SANTA CLAUS A LONG TIME VETERAN

Ron Brown moved with his family from Indy to Fort Wayne in the late forties. He attended Central High School, graduating in 1950 and now lives with his wife Carol on Dockshire Lane. From high school he joined the Marines and found himself in Korea.

Ron said, “C-Rations weren’t the most loved meal while I was in Korea, but rather then let them go to waste, I would gather them up and hand them out to the youngsters.”
From that early experience Ron continued his giving ways.

After the Marines, he started a business, “In Design” that provided landscaping as well as interior and exterior design. He also worked in publications relations at Southgate Shopping Center. He setup special events as promotions and was the originator of the first Johnny Appleseed Festival that eventually moved to the Coliseum area.

One of his promotions involved bringing in Santa for the kids and he decided to fill that spot by himself.

Another incident occurred when Ron was at Lutheran Hospital recovering from a surgery. While there, he became acquainted with a young boy who had been hospitalized after a domestic violence incident. The boy had no other visitors so Ron became a regular and gave the youngster a teddy bear. Ron and the boy both enjoyed it so much that Ron kept on giving toys to hospitalized children at Lutheran for 30 years.

Ron retired in 1990 but he never gave up his love for handing out toys at Christmas. These days he can be found at Jefferson Pointe Shopping Center (across from Talbots) in a Santa outfit, talking to kids and enhancing their excitement about Christmas.