Ronald A. Rivas

Ronald A. Rivas, 68, of Jacksonville, Florida, died peacefully on February 12, 2024 with his sister and two brothers by his side.

He was the second child born to Jimmy Rivas Jr., an NCO in the U.S. Air Force, and Delores Appleby Rivas, a nurse, while Jimmy was stationed in Tokyo on September 13, 1955. As the Air Force transferred Jimmy over the years, Ronny, as his family called him, spent much of his childhood in Japan, Hawaii, New York, Texas, Arkansas, and Châteauroux, France. Ronald’s siblings were born in Wichita Falls, Texas; Honolulu, Hawaii; Long Island, New York; and Little Rock, Arkansas.

Upon Jimmy’s honorable discharge from the Air Force in 1967, the family settled in Key Largo, Florida, where Jimmy and Delores opened a family business. Ronny was 11 years old at that time and attended Coral Shores School in Plantation Key. He loved fishing and boating in the Keys with his family and outings to Miami to see the Dolphins play in their run-up to the Perfect Season.

In his junior and senior years of high school, he began to show the earliest signs of a breakdown that ultimately developed into schizophrenia. He suffered from this cruel mental illness all of his adult life. He did not have a career, a wife, or children.

He was preceded in death by his father, Jimmy Rivas Jr.; his mother, Delores Rivas; and his one elder sibling, his brother, Richard A. Rivas, all of Jacksonville.

He is survived by his younger siblings: his brother Robert D. Rivas (and wife Julia Hanway), of Tallahassee, Florida; his sister Karen S. Rivas (and her wife Janis Brooks), of Leesburg, Florida; and his brother Randall L. Rivas, of Jacksonville. He is also survived by his sister-in-law Marcia Bersinger Rivas and the seven children and two grandchildren of Ronald’s siblings.