The Passing Of A Legend
Word comes this afternoon, that Ron Hood passed away in his sleep last night at his home in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. If you are not familiar with Ron's work, he was a legend in the survival community... a great teacher and leader. He ran Survival.com (he secured that domain name back in the mid-90's). He published Survival Quarterly magazine, a rich glossy mag with some of the top names in the industry as writers. He designed wonderful knives and tools. He started doing survival training videos back in the days of VHS in the mid-80's. Many survivalists owe their start in the lifestyle to Ron.
My friend, Tim, recently bought a Hoodlum knife from Ron and brought it over to my house a couple weekends ago. It is a fantastic looking and feeling tool. Tim is supposed to be writing a review of it to post here. Just three days ago, he sent Ron an email thanking him for the knife and congratulating him on the design. Tim was thrilled to get a personal reply.
This morning, at about 5:30, I posted to Ron's FB page asking if they had a storefront or office in Coeur d'Alene as we will be out there this summer for my cousin's wedding and I wanted to stop in to say hello and buy a knife or something. That would have been 2:30 a.m. their time. I was stunned this afternoon when I heard the news.
Not much more to say. My prayers are with Ron's family and friends, and I hope they can find some comfort in knowing how many people Ron touched in his life and the positive influence he had on the world.
RIP, Ron - he was a bright light in a storm.
ReplyDeleteRon was certainly one of a kind. Intelligent, adaptable and sort of a father figure of the current generation of survivalists. He always struck me as a genuinely honorable man, who never placed himself above or apart from anyone who was smart enough to return the respect. He taught me so many things through his video's and phone conversations. It hit me like a brick to learn of his passing. It also brought home an epiphany that should be remembered, in light of Ron Hood's life and death. That being that we practice survival training and lifestyles not to pursue any false sense of immortality but mainly because it allows us to be the sort of men we aspire to be and are. Ron Hood was that sort of man. I'm glad so many of us had the chance to enrich our lives through his. RIP brother! Wes
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