Ronald R. Vaughn

Ronald Ralph Vaughn, age 72, Cocoa Beach, passed away on July 2nd at home after a long and valiant fight with cancer. He was born March 29th 1942 in Paoli, IN. to parents Ralph Austin Vaughn and Mary Alice Williams. Following a house fire in 1950, his family moved to Indianapolis, where he met and married his wife Dorothy and had two sons, Lance and Edward. In 1968, he accepted a global technical sales position with an industrial machine tool manufacturer and relocated his family to Massachusetts. Over a period of several years, he traveled extensively through the former Soviet Eastern Bloc and had many exciting and alarming experiences. One such episode involved being falsely accused of being a spy while in Romania, which led to a brief detention until US officials were able to clear him. In 1972, he started ARVON, a machine tool retrofitting business and it quickly expanded, employing over 50 people at its peak in 1980. A financial downturn in the early 80's led to a plant shut down, but he continued to persevere and formed and ran several businesses over the course of his career. He was considered an expert in a machining process known as Superfinishing, and wrote several trade articles on the subject. Later in life, he pursued a career in IT and worked for Boeing and United Launch Alliance in support of the Space shuttle and Delta launch programs. He enjoyed reading, scuba diving, bee keeping, electrical and mechanical engineering and design, information technology and woodworking. He was also a pilot and owned his own airplane for several years. He loved God and his family, had a brilliant mind, a sharp sense of humor and was a Renaissance man of his time -- a true polymath. He is survived by his wife Dorothy (Cocoa Beach), two sons, Lance (VA), Edward (Jacksonville) three grand children, Jesse (VA) , Coulson and Cornelis (Jacksonville) and brother Robert Vaughn (TX). He was predeceased by a sister (Susan Vaughn). A memorial service will be held on July 26, 2014 at the Living Bread Church in Cocoa Beach, 1801 S Orlando Ave. Cocoa Beach, FL. at 2 PM. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (http://www.themmrf.org). You may sign his guestbook at www.beckman-williamson.com.