Longtime elementary counselor and coach Ron Thomason continues his work of helping students even after his passing. Ron began as a school counselor at Mentzer, Starry, and Emerson Elementaries in 1989 and continued as the elementary counselor at MISD until 2004. He also was a track, cross country, and wrestling coach at the middle school and high school levels during this time as well.
“Ron’s passion for what he does in his life has always been done in a quiet, modest manner, enthusiastic, but not showy. He is definitely the calm warrior who gets things done,” comments MHS teacher Madonna Putnam.
Every Christmas, Ron called the school nurse to ask her to suggest a student whose family was struggling to pay the bill for school lunches. He stipulated that it shouldn’t be a family that qualified for free & reduced lunches and that they had to be making a good faith effort to pay the bill. Sometimes it would be a family with more than one student. It didn’t matter. If they were trying, Ron would pay for those student’s lunches for the rest of the school year, thereby relieving the family of that expense.
Thomason unexpectedly passed away on February 3, 2019 and leaves a long-standing impact on the Marion Independent School District, and its staff and students.
“If I didn’t achieve my goal in a particular cross country race, or even in an entire season, he didn’t give up on me. He knew that hard work, patience and confidence would eventually produce results,” says MHS Alum Emily (Baumert) Bremer ’00.
It is in his quiet and modest manner that the workings of Ron Thomason continue to carry on at Marion Independent with his family establishing the Ron Thomason Memorial Fund to help students in need. Donations will be used to fund student lunch accounts for families who are experiencing an unexpected hardship but do not qualify for free and reduced lunch, and who have demonstrated a good-faith effort in keeping current with their payments. School administrators, counselors, and nurses will be able to recommend a family in need to receive this support.
To make a donation to the Ron Thomason Memorial Fund, we encourage you to visit our Donate page and note “Thomason Memorial” in the Comment box.