I discovered this dvd when I was looking in Ron's office for pictures and music.  It was made 10 years ago.  I had not seen this video before now.

Ron Bartelt Tribute     12-10-16

I am Wallace Newton.     Ron called me Wally.

From the moment Ron became a fraternity pledge, we became instant friends. We shared many common roots – both business majors, both marrying girls who were part of our college and fraternity background, both raising sons, both living much of our lives near where we grew up, and both attending Virginia Tech –  at an outpost named Blacksburg. Back in those days it was a place almost void of stoplights, had about 10,000 students --- with 9,000 of them males --   including a young and rather average football player of the day whose name later became associated with BeamerBall. Virginia Tech for generations was mainly a military school, and only a few years before we arrived had first allowed a handful of social organizations called fraternities to be part of the campus life. 

Little did we know what impact that would have on us ever since.

Ron and Wally both joined one of these struggling new fraternities called Tau Beta Upsilon.  We met in a trailer as we had no house. Later we rented a farm house way out in the country, with our closest neighbors being the cows in the surrounding fields.  Even later we moved closer into Town, to a house with a great basement – a place where Ron honed his music skills for hours.   But more about that later.

Our fledgling young fraternity would have folded had it not been for Ron and a couple others in 1970. (I mention here the names of those in the audience – see the last page).   We only had a dozen or so members at the time, and it was there that Ron stood out in helping secure our future.  Back in those days, to join a fraternity you had to be a pledge first, and endure a bunch of foolishness. We were such a small group that we decided to try something really risky to prevent our demise for lack of members – we did the radical thing of actually recruiting our friends and largely by-passing all the foolishness before they became members.  We wondered what kind of guys these pledges would be without going thru all the foolishness. A brother named Steve Wilson knew Ron Bartelt as a friend from Northern Virginia, and that is how Ron found his way into the risky pledge class.  Ron’s pledge class, in the Winter of 1970, was composed of 10 guys. That class was the largest we had ever had, and doubled our size in a 2-month time frame.   Rather than being risky, these guys were the best, because they joined a  fraternity because of friendships and brotherhood and not for foolishness. Because of the strong membership increase after Ron joined the fraternity, we were able to secure our future of friendship that is now in its 51st year.  Adversity taught us well in the 1970’s as young men. Ron has been a fraternity leader from the day we first met. For many things GOOD that so many enjoyed, Ron was a catalyst to make them happen.

Blacksburg is where Ron got his first training that led to a career as a successful CPA.  It was right there as the fraternity Treasurer and leader in Blacksburg, and here is how it all began.  We had no money. None of us. There were weeks during the winter when we had to take up a collection to raise just enough money to put oil in the tank so we would have heat on the weekend. Ron, the future CPA, was ever vigilant of our Treasury needs.  At that youthful age, Ron was one of the very few who was smart enough to shepherd what resources we did have to best use. Not yet a CPA, but already acting like one, Ron made sure that our short-term lack of resources still allowed enough room for our long-term success in building toward the future. We did not realize that at the time, but looking back, Ron’s plans worked!

When personal computers came on the scene in the 1980’s, Ron’s vision led him to be an early adopter. The creative mind of a musician, combined with the financial mind of a CPA led Ron to participate in the fraternity alumni governing Board over a number of years as a Board member and Treasurer. He was a key cog in crafting our first long range plan which then led us into our first ever alumni fundraising.  I could not even turn on a PC back then, but Ron used his PC to do “what if scenarios” of how much money we needed to raise to be able to acquire our own fraternity house.  What we know as Excel today was the equivalent of what Ron did long before Excel existed. Thru his leadership on that multiyear fundraising campaign, we were able to raise enough cash that a few years later we had the down payment for our first owned house.  That fraternity house sits today in Blacksburg with a paid off mortgage.  We have grown from our early years as a struggling local fraternity called Tau Beta Upsilon  into the later affiliation with national fraternity Theta Xi as a well-capitalized and strong group of over 600 men who have followed the early footsteps and benefitted from the band of brothers Ron first helped create, and for years later helped guide.

Ron was what I call a music guy, and during our time in college he was _THE_ Music Guy. He was a member of 2 bands at times during college that he called Bergenfield and String Bean.  Ron and the fraternity worked a deal that helped both of us:   Ron’s band would practice in the fraternity basement at no cost   --    and in return would provide music for several parties a semester at no cost. Ever the logical CPA, somehow that balance sheet worked out just right for all.  Ron led several brothers who built a “music light organ” for the fraternity basement that pulsated various colors with the music, and it was used for many years after we left college. What Ron did at Virginia Tech, and for our fraternity in particular lives today. 

Ron’s passion was music. His entire life. Only a couple lessons did he need, and the rest he learned on his own. He was forever perfecting his music skills long after he practiced in the fraternity house. When we met at reunions and football games and social gatherings, Ron would be into making music for many to enjoy.  His band Ronnie and the Boss Cats keynoted a massive reunion we had about 15 years ago, and he was in other musical groups from the DC area as well as in New York.  Others also saw what we saw of Ron’s music talents. In October 2014 Ron was inducted into the New York State Country Music Hall of Honor. For a guy who was once practicing in a fraternity basement, this achievement speaks volumes to his willingness and ability to excel in a passion he loved.

