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Ron Ortquist
Ronald W. Ortquist passed away on January 27, 2025. Ron was born in Muskegon on June 5, 1940. He married his high school sweetheart, Janet Legard, in 1960. Ron and Jan moved to Ludington in 1965 when Ron took a position as assistant cashier at the National Bank of Ludington (NBL). He was quickly promoted to vice president and cashier and then to senior vice president and led projects to build the NBL headquarters on Ludington Avenue and other branch locations. In 1986 Ron moved to a new role as CEO of Ludington’s Dow Credit Union and worked with the board to make the credit union’s services available to all Ludington community members, and to rename it as Safe Harbor Credit Union. Ron led efforts to build a new headquarters for the Credit Union on Tinkham Avenue. He retired from Safe Harbor Credit Union in 2005.
Ron was a talented singer and loved the old hymns of the church. He served as choir director and song leader for Trinity Evangelical Free Church for nearly two decades and was baritone in the church’s Gospel Heirs quartet. He knew the hymns by heart, and his voice could always be heard joyfully proclaiming the Gospel message. Recently he led music for a local men’s prayer breakfast.
Ron loved the outdoors and enjoyed camping, hiking, hunting and fishing in Michigan. He and Jan spent several weeks each summer on the shores of Lake Superior where they picked huckleberries, foraged for wild mushrooms and leeks, and searched for agates on the beach. He taught his children how to fish for whitefish in Lake Superior, smallmouth bass in the straights of Mackinac, salmon and smelt off the break-wall in Ludington, panfish in Hamlin Lake, and brook trout in Michigan’s streams.
Ron loved his family most of all. He loved to make his kids and grandkids laugh, and Dad jokes and puns were his specialty. He will be greatly missed.
Ron is survived by his wife Janet; children Steven Ortquist of Phoenix, Az., Lisa Ortquist (Ben Mosher) of Grand Ledge, and Paul (Jinnifer) Ortquist of Grand Rapids; by his grandchildren Isabel, Olivia and Liam Mosher; and by his sister Lynn-Elle Colsman of Centennial, Colo. He was preceded in death by his mother Maybelle (Vriesman) Ortquist; father Russel A. Ortquist; brothers Milton Ortquist of Beacon, NY and Jack Ortquist of Muskegon; and half-sister Henrietta (Sis) Kerstin of Muskegon.
Funeral services will be conducted at 12:30 p.m., Saturday, February 1, 2025, at Beacon Cremation & Funeral Service, Pere Marquette Chapel. Interment will be in Lakeview Cemetery in Ludington. Visitation will be held Saturday from 11:30 a.m. until time of services at the funeral home.
Memorial contributions may be made to Word of Life, Life Change Camper Scholarship – 0H804C, PO Box 600, Schroon Lake, NY 12870, or via phone: (518) 494-6000 (select donations).
Beacon Cremation & Funeral Service is in charge of arrangements.
