10 minute read
Because of Ron
Because of Ron
By Michelle Goff
During a 29-year career at UPIKE, Ron Damron, who retired this summer, served the campus community as dean of students, athletic director, bowling coach, director of planned giving, mentor and friend.
Jody Johnson, D.O., (’96, KYCOM ’01) makes this pronouncement while on UPIKE’s campus to attend a meeting of the university’s Board of Trustees. Johnson, a board member since 2011, remembers the day more than a quarter century earlier when he went to Damron’s office to tell him he was leaving Pikeville College.
“I went to Ron and told him that, due to my family’s financial situation, I was going to have to transfer to another college. Ron said, ‘Let’s see what we can do.’ They restructured my scholarship so that the part for room and board could be applied toward tuition. That meant I could commute and stay in school.”
Johnson would remain at Pikeville and later become a member of the first class of the Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine and a proud ambassador for his alma mater.
“I wouldn’t be sitting here today,” Johnson says while gesturing to his surroundings, “I wouldn’t bleed orange, if not for Ron Damron.”
Johnson is not alone. During his impressive 29-year career at UPIKE, which included stints as dean of students, athletic director, men’s and women’s bowling coach and director of planned giving, Damron, who retired this summer, served as mentor, role model and friend to hundreds of students, coaches and staff members.
Damron was a vice president of Citizens Bank when Bill Owens, UPIKE president from 1985 to 1997, recruited him to come work at the college. Damron had spent seven years teaching in Pike County schools and felt called to return to the education field. As for Owens, he describes Damron as “someone I could depend on. He seemed to have the personality needed for the job. The person in that position would be dealing with a variety of people and would need to be understanding and open-minded.”
According to those who worked and played for him, Damron definitely possesses those traits.
Britta Gibson, who served as assistant dean of student services from 2007 to 2013, says, “Ron was good about teaching me not to jump to conclusions. He would caution that maybe there was more to the story and he would give students – and employees – a chance to tell their story without judging them.”
“He took me under his wing,” says Fallon Tallman, who played on the women’s bowling team from 2012 to 2015. “We had tough conversations, and he was never judgmental.”
“He never gave up on students, but he also never gave up on coaches,” says UPIKE men’s basketball coach and athletic director Kelly Wells. “He tried to figure out how to resolve and change behavior instead of giving up on the person. I don’t think he has the give-up feature in him. “
Damron was no pushover, though.
“Ron believes in second chances, he believes in the good in everybody, but you can’t cross him,” notes John Biery, assistant vice president of student services from 2003 to 2008. “When he told the students something, they had to listen. If he said, ‘If you miss two more classes, you’re out,’ and you missed those classes, you were out. He was fair, though, and everything he did was for the college, the kids and the community.”
Damron supervised Harriet Blanton, director of UPIKE’s TRiO program ACE, for more than a decade.
“I found Ron to be super good at all aspects of the job. When you walked into the room with a problem, he knew how to solve it,” Blanton recalls. “You usually walked away from his office with a solution or with the knowledge that a solution was on the way.”
“I’ve always said, if you want to get something done, call Ron Damron,” says Kyle Wilson, who has been UPIKE men’s bowling coach since 2005. “He would find a way to help me, to help the players, to help the students.”
WINNING WITH CHARACTER
Wilson and Damron’s 20-year friendship and professional relationship began when Damron started taking his daughter LaDeanna to bowling tournaments Wilson organized in Ohio.
“We got to know lots of good bowlers at all these tournaments we were going to, and we learned they were going to colleges that offered bowling,” Damron says. “I started asking parents, ‘If we start a bowling program, would you consider going to Pikeville?’ A lot of them said yes.”
Under the direction of then-president Hal Smith, the early 2000s saw the return of women’s golf and the addition of the football and bowling programs. During those early years, Damron coached the men’s and women’s teams. LaDeanna Damron, in 2004, was part of the program’s first national Intercollegiate Team Championships (ITC) United States Bowling Congress (USBC) championship.
“There was no difference between him as a coach and a dad,” LaDeanna Damron says of her father. “He’s very true to himself and the way he acted around me, the way he disciplined me, wasn’t different from the way he acted around the other players and how he disciplined them. That’s why they think of him as a father figure.”
Kayla Bandy, a two-time USBC player of the year and member of the 2008 USBC collegiate national championship team, says, “One Thanksgiving, we were on our way to a tournament and he handed me his phone. He would say call this person and that person. He was calling his alumni and wishing them Happy Thanksgiving. That’s who he is.”
The players also thought of Damron’s wife Shella as the team mom. Shella Damron went on the road with the team, dispensing snacks, prayers and Tylenol.
“Ron couldn’t have done it without his family,” Smith says. “Together, they created a family-like atmosphere with the bowling team.”
