R. Damon Ring

R. Damon Ring passed away 29 Jan 2021 at his home in Beach City, OH with his wife Debbie by his side after a long and courageous battle with cancer. He left nothing on the table with this final challenge. Damon was born in Roanoke, VA on April 27, 1962, and moved around during his childhood graduating from Duluth High School (Duluth, MN) in 1980 and returning to his Virginia roots to attend college at the University of Virginia-Charlottesville culminating in a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1984. After graduation from UVA, Damon hired into Goodyear Akron Machine Design in May 1984 where he progressed through varying engineering and leadership roles in Akron, Ohio, Danville, Virginia, and Luxembourg. His final role was his favorite as Director of the Innovation Process Center where he could foster the engineering spirit and push the limits of innovation. Damon had a passion for cars, planes, motorcycles, and anything that went fast and allowed him to compete. He raced Formula Ford cars in his early years and advancing to racing propeller airplanes and winning in the classes he raced. Up until two years ago, he was even racing motorcycles until a tree got between him and the trail and resulted in a serious femur fracture. Adrenaline was surely in his blood and he never backed away from a good challenge. Damon's biggest passion was aviation and he was a perfectionist on building and maintaining airplanes. He knew how to engineer ways to make them perform better than anyone in his RV8 class. Damon was a great engineer that knew how to make machines work, how to design components that performed their function well and were very reliable. His designs were perfection. He taught us a lot about how to make things work. Lastly, Damon was a best friend and great partner to Debbie, beloved brother to Diana (Steve)and Gretchen (Alfonso), dearly loved son of Linda, and Uncle to many loved nephews (Owen, AJ, Alex, and Aiden). He was a friend and a person we could all count on to deliver. He will be greatly missed but never forgotten. A private celebration of Damon's life will be held later. Paquelet Funeral Home & Crematory (330) 833-3222