Teacher, visionary, giver: Wilmot leaves mark at home and abroad

Ron Wilmot explains the science of the wind turbine near the Akron-Westfield school to an exchange student from Nigeria. The turbine, which stands approximately 160 feet high with three blades that are each 50 feet long, is just one of ways Wilmot impacted Akron and beyond. Wilmot died while in Nigeria this month. [Click to enlarge]

The turbine, which now helps provide some of Akron-Westfield Community School's energy, is one of the many tangible reminders of a man who left a legacy of teaching and service.

Although Ronald Wilmot, 69, of Akron died unexpectedly June 9, his many students, fellow board members and family say his life was a full one.

The Ohio man and his wife Meriele moved to Akron in 1968 and he began his 36-year teaching career at the school there.

Those who worked with him speak of his out-of-the-ordinary teaching style.

"One of the things that really separates him from many teachers I've worked with is that he was one to really give his kids the chance to do a lot of hands-on experiences," said A-W Superintendent Ron Flynn. "He was one of the best."

Josh Martinsen, who was a student teacher with Wilmot and now teaches science at West Sioux Community Schools in Hawarden, agreed.

"He wasn't one that believed in standing up at the chalkboard and lecturing," Martinsen said. "We went out and did stuff."

His classes did an overnight study of mammals, checking live traps throughout the night to see what kind of nocturnal animals prowled the area. He organized river studies on the Big Sioux River, which curls past Akron.

And he pushed for his high schoolers to be involved in the Iowa Lakeside Lab at Okoboji. Students from A-W still attend weekend workshops there, doing hands-on research.

"He really got that started and helped out even after he retired," Flynn said.

Martinsen, who now brings West Sioux students to the Lakeside Lab, said he wished he could teach like Wilmot 180 days of the school year.

Wilmot, he said, trained students to think.

"Undoubtedly Ron has shaped my teaching more than any other teacher I've worked for or with,' he added. "I try to get my students out and doing actual research. That's what Ron was about. Doing stuff that a scientist would do."

Wilmot aimed to improve things around him, Flynn noted. That's where the story of the Akron wind turbine began.

After research, Wilmot and others from the school presented the idea of using wind energy as an alternative for Akron to the city council, then pushed the project forward with design and fundraising.

"The wind turbine offered sustainable power, which was an example for us to be good stewards, a great learning opportunity for students and a financial opportunity for the school to ease budgetary constraints he saw there," said Gary Tucker, who was Akron's city administrator during part of the wind turbine project. "From the very beginning it made sense. Ron was truly visionary in pretty much everything he was involved in."

Students, Tucker said, watched and were involved with the project step-by-step, from the surveying of the site to the installation to the daily functioning.

After it went up in 1999, the wind turbine project hit a few bumps in the road, but now it is whirling away, harnessing wind energy and helping cut back the school's energy bill, Superintendent Flynn said.

"Ron was one of a kind. Such a humble, nice guy, always looking to make things better for someone else," Flynn said. "It would be a great world if there were more like him."

Wilmot also played a part in establishing the Akron Children's Center and in designating the Dunham Prairie preserve in Akron. He served on the Akron City Council, the Plymouth County Soil and Water Conservation District, the county conservation board and several other boards and Wesley United Methodist Church offices.

And he was a husband and father of five children.

His wife Meriele said Wilmot was always on the go, but still made time for her.

"He was always so patient," she said, recalling his help when the computer was giving her trouble or something in the house broke. "I never had to do anything by myself."

She knew he was a go-getter from the first day she met him at a church camp where she was lifeguarding. He walked by with a group of young campers and caught her eye.

"He'd just do anything for kids," she said.

She saw that again and again in their life together.

Together, they raised five children: Dwain, Becky Wright, Jenifer Olson, Ronele Murdock and Aaron. Dwain now works at Akron-Westfield Community School in a role his father once held, as the technology staff person, and he also travels with students to the Lakeside Lab.

"He even looks like his dad when his dad was younger," Superintendent Flynn said with a smile in his voice.

Wilmot's impact spans the globe. His international connection started several years ago when, in the newsletter from their church's state leadership, an article caught his wife's eye. It was a request for somebody to help start a science classroom in Nigeria. Meriele decided to mention it to her husband.

"We kind of talked about being missionaries in our early years," she said. "And Ron had input in the design of Akron-Westfield's science classrooms."

So began Wilmot's connection with Nigeria. He designed the science classroom there, then helped build it.

"After those two or three weeks, he came back and said, 'It's not enough time, I don't get anything done. I'm going to stay all summer,'" Meriele remembered. "Once you go, you can't get it out of your head. You've got to think globally, expand your world."

Wilmot made return trip after return trip to Nigeria.

He started projects to build wells for communities that were drinking the same water cattle were swimming in.

"Then he got going in every direction," Meriele laughed.

Wilmot spurred construction and solar power projects, helped design a water tower for the school and worked with the medical field, introducing many Nigerians to a plant that could be grown in Nigeria to treat malaria.

"He had so much he wanted to get done," Meriele said. "He just would not quit."

Ultimately, Wilmot's body quit on him during a trip to Nigeria. He died while serving on his seventh volunteer trip there.

"He was a servant. Where you saw Ron's faith was in his service," said Wilmot's former student teacher Martinsen, who spoke at the memorial service on June 18.

That in-action way of life is the legacy Wilmot has left behind.

"As much as he liked to talk, he didn't have to preach," Martinsen said. "He was living his beliefs."