Retired Plaskon payroll supervisor was avid boater

11/12/2000

Ronald F. Zawodni, a retired payroll supervisor for the former Plaskon Products plant and a president of the Plaskon Federal Credit Union, died of cancer Thursday in his West Toledo home. He was 67.

Mr. Zawodni had been ill since May, his daughter, Lisbeth Schmitt,said.

Boating was a favorite avocation, especially in retirement, and he was 1998 commander of the Toledo Power Squadron, a nonprofit group that promotes safe boating by offering boaters education classes. He was assistant secretary of District 29, U.S. Power Squadron.

He was serious about his responsibilities, brother-in-law Ed Mueller said.

“If he took on a challenge, it was followed through,” Mr. Mueller said.

Mr. Zawodni was a past treasurer of the Ottawa River Yacht Club.

“Ron, in any organization he believed in, really needed to be active,” said Terry Samsel, a colleague at Plaskon and in the credit union leadership there. “Ron was a great organizer.

Mr. Zawodni was hired at Plaskon in 1951 to work in the mailroom. He advanced at the manufacturer of plastic compounds, became a company accountant, and was payroll supervisor for much of his 40-year career. He retired in 1991.

“He was concise and particular,” his daughter said. “It was rewarding work.”

He was a president of the Plaskon credit union and volunteered for credit union committees. That work was a big part of his life, his daughter said, in large part because the organization “was run by the employees for the employees.”

Born in Toledo, he was a graduate of the former Macomber Vocational High School. He was a member of the Ohio National Guard, serving with his father-in-law, Edward Mueller. Mr. Zawodni became a supply sergeant.

He liked camping - eastern Tennessee was a favorite destination in his trailer - and he was a former president of the Maumee Valley Travel Trailer Club.

He was a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles and, in retirement, he worked part time for NAPA Auto Parts and Cleveland Plant & Flower Co.

He and his wife, Shirley, married in April, 1953.

Surviving are his wife, Shirley; daughter, Lisbeth Schmitt; son, Steven, and a granddaughter.

The body will be in the Walker Mortuary after 2 p.m. today, with an Ottawa River Yacht Club prayer service at 7 tonight and a Toledo Power Squadron service at 7:45 tonight in the mortuary. Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. tomorrow in St. Clement Church, where he was a member for many years.

The family requests tributes to the Hospice of Northwest Ohio, in Perrysburg Township.