To the Ron Pesch family:
My mother just sent me a text message, telling me about your father's passing. Sorry we missed the memorial service. But I would be remiss if I didn't leave some type of tribute to him on behalf of myself and family.
You all know that your father and my father were friends. In fact, I don't know that my father had any friend that was truly closer to him than Ron Pesch. Our fathers had similar political views and I learned a lot growing up, listening to them discuss and argue politics in our living room. He was very articulate, outspoken, and very passionate in his beliefs. As a boy, I looked up to him and my whole family loved him.
After I graduated from college in the 1990s and moved back to Muskegon, "Mr. Pesch" (as we called him) became more of my friend. He and Elsa would love to go yardsaling on Friday morning and I would often go with him when she couldn't or didn't want to go. Mr. Pesch and I, unfortunately, accumulated way too much junk from these yard sales, but we enjoyed every minute of it--and I still have some of the bargain finds from those days. I have so many memories from these days. I can still hear him saying "I collect bb guns. Do you have any that you would like to sell?"
During this timeframe and into the 2000s, I also remember that Mr. Pesch had a routine of going out to coffee most mornings at either Carmen's or the cafe on Hackley and Barclay with my father, with Chad Larnard, with Gary Pease, and with a lot of other contemporaries. I was way outside of their peer group, but I was lucky enough that my dad brought me a couple of times. They were an interesting group of old men who all valued each other's friendships and could start the morning with a good laugh.
He and Gary were very kind and supportive of our family after my father passed away in 2007. We did not have frequent contact after that, but my mother, sister, and I would always talk about Mr. Pesch and how he was doing and how we should try to get a visit going. We all wish we had made more of an effort to have made that happen. But his memory and friendship is something that will stay with us forever.
Osmer Deming
