Edward Ronco as he appeared at the 2017 McNabb Cup in Whitehall, Mich.
Edward Ronco, 72, of Wyandotte, Mich., passed away unexpectedly Feb. 5, 2022. He was a past president the SoHG (2019) and former board member for Region 5 of the Golf Heritage Society. Along with three others, he was a founding officer of the Wyandotte Hickory Organization in 2010.
A service will be held at St. Patrick church in Wyandotte at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 10, with a viewing on Wednesday night.
Mr. Ronco grew up in Wayne, Mich., where in the late 1960s he went to Wayne Memorial High School. There he was a swimmer and football player, never considering golf as a real sport. He played his first nine holes of golf when he was senior in high school after a football pal asked him to give it a go.
During the next 15 years Mr. Ronco played casually – perhaps six to 12 times a year until a family trip to Sea Pines on Hilton Head Island, S.C., inspired him to hone those dormant golfing skills. From that time, Mr. Ronco’s handicap continued to improve to about 9 with steel and 13 with his hickories. He accomplished his goal of playing golf in all 50 states and had already added some Canadian provinces. (A story on his golf in all 50 states was posted to The Deseret News in May 2011.)
An introduction to hickories came along later and, with a group of friends who were already engaged in a casual sports league, Mr. Ronco began to explore the sport of hickory golf. The WHO was formed a short while later.
The WHO annually hosted one of the top events on the Michigan Hickory Tour, an early June scramble and open which drew players from throughout the Midwest and Canada. WHO members love of hickory golf inspired them to become adept at club repair and several began to meet in Mr. Ronco’s basement/workshop to conduct their clandestine hickory club related activities, and perhaps a wee nip or two.
Along with his activities with the Wyandotte Hickory Organization, the Golf Heritage Society and Society of Hickory Golfers, Mr. Ronco was a familiar and much beloved presence at outings with the Michigan Hickory Tour, including the McNabb Cup where his attendance usually meant the outing would be a great success.
Mr. Ronco loved to travel and support hickory golf as much as time and money would allow and much treasured the many friends he made in this sport throughout the world. He was a participant in several U.S. Hickory Opens and international competitions, some organized by the SoHG and some through his friends involved with the World Hickory Open in Scotland.
He made several trips to Ireland to visit with family and was generally accompanied on all his travels by his sweetheart of many years, his wife, Anne.
Mr. Ronco had a BS, MS, and MA from Eastern Michigan University. As a teacher and coach for 22 years in the Southgate Community School District, he was hired as an administrator, a post he held for another 10 years before retiring. He met Anne in the District and they were married in 1976. Their only child, Edward, is a producer/reporter for KNKX public radio in Seattle.