Col. Ronald H. Ringsrud

Elk Point, SD

1941, 2765, Ft. Meade, SCS-6, Company Commander

Col. Ronald Ringsrud (Ret.), 89, of Milledgeville, Ga., formerly of Elk Point, SD died Monday, Jan. 5, 2004, in Milledgeville.

Services will be 7 p.m. Wednesday at William Funeral Home in Milledgeville, with the Vicar Phil Larsen and Dr. Harold Lawrence officiating.

Col. Ringsrud was a native of Iowa, and had made his home in Elk Point and Deadwood, S.D. He had lived in Milledgeville for several years.

He graduated from South Dakota State College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts in 1937. While there, he played tackle on the 1935 football team, which is the only State team to have ever defeated a Big Ten Team, State 13 - Wisconsin 6. After two successful seasons, he was selected by Illustrated Football as a member of its 1936 All American Check List. Upon graduation, he entered the Civilian Conservation Corps and commanded CCC Camp 2765 at Fort Meade, S.D.

His career included service in the military, business and in government. He served as an officer in the U.S. Army during World War II, the Korean conflict and Vietnam. Subsequent to World War II, eight years of his service was in military intelligence as chief of the Soviet Ground Force, order of battle section at both Headquarters, United States Army Europe and in the Pentagon under the Acting Chief if Security of G-2 Intelligence, United States Army.

During the period between the end of World War II and the start of the Korean War, he owned and operated an automobile dealership in Elk Point. Upon his retirement from the military, he became executive director of the South Dakota Municipal League. He also served on the governor's Advisory Council of Outdoor Recreation under three governors.

He was a former president of the Department of South Dakota Reserve Officers Association of the United States and commandeer of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 915 of Elk Point. He was a member of the Elk Point Masonic Lodge 3 and the Elk Point Lutheran Church. He also was a member of Scabbard and Blade, the national honorary military fraternity, Sons of Norway, the Union County Historical Society and Hope Lutheran Church in Milledgeville.

At age 65, he decided to go down the Missouri and Mississippi rivers in a pontoon boat. His sons, Rian and Ronald, and a former student, Jim Baylen, each accompanied him for a week. This trip was for three weeks, starting in Sioux City, down the Missouri to St. Louis, Mo., then on to Natchez, Memphis and New Orleans. They then took the boat across Mobile Bay and up the Apalachicola River and anchored in Georgia.

He is survived by his wife, Dorothy (Polley) Ringsrud of Milledgeville; two sons, Rian Ringsrud of Milledgeville, and Ronald Ringsrud of Saratoga, Calif.; a sister, Helen England of Oakland, Calif.; and four grandchildren, Rian II, Ashley, Eric and Thomas.

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