It is with a heavy heart that I have instructed our Club Manager to lower the Club's burgee to half-staff to mark the sudden passing of lifetime Club member Ron Van Horn last night at Munson Hospital from an apparent heart attack.
Ron and his brother Skip literally grew up at our Club. The Van Horn family are founding members of our Club, with dad Charlie serving as our Club's 4th Commodore. In the Club's archives we have a photo from the first Spring Clean-up in 1966 at our current home on West Bay. Ron, Skip, and Charlie are pictured in that photo, with Ron then just 11 years old.
My friendship with Ron goes back to my earliest years at the Club in the late 1980s. I was lucky enough to sail my first few Chicago to Mackinac races with him on Allegiance almost thirty years ago. I can still picture him hanging out on the back porch of Allegiance, a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other, enjoying a Wednesday Night Race on the Bay. I'm sure many of you have fond memories of Ron as well. His friendship will be dearly missed and fondly remembered.
Please keep his wife Becki, his brother Skip, and the rest of their family in your hearts and in your prayers.
