Ronald Raymond Fletcher

Ronald Raymond Fletcher: August 26, 1939 – September 7, 2025

ST. HELENS- Born at Park Place Maternity Hospital in St. Helens to Raymond & Ellen Mae Fletcher and went to St. Helens schools, graduating in 1957.

Ron Joined the Navy in 1958 and graduated from Navy engineman school at the top of his class as honorman, He was stationed on the USS Reclaimer ARS-42, as an Engineman. he left active service in 1962 and joined the reserves and was honorably discharged 1964. He was awarded the Good Conduct Medal in 1961.

He worked Boeing in Seattle for a time, then at the Pope & Talbot lumber mill in St. Helens after the Navy. He married Janis, the love of his life, in 1963 in St. Helens and were together 58 years until her death in 2021. He adopted Robin and Rod then as his own.
They Moved to Clatskanie and he ran a service station there with his father-in-Law for several years and was a volunteer firefighter for Clatskanie Fire Dept.

In 1966 he went to work at Longview Fibre Co. and bought house in Goble where he had a small farm and Rick & Raquel were born. He retired from the mill in 2000, and he traveled around the west and did park hosting for Oregon state parks, he especially liked Fairwell bend park on the Snake River where he caught many catfish. During this time in Goble he was a volunteer fireman for the Rainier Fire Dept. from 1974 until 2007, retiring as a battalion chief for Columbia River Fire & Rescue. In 2008 he sold the farm and became full time snowbird to southern Arizona in the winters.

He was honored with the lifetime achievement award from Oregon Volunteer Firefighters Association in 2004 at the State conference. He was lifetime Oregon Grange member.

Ron enjoyed playing the accordion, guitar, and piano, fishing, wood working, time with the grand kids and his was favorite riding quads in the Desert in Salome where he spent the winters with his Arizona Family. After Janis’s death, he went back down to Arizona by himself and he bought a new side by side (which he put 8,000 miles on it that winter) and then returned in the May by himself again, and had a series of strokes that wiped his memory just after his birthday in August, and then resided at the Canterbury Gardens in Longview.

Ron is proceeded in Death by his wife Janis and survived by his children Robin VanVranken, Rod Fletcher, Rick Fletcher and Raquel Ade, their spouses and many grandchildren and great grandchildren.

If you aren’t able to attend in person we will be streaming on zoom
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89823208929?pwd=xhplHEPR1aRosTrssN1f5blUvzXlnN.1