Ronald COURSON, Jr.

COURSON, JONES, MATTINGLY, ISHIHARA

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 2/10/2024 at 13:07:00

April 8, 1940 --- May 5, 2021

Ronald Courson, Jr., 81, Arvada, Colorado died at his home on May 5, 2021. A private service was held.

Ron was born in Des Moines on April 8, 1940 to Ronald Sr. and Virginia E. Courson. His family moved to Belmond in 1944. Ron excelled in football and as a sprinter in track and enjoyed playing golf. He especially loved playing the piano and his tenor saxophone.

He graduated from Belmond High School in 1958 and received a BA in psychology from Cornell College in 1962. Ron served two years in the United States Army in England, then attended Drake University and received an MA in psychology in 1968. He married Donna Jones from Des Moines in 1968 and moved to Colorado.

Ron got his first teaching job at Red Rocks Community College in Lakewood, Colorado in 1969. He taught psychology for 52 years, up until just a few weeks before he died. From the early 1970’s onward, Ron also worked as a licensed clinical counselor with police departments and mental health hospitals in the Denver metro area doing inpatient psychiatric intake, and led groups in crisis intervention, domestic abuse and stress management.

Ron and Donna had two sons. Jeff (1970) and Scott (1973). The family enjoyed many summers and Christmases in Belmond where Ron’s parents and brother Rob lived. All the Courson cousins, aunts and uncles would descend on Virginia and Ron Sr.’s house in Belmond and their lakefront cottage at Lake Cornelia.

Ron and Donna’s marriage ended in 1976. He married Jane Mattingly in 1986, and they spent the rest of their lives together.

Ron’s favorite music genre was jazz, which included the Big Bands and small jazz ensembles. He introduced Jeff and Scott to the music of Maynard Ferguson, a famous jazz trumpeter, at Rainbow City Music Hall in Denver in the early 1980’s. Ron also had a fabulous baritone voice and enjoyed singing in choirs in the Denver area. Ron also fostered in his two sons a love of the great outdoors, hiking with them among the forests and vistas of the mountains of Colorado.

Left to cherish his memory are his wife Jane; sons Jeff (Arti) and Scott Courson; grandsons Shaan and Gabriel; granddaughters Shaanti and Aisha; brother Tim Courson; and sister, Melody (Michio) Ishihara. He was preceded in death by his parents, and his younger brothers Steve and Rob.

Belmond Independent -- Belmond, Iowa
September 16, 2021