Obituary of Ronald J. Quayle

Ronald J. Quayle, Lt. Colonel (US Air Force Retired) lost his 2 ½ year battle with Stage IV Gastric Cancer on October 28, 2010. He was born to Jim and Agnes Quayle of Forest City, Iowa on September 20, 1936, attending a one-room school house until 3rd grade. As an Electrical Engineering graduate of Iowa State University he received his Air Force ROTC commission and served twenty-three years on active duty. Days before he went to his first assignment at Hill Air Force Base, Ogden, Utah, he married Margaret Lindsley of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He attended the Air Force Institute of Technology and Stanford University in preparation for a teaching assignment at the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. An assignment to the Pentagon brought him to Northern Virginia in 1973. Over the past 17 years he has been a Government Affairs Analyst for the Military Officers of America Association (MOAA) of Alexandria, VA, most recently working from Orr’s Island, Maine. He was predeceased by his parents and a grandson, Brian Spohn. Family who will cherish him forever are his wife of 52 years, Margaret, a son Robert Marc Quayle of Asheville, NC and a daughter Jill Quayle Spohn and husband, Michael of Reston, VA, his brother Bob and sister-in-law Lorraine of Forest City, IA, and five grandchildren, Mitchell and Emily Rose Quayle of Hendersonville, NC, and Colin, Corey, and Amy Spohn of Reston, VA. Ron was a generous and loyal colleague, friend, and family man. All family members enjoy and benefit from the family genealogies he developed and kept current. Heritage through his father from the Isle of Man brought great joy through participation in the Greater Washington DC Manx Society and North American Manx Association, rising to its presidency in 1992. Photography, do-it-yourself projects, and travel (all 50 states, Japan, plus most of Europe), and life in Maine gave him great pleasure. We offer our thanks to Dr. Polkinghorn and his caring and amazing staff at Maine Center for Cancer Medicine in Brunswick. His ashes will be scattered in Casco Bay waters in the future. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the MOAA Scholarship Fund, 201 North Washington Street, Alexandria, VA 22314, or your cause of choice. A celebration of his life will take place in Northern Virginia in the future. On-line condolences may be offered to the family at www.directcremationofmaine.com.