“His family are some of the most understanding people. He would come to work early and then go to practice until nine o’clock, three nights a week. And then we had tournaments on weekends,” Tallman says.
“The teams would not have been as successful and I could not have done all that I’ve done without the support of my family. Shella was a trouper,” Damron adds.
In addition to the IBC-USBC titles, UPIKE, under Damron’s leadership, won the 2012 and 2015 NAIA national invitational championships. He was selected the
Whether he was coaching at a bowling tournament, advising an employee or fundraising for the university, Damron was committed to helping students achieve success in and out of the classroom.
USBC National Coach of the Year in 2004, 2010, 2012 and 2015. What’s more, he coached each of his teams to the USBC national tournament (2001-2015) and every student-athlete who played for him for four years won a championship.
With characteristic humility, Damron praises others for the program’s success.
“The hardest part was always recruiting good people, but our first class set the tone,” he says. “(Winning) isn’t about coaching, though. You’ve got to know the sport, but the most important thing is having the buy in from the players. You have to mold everyone into one purpose. Your students have to have good character. Winning was about a group that had the desire to be good. Sometimes, you’re put into a place where you’re successful no matter what you do.”
In 2008, Damron had no doubts his team would be successful.
“We drove a bus called Champion to the 2008 national tournament,” Bandy says while chuckling. “We didn’t know this, but Mr. D. had an ‘S’ made because he knew we would win. After we won, he called us together and added the ‘S’ to the word Champion on the bus.”
GIVING BACK
Although he would remain women’s bowling coach until 2016, Damron stepped down as dean of students in 2014. At that time, he also shifted into a new role as director of planned giving.
David Hutchens, UPIKE vice president for advancement, says Damron was a natural fit for the job.
“Ron is an excellent listener and he has a way of putting people at ease. The first time you meet him, you feel like you’ve known him your entire life,” Hutchens says. “Because of these attributes and Ron’s professionalism, planned giving set a giving record last year. The university – the students – will benefit from these fundraising efforts for years to come.”
In 2017, UPIKE hired Bobby Brown as women’s bowling coach. Brown immediately decided to honor Damron, who he knew from college bowling tournaments.
“When I got here, I wanted something to be tied to his name,” Brown says of the endowed undergraduate scholarship he started on Damron’s behalf. “Ron left the university, the athletic department and bowling with a part of him. He wore so many hats here and he always made those hats better. He’s about helping students, so it’s a way for us to keep Ron around forever while doing just that. Helping students.”
“I know so many students he took a chance on,” Gibson shares. “Maybe they weren’t going to go somewhere athletically, but he stayed on them and got them through college. He was great with parents, too. Families of first generation students who came to the office didn’t feel intimidated. He made them feel like they belonged. It was almost like they were coming home.”
A few years after graduating, Bandy worked for Damron as the director of residence life/coordinator of student activities. “We worked a lot of hours. Looking back, it was a testament to him. He expected us to go the extra mile and do the work for the students. They were like his own kids. He would expect people to do it for LaDeanna.”
Bandy, Gibson and others also describe Damron as a trusting supervisor who helped them grow professionally and personally.
“He has a way of bringing out the best in people, but sometimes you don’t realize it until later,” Blanton says.
“He taught me how to be a good human and he taught me to breathe, have patience and take a step back,” Bandy says.
“He let you do your job,” Wells recalls, “but he would ask, ‘Have you ever thought about doing it this way?’ You’d think it was your decision because he was leading you to the right decision. You couldn’t get him rattled or overwhelmed. I have the utmost respect for that. You knew he was in control. That was one of the things I picked up from him. Try to stay calm and make an educated decision. He found the best version without making you feel you did something wrong. He’s what administering and coaching should look like.”
Wells continues, “He leaned on his faith. We can all learn from that.”
Noting her dad’s example of “the epitome of how a Christian should live,” LaDeanna Damron says, “The best lesson he’s taught me is that, no matter what you’re doing and where you’re at, be respectful so that no matter who finds out, you can be proud of the way you acted and what you did.”
Damron credits a higher power for his accomplishments at UPIKE.
“I enjoyed every part of the university,” he says. “If I’ve been successful, it’s because God put me where I was supposed to be.”
Years after Jody Johnson had graduated first from college and then from medical school, he returned to UPIKE, this time as a member of the board of trustees. Spotting Damron at a meeting, he approached him, saying, “Let me tell you a story about you.”
Johnson then related the story of how Damron’s efforts led to him staying at Pikeville. “He didn’t remember because what he had done to help me was not an uncommon thing for him to have done. But it was uncommon for me. Ron wouldn’t take the credit, though. He told me that he wasn’t the one who helped me, that the college [from donor support] helped me. But somebody had to say, ‘This kid is worth taking a chance on. Let’s find a way to keep him.’
“And that person was Ron Damron.”
