Ronald Milton Becker died peacefully on July 6, 2025, at his Netarts home after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s.
Born on June 12, 1939, in Longview, WA, Ron spent his early years in Woodland and Kalama, WA. After graduating from Kalama High School in 1957 Ron attended Graceland University in Lamoni, IA, where he graduated in 1962. He later attended Oregon State University, where he became a Beaver fan and graduated with a Master’s degree in physical science.
Ron was an outstanding educator and started his teaching career at Lamoni High School and also taught briefly at Edmonds High School and Graceland. After returning to Oregon, he spent his remaining career teaching physics, math, and chemistry at West Linn High School and coaching basketball and track. A creative and entertaining teacher, his students loved his demonstrations and the yearly egg drop competition.
He married Joan Lively in 1964 and they had two children, Robin and Brent. Ron had a lifelong love of hunting and looked forward to the yearly hunting camps with the Becker clan. He enjoyed working on cars and could fix almost anything with his MacGyver ingenuity and some duct tape. After retirement, he and Joan enjoyed traveling and fulfilled their dream of building a house on the site of their cabin overlooking Netarts Bay, where they have lived since 2002.
Ron was preceded in death by his parents, Milton T. Becker and Katherine Trineer Bender, and in his immediate family by his brother Richard Becker and sister Jeanie Bowers. He is survived by his wife Joan of Netarts, daughter Robin Becker and her partner Otto Gonzalez of Bay City, OR, son Brent Becker and his wife Heidi of La Mirada, CA, and five grandchildren and one greatgrandchild.