Ron Smith, a resident of Maricopa since 2007, writes an aging-in-place column for InMaricopa.
Hometown: Amsterdam, N.Y.
Maricopan since: April 2007
Occupation: Retired
Family: My wife of 51 years, Helen Smith, 2 grown sons and 2 grandsons
Pets: The granddogs: Schmitty (German Shepherd) and Kemah (Siberian Husky)
Cars: Subaru Forester and Subaru Crosstrek
Hobbies: Photography, travel, DIY projects, writing and my aging-in-place advocacy
Pet peeve: Left lane hogs
Dream vacation: My dream vacation was last year when we visited Italy and my grandparents’ place of birth (Frasso Telesino)
Like most about Maricopa: The potential! There is so much opportunity to be part of the development of this exciting community.
Like least about Maricopa: The lack of 24×7 emergency medical care
Favorite …
Charity: Phoenix Children’s Hospital, St. Jude, K9s for Warriors, Phoenix Rescue Mission, St. Mary’s Foodbank, F.O.R.
Book: I enjoy fictional series by authors such as Tony Hillerman, James Patterson, Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler and John Grisham
Movie: “Forrest Gump”
Actor: Tom Hanks
Song: “Strangers in the Night”
Musician: Garth Brooks
Team: Arizona Coyotes
Athlete: Shane Doan and Larry Fitzgerald
Food: Italian
Drink: Iced Mocha
Meal: Lasagna
Restaurant: Nello’s Mesa
Getaway: Alaska or Hawaii; weekend: Flagstaff
Words to live by: Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”
Anything else we should know? I am a Subaru Ambassador … love to talk about cars. particularly Subarus! I’ve been a car geek most of my life. So if it has wheels and an engine, I’m interested.
One of my car-related bucket list experiences was attending the 2013 Autoweek Fantasy Camp in Detroit with 19 other gear heads. For a weekend, we played automobile journalists and evaluated 10 performance cars on the Ford Dearborn test track. The most exciting moment: a hot lap in a Dodge Viper driven by auto racing legend Tommy Kendall, who was our host for the weekend! Hang on and smile! The group picked an overall winner with our new evaluation skills that was published in an article in the June 24, 2013 issue of Autoweek.
