Pacific Coast Society of Orthodontists Bulletin Fall 2020 - 37

Portrait of a Professional

People in Orthodontics

Dr. Ron Champion
Dr. Jae Hyun Park
PCSO Bulletin Editor-in-Chief
Mesa, AZ

Dr. Ron Champion
Modesto, CA

Jae Park (JP): Please tell me about your childhood
and family.
Ron Champion (RC): I was born and raised in
Modesto, California, and attended local public
schools, K-12. In my early years, my dad was a blue
collar, lunch-pail-carrying sheet metal worker.
He took evening courses in business and human
resources (HR) management at the local community college and rose through the company ranks
to eventually become a partner. Later, he and
mom became the sole owners of the mechanical
contracting company, which at one point was one
of the 100 largest mechanical contracting firms
in the country. I can assure you his story is much
more interesting than mine! As a 16-year-old,
while attending night courses in welding in the
small town of Holdenville, Oklahoma, he was given a train and meal ticket to travel to Richmond,
California, to work as a welder in the shipyards
for the World War II effort. Once he turned 18 and

Ron and Karen's wedding at Yosemite in 1999,
with son Michael, daughter Charlie, and daughter Lowry

Fall 2020 PCSO Bulletin

became of draft age, he joined the Seabees and
shipped off to help build a hospital in Honolulu;
he was later sent to the submarine tending base
on Midway Island. As soon as the war was over,
he returned to the States in 1946 and married
his high school sweetheart, Eulala Jo Frederick,
whom he met when he was 16 and she was 14.
Their marriage lasted for 73 years, until mom
passed last November. I have a younger brother,
Darrell, and my youngest brother, James (Jimmy),
who died tragically at the young age of 19, early in
his senior year of high school.
I have been married to Karen for over 21 years.
We have two children from my first marriage,
Michael and Lowry-Marie; and Charlie, whom I've
known since she was three years old.
Charlie has a PhD in clinical psychology and completed her intern year this past summer at Stanford University. It bothers her mother immensely
that our two personalities are apparently " cut
from the same cloth. " I am very proud of my family and, most importantly, my wife and partner,
who has been our practice's office manager, HR
specialist, and my business partner and advisor/
counselor since we were married. Additionally,
she has spent many years serving our community
as president of numerous service clubs and school
boards. Prior to our meeting, she had a fabulous
career as a regional training executive for Estee
Lauder, which she gave up due to travel demands
once Charlie was born. A funny anecdote: she and
I worked in the same building, and during one of
our early chance encounters before I knew her, I
clumsily walked into an elevator door after glancing at her and being mesmerized by her beauty.
Michael and Lowry graduated from the University of Colorado, Michael with a degree in studio
arts (photography and sculpture), Lowry with a
degree in dance and minor in psychology. During
her middle school years, she attended the San
Francisco Ballet School and later received her
master's degree in dance medicine from the
University of Oregon. She is currently a stay-at-

Pacific Coast Society of Orthodontists Bulletin Fall 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pacific Coast Society of Orthodontists Bulletin Fall 2020