Ronald Crouse

Enlisted in the Marine Corps right out of high school. Spent just over 20 years on active duty. Locations I lived for more than one year. Ghana, West Africa, Israel, mainland Japan, Okinawa, Japan, California, North Carolina, South Carolina and of course Mandan. Married my high school sweetheart, Lynn Zander {class of 73). Spent the majority of my Marine Corps career as an active duty Special Agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service {NCIS}. I hold a four year college degree in Criminal Justice and a Masters Degree in Justice Administration. Both with academic honors, which is amazing considering my MHS GPA was about a 1.0. Go figure. Following my retirement from the Marine Corps, my family and I moved back to Mandan, where I took a job at the ND Youth Correctional Center. I retired from there about 21 years later as one of the facility directors. During my career at the NDYCC, I taught classes as an Adjunct Instructor, at both Bismarck State College and the University of Mary. All three of my kids attended all four of their high school years at Mandan High, and all three have advanced degrees and have wonderful spouses. Mike lives in Bismarck and has two boys, Karlee lives in Germany and has two boys and a girl. Jim lives in Rapid City and has two girls. I stay busy now with lots of volunteer work. I have organized and operate a Funeral Honor Guard that provides a proper send off to veterans, with a military 21 gun salute, taps and chaplaincy services. I also assign and participate in several color guards every year through our local Marine Corps League Detachment. I am too old for basketball, so play as much golf as I can. I still enjoy fishing and attending Mandan High sporting events. As for today, life is great. Living a dream.

Athletically, I stayed busy in high school with basketball, football and track. Outside of chasing around my high school girlfriend, whom I eventually married, I did not do or accomplish much of anything in High School. I am personally responsible for substantially lowering the class of 72 grade point average. I barely graduated with about a 1.something GPA. I simply had no interest in learning, and experienced great stress wondering if I was going to graduate. I owe a few teachers a steak dinner for letting me slide by, as I truly did not deserve to graduate. Following graduation, I became a Marine Recruiters dream, in that, I walking into his office and said, "Where do I sign, and how soon can I leave?"