Ronald R. McKeever was born at Odell, NE. in Gage County in 1939 and grew up with wonderful parents and family on a farm near Wymore, NE.
Ronald served two years of active duty in the U.S. Army and four years in the Active Army Reserve. His first entry into military service was in the University of Nebraska R.O.T.C. program that he completed upon graduation from UNL. Following graduation, the active duty assignment in 1962 was to Ft. Bliss, Texas, to be trained to serve as a 2nd Lt. in the Air Defense branch of Army artillery. After eight weeks of intense training at Fort Bliss in nuclear fundamentals and Nike Hercules missiles, Ronald was assigned to the Army Air Defense (ARADCOM) at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Assignment was to Battery A 3D Missile Battalion of (Nike Hercules) 59th Artillery located on 2040 W. Brown Deer Road in Milwaukee, WI. Ronald served in various capacities at A battery in conjunction with the fire control area and launcher control area where the missiles were in underground storage bunkers. Ronald also served at the Battalion Headquarters for a time.
It was an exciting and learning time during the two years served at Milwaukee. The most important event that happened was the marriage of Ronald to Dorothy Joanne Steele on August 2, 1962. Dorothy, known by friends as Dottie, moved to Milwaukee and began her elementary school teaching career there.
Another exciting tune for Ronald was when he was on duty as the battalion duty officer the night of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Ronald was glad to have Capt. Duddy and other high ranking officers report in to take over the main responsibility that night. Ronald was also the battalion duty officer the day the news arrived that President Kennedy had been assassinated.
Fun times were enjoyed doing the extra assigned officer duties such as being payroll officer and the helicopter rides over Lake Michigan down to Fort Sheridan near Chicago to pick up and bring to the Battalion the payroll. As the assigned special services officer at times, Ronald would secure many free tickets for the troops from the City of Milwaukee administrative office. Usually they were tickets for the Broadway Theatres and game tickets for the Milwaukee Braves baseball and the Green Bay Packers football games when they were played at Milwaukee. The years of 1962 —1964 featured some classic games and many big name players such as Hank Aaron and Bart Starr to name a few.
Ronald and wife, Dottie, celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2012 at a well-attended community reception hosted by their children at the Norfolk Times Square Event Center. They have been blessed by having two great children. Daughter, Michelle, now lives in San Francisco where she is a special Education Teacher who has her own business giving learning assistance to children who need special training. Their son, Matthew, is an attorney living in Omaha who is married to Lisa. They have two wonderful children that are proudly claimed as Grandchildren and are Corran (7 years) and Mara (3 years).
After serving two years in Milwaukee, Ronald was honorably discharged from active duty and remained in the Army Reserves for four years at Bloomington, Illinois where Ronald worked for Funk Seeds International.
Ronald's employments were in agricultural related seed production and sales management and later as an accredited farm and ranch manager who managed farm assets for clients and also did farm real estate brokerage.
August 2, 2013