Ronald D. Webb, 1935-2012: O-I exec was Luckey mayor, loved aviation

LUCKEY, Ohio -- Ronald D. Webb, a former Owens-Illinois Inc. manager and an aviation enthusiast who became mayor of his hometown, as had his father before him, died Sunday in Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center. He was 76.

Mr. Webb, most recently of West Toledo, had diabetes and heart and kidney problems, his wife, Jean, said.

He worked for O-I about 25 years, retiring in 1990 as a design manager in the glass container division, his grandson William Farmer said.

"He was always a craftsman in a sense," Mr. Farmer said.

Mr. Webb began to build model airplanes in childhood. A life member of the Toledo Weak Signals Radio Control Club, he sent aloft gasoline-powered and remote-controlled craft. He still kept busy in his basement workshop.

"He had two planes he was constructing now," his wife, Jean, said. "All winter long he worked on the planes, and all summer long he flew them."

He was a former pilot and owner of a single-engine airplane, which he flew from the former Metcalf Field.

"His goal most of the time in flying was going over the lake," said Mr. Farmer, who as a child went along regularly.

Mr. Webb gauged flight conditions by looking from his home toward Bowling Green, several miles away. If he could see the water tower, Mr. Farmer recalled, "it was time to go."

He was born Dec. 2, 1935, to Esther and Albert Webb, and grew up in Luckey. He was a 1954 graduate of the former Troy High School and became a mechanical draftsman for Haughton Elevator in Toledo.

When the community incorporated as a village in the 1950s, its first mayor was the elder Mr. Webb, said former Mayor Harley Jacobs, whose 34 years in office surrounded the younger Mr. Webb's tenure as mayor.

"He was pretty level-headed," Mr. Jacobs said. When it came to the duties of a mayor, "his dad was my tutor for a long time," said Mr. Jacobs, who left office at the end of 2007.

The younger Mr. Webb was a six-year council veteran in 1985 when he was appointed mayor. He replaced Mr. Jacobs, who had been mayor for 18 years and resigned because of his job. Mr. Webb, a former council president, served as mayor through 1991 and was then succeeded by Mr. Jacobs.

Mr. Webb was a member of Zion United Methodist Church, the Sandusky County Sportsmen's Club, and the National Rifle Association.

"He was a man of his convictions and he wasn't afraid to fight for what he thought was right, quietly -- his God, his family, the NRA, freedom," said his daughter, Patty Griswold.

His first wife, the former Mary Sue Howell, died in February, 1996.

Surviving are his wife, Melva Jean, whom he married Oct. 10, 1998; daughters, Magdalene Thompson and Patricia Griswold; six grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 2-4 and 6-8 p.m. Thursday in the Marsh Funeral Home, Luckey. Services will be at 2 p.m. Friday in Zion United Methodist Church, Luckey, where visitation will begin at 1 p.m.

The family suggests tributes to the American Heart Association, the Kidney Foundation, or the American Diabetes Association.

Contact Mark Zaborney at: mzaborney@theblade.com or 419-724-6182.