Ronald J. McCleary
Dec. 20, 1951 - Dec. 22, 2007
KERKHOVEN -- Ronald John McCleary, 56, of Kerkhoven, died Saturday at Rice Memorial Hospital in Willmar after a battle with cancer.
The service will be at 10:30 a.m. Thursday at the Church of St. Mary in Willmar. Burial will be in Sacred Heart Catholic Cemetery near Raymond.
Visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. today, with a 7:30 p.m. prayer service, at Peterson Brothers Funeral Home in Willmar and one hour prior to the service Thursday at the church.
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He was born Dec. 20, 1951, in Willmar to Howard and Jeanne (Forcier) McCleary. He grew up in the Willmar, Pennock and Belgrade areas and attended school in Willmar, Belgrade and Kerkhoven, graduating from Kerkhoven High School in 1969.
On Sept. 15, 1973, he married Virginia Melin. He attended the Willmar Vo-Tech for drafting and electronics and later returned to school to receive his auto mechanics training. He worked at Control Data in Minneapolis before returning to the Willmar area.
On June 27, 1981, he married Marsha (Johnson) Syverson in Willmar. They lived in the Willmar area and moved to Kerkhoven in 2005. Ron drove truck for the Farm Service Elevator and most recently worked as a forklift mechanic for Forklift Service and Herc-U-Lift.
He is survived by his wife; three sons: Ryan (and Rachael) McCleary of Alexandria, Jamie McCleary of Henning and Travis (and Aurora) McCleary of Willmar; a daughter: Tanya (and Reed) Reinbold of Henning; 10 grandchildren; his mother of Pennock; four brothers: Michael (and Renee) McCleary of Kerkhoven, Roger (and Pamela) McCleary of Kerkhoven, Gerald (and Michele) McCleary of Belgrade and Randall McCleary (and Nancy Balderas) of Clara City; and two sisters: Connie Basore of New London and Pamela (and Steven) Ruka of Kerkhoven.
He was preceded in death by his father in October and by one brother.