Ron combined his music and technology background to record and produce a variety of music tapes and CD’s and DVD’s over the years. It was common when Ron and I saw each that he would present me with certain “gifts” of his music creation. Here are 2:

When Ron was not playing music for friends, you might find him enjoying Monday night volleyball games at a school near his home, riding in his blue Corvette of early 1970’s vintage, participating in church affairs, reading his bible, or helping the communities where he lived with leadership positions in the Sertoma and Rotary organizations. And then there was the game of bridge. There was often a lively game of bridge somewhere in our circle of friends. Jack Spooner who is here today was one of them. Jack and Ron played bridge in college the entire time I knew them. They both became CPA’s in the real world, and in recent years Jack helped Ron travel to sporting and alumni meetings and events.  Which brings me to another of Ron’s passions.

A place Ron called “The Farm”.  Most of you have looked at the website that Becky and her son’s set up in the last 2 weeks. Some of you are in pictures posted there, and have posted your experiences with the Bartelt clan over Ron’s 68 years.  Ron’s other passion, even before music and Virginia Tech was “The Farm”.  If you never got there, the pictures you can see on the web site tell the significance of “The Farm” to the Bartelt family. It is located in a place most of us would never discover were it not for Ron. Tully, NY is the location, and when Ron first told me about it a half century ago I asked where in the world is that. Ron said not far from Syracuse, NY.  Several of us from the fraternity alumni had occasion to visit Ron at “The Farm” more than once, and experienced “The Farm” at Tully. This is Ron’s ancestral home place and traces its roots back to the days about 25 years BEFORE the Civil War.  Ron’s love for Becky and his sons pulled all of them together frequently to “The Farm”. It was a special calling based on his religious faith combined with his family history that drove the Bartelt’s to preserve what those before them had created.  “The Farm House” was built in stages by their ancestors, with the last known addition being the parlor added 131 years ago around 1885. Nothing would brighten Ron’s day more than a day at “The Farm”. When I was there, with other fraternity alumni, we helped Ron with some chores, rode the tractor to help cut the grass in the large open space surrounding the house, fed Ron’s chickens and collected Ron’s eggs, and admired the beauty of the fields and mountains and the serenity of the setting. While walls could not talk in that old farmhouse, the furniture and pictures and rooms and rugs and wood stove were the perfect backdrop for Ron to relive his family genealogy before us, and we learned the family legacy of old as combined with the family legacy under his stewardship.

On one of those Tully visits we drove even further into rural New York to enjoy Ron’s band playing in a small airplane hangar for a celebration for someone Ron met in that area through his music. Ron’s extended family was wherever he went, led by his faith in his maker, his sincere helpfulness to those around him, and his love for his family -  past, present, and future.  Family, God, Music, and his fraternity brothers were ever-present in Ron’s 68 years! 

One of Ron’s fraternity brothers named Arthur Hoey who also visited “The Farm” told me this story that happened 40 years ago:  In his words (and I quote):

“I owe my early career to Ron Bartelt.....he reached out to me as a recently graduated architect in 1975 when prime interest rates were 13% and climbing and jobs for rookie architects were hard to find.  Ron put me in touch with his architect friend who offered me a job for 1 month as my first real job in architecture after college  -----   I stayed there 5 years ----   and have been forever grateful to Ron ever since for the start and push he gave me into the real world”.  (unquote)

Ron and Becky are forever linked to Virginia Tech and the fraternity.   Football games, tailgates, game watching parties, Christmas parties at their home, numerous reunions and homecomings would usually find Ron and Becky and dozens of friends enjoying the bonds of brotherhood made years before.  One of the most memorable for Ron was the 2000 Sugar Bowl in New Orleans when Virginia Tech played for the national championship. For 3 nonstop days, he was part of 180 of his friends and their families who embedded themselves in solidarity for their school. Virtually every time I have seen Ron in the last 16 years, somewhere in that conversation would emerge the memory of all of us wearing the Virginia Tech Maroon and Orange colors at several New Orleans venues and sitting together at the massive New Orleans Super Dome. None of us will ever forget that moment in time that we were there, a true bucket list experience we spent together.

Everyone should be so lucky to have Ron and Becky as youthful friends who became lifelong friends:

Let me say with absolute sincerity that we all were made better by Ron’s presence in our lives.

As I conclude, let me say that in some future setting and time we will resume what we long ago began.  Ron will be there making music -- and keeping the books. Ron will lead those joyous times with music from his guitar and his band as we all remember tunes from our times together combined with the Virginia Tech songs we all sang so many times at sporting events.  The “high fives” will be with us again!

And I am sure - as are hundreds of his fraternity friends made over his lifetime -  that 2 simple Virginia Tech words will ring in our ears:

GO HOKIES!

Wally Newton 540-537-9481 cell wb4newton@cox.net  12-10-16

Service:  2 PM  Bennett Funeral Home, 14301 Ashbrook  Parkway, Chesterfield, VA 23832;  Reception at Becky’s Home: 12811 Donegal Drive, Chesterfield, VA  23832

Attending the Service from our fraternity:

My first memory of Ron was the when Becky brought him home from college on a visit and we all wondered who that "hippy" was with Becky. Ron won everyone over with his easy going manner and charm. He loved Mom's cooking and she would always make his favorite things when she knew he was coming to visit.

Ron grew up with all Boys and Becky grew up with all Girls SO With Becky and Ron living most of their married life "up north", when they came to visit her female family were always anxious to spend as much time with Becky as possible. Ron got real good at entertaining himself on the farm and at music venues around Richmond! Dinner time was always great family fun and a time to share!