigil and Viewing will be held at Greenwood Memory Lawn Mortuary Chapel, 719 N. 27th Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona 85009 on Monday, April 17, 2017 from 4:30 – 7:30 pm.; and the Funeral Mass will be offered at 10:00 am, Tuesday, April 18, 2017 at St. Louis the King Catholic Church, . Following the Mass, Interment will take place Greenwood Memory Lawn Cemetery.