Hi Everyone - Wanted to make sure everyone knew of Sunny's passing.  Please keep Cathey and family in your prayers.

 

Memory:  Ronald "Sunny" Merrill

Ronald Edwin Merrill, II was born September 15, 1947, in Olney, Texas. He was the third son born to Ronald and Mildred Jones Merrill of Throckmorton, Texas and yet he was given his father’s name. It has been a family mystery with many pondered answers ever since. Ron was called, Sunny, when he was a boy living in Throckmorton until fifth grade, and then the family moved to Pampa, Texas where he graduated high school and immediately married his high school sweetheart, Cathey Hopkins Merrill in 1966.  Ron attended college in Nacogdoches, Texas but finished at West Texas State University in Canyon, Texas in 1970.

After graduation and a year living in Bartlesville, Oklahoma and working for Phillips Petroleum Company, Ron felt the call to the ministry and the family, which included their son, Ronald Edwin Merrill, III, moved to Fort Worth, Texas for Ron to attend Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Following Ron’s graduation from seminary and his first pastorate in Jonesboro, Texas, the family moved to Panama Central America to the pastorate of Caribbean Baptist Church in the Canal Zone from 1976 through 1979. Ron always enjoyed telling people about how he baptized converts in the waters near Colon, Panama and right in the Panama canal itself and then always had to administer ear drops afterwards to ward off any infection.  When the Panama treaty was signed, the family moved back to Amarillo where Ron was a hospital chaplain in training. In order to complete the chaplaincy training, the family moved to Houston, Texas in 1980.  Ron served as a hospital chaplain for only a few years before changing directions when he “burned out on death and dying” working in the emergency room of the Ben Taub County Hospital of Houston on the night shift.

In about 1985, Ron started his own business, selling and servicing industrial equipment representing several manufacturers and representing Vanton Pump in all of Texas. His personal skills of caring and developing friendships in business, honesty, trustworthiness and a great memory, served him well and his business flourished. RE Merrill and Associates is now run by his son, Ron Merrill, III and continues to grow based out of Wimberley, Texas.

After Ron’s diagnosis of bvFTD in June 2017, Ron and Cathey moved to Wimberley, Texas in 2020, to follow their son and his family and finally moved to Ajijic, Mexico where Ron lived the last year of his life in his own beloved home surrounded by caring and attentive nurses and his loving wife. His nurses kept him walking and exercising his body and mind until only a few weeks before his death on May 12, 2022 at age 74.

Though Ron was very proud of his business and proud of the life of collecting Mexican folk art and traveling in Mexico seeking and meeting artisans and enjoying their art, he was proudest of his family. Ron loved the Lord and was a faithful believer all his life. He led many to the Lord and baptized them along the way.

Ron is survived by his wife of 57 years, Cathey Hopkins Merrill and their son, Ronald Edwin Merrill, III of Wimberley, Texas and his wife Jeannine Merrill and their two daughters, Madeline Ann Merrill and Catherine Elizabeth Merrill; brother Dick Merrill of Nevada and his wife Jo Merrill; brother Roger Merrill of Granbury, Texas and his wife Karen Merrill; brother Jim Merrill of Mississippi and his wife Susan Merrill as well as many extended family members.

A memorial party was held in the family home in Mexico with 25-30 friends in attendance a week prior to the grave side burial service held in Throckmorton, Texas on May 27, 2022.