Ronald Radbill Koegler

Born in Atlantic City, Ronald grew up in his mother’s hotel near the famous Boardwalk and worked as a lifeguard on the city beaches every summer until completing medical school at Temple University in 1953 – experiences that would inspire him to write three novels after retiring from his career as a psychiatrist at the age of 84.

In 1953, Ron moved to Los Angeles to begin his medical residency. He met Carolyn Vick at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, where she worked as a pediatric nurse. With a first date at a car show, and another for a road rally through the streets of Venice, they then married in 1955 and embarked on an adventurous honeymoon, driving his Triumph TR2 as far as Acapulco. Ron then spent over 30 years working in Los Angeles, including psychiatric residency, research psychiatrist, and associate clinical professor at UCLA, director of the Frederick Douglass Child Development Center, and director of the Center for Urban Education at Mount St. Mary’s College, chairman of the American Montessori Teacher Training Program in Los Angeles, chief of Children’s Services at Central City Community Mental Health Services, and director of the psychiatric resident training program at Olive View Hospital.

In 1987, Ron and Carolyn moved to Santa Barbara, where Ron worked at Santa Barbara County Department of Mental Health, and considered himself fortunate to enjoy the camaraderie and support of his co-workers both before and after he retired at age 84. A lifelong aficionado of the pun and prodigious writer of scientific, educational, literary, and historical articles, he devoted his remaining years to writing historical novels set in Atlantic City.

Ronald is survived by his wife Carolyn and by his children, Dana, Jan, and William; grandchildren, Milo Dubinsky, Daniel Meller, and Leah (Jake) Olins; and great-grandchildren, Oscar and Abe.