Ronald Rardin

Ronald Lee Rardin of McKinney, formerly of Leawood, KS, passed away on August 13, 2024. He was born on May 3, 1943, in Kansas City, MO, to Eugene Murray Rardin, Sr. and Virginia Lee (Shepherd) Rardin. As a member of the first class to go entirely through Shawnee Mission East High School, Ron graduated third of 553 students in 1961. He received his B.A. in Mathematics and Political Science from the University of Kansas in 1965 where he served as President of Battenfeld Scholarship Hall and was honored as Phi Beta Kappa. In 1967 he obtained an M.P.A. in City Government from K.U. He worked in Ft. Worth, TX. before moving to CA to attend Stanford University. While in CA, he met the love of his life, Blanca and they married in Carmel on September 3, 1969.

Choosing to follow a revered professor, Ron and Blanca relocated to Atlanta, GA, where he obtained his Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Their beloved son Rob was born in 1974. After 9 years as a Georgia Tech professor, Ron joined the faculty at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN, where he remained for 24 years before retiring in 2006 as Professor Emeritus of Industrial Engineering. During that time from 2000 - 2003, he served in a professional rotation at the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C., where he founded and served as Program Director for Operations Research and Service Enterprise Engineering to foster research in service industries.

He joined the faculty of the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville in 2007 as the inaugural incumbent of the John and Mary Lib White Systems Integration Chair in Industrial Engineering as a Distinguished Professor and retired as a Distinguished Professor Emeritus in 2013. The many achievements of Dr. Rardin included receiving the Alan Pritsker Award for outstanding undergraduate teaching in industrial research four times and serving as director of both the Purdue Energy Modeling Research Groups and of the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering while at Purdue. While at Arkansas, he headed the University’s Center on Innovation in Healthcare Logistics and founded the Health Systems Engineering Alliance of industrial engineering academic programs concerning healthcare. His groundbreaking cancer research in Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy, or IMRT, addressed the limitations of conventional radiation therapy by delivering small parts of rays, called beamlets, directly to specific sections or particular points on a tumor while also sparing healthy tissue and conforming more precisely to the three-dimensional shape of the tumor.

Dr. Rardin co-authored numerous research papers and wrote several comprehensive textbooks. Discrete Optimization, a graduate text, was published in 1988. Optimization in Operations Research, an undergraduate text published in 1998, received the Institute of Industrial Engineers Book of the Year award. A second edition was released in 2016.

Yet Ron was not a remote, "ivory tower" style of professor. He was always available to his students and concerned about their well-being both inside and out of the classroom including often inviting international students away from their families for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner in their home.

Ron treasured his family. He coached Rob in soccer, shared his latest enthusiasm about books and movies, and enjoyed family holiday gatherings, often in Kansas City where his parents and siblings lived. At Thanksgiving and Christmas, Ron was usually in charge of cooking the turkey. He was always ready for an engaged discussion about the state of the world and everyone’s ideas of how to best solve its problems. He was happy to share his thoughts about politics, too. He was an enthusiastic supporter of the Democratic Party, including having attended the 1996 Clinton/Gore DNC with Blanca, and anticipated the upcoming fall campaigns.

Following retirement, he and Blanca moved to Texas to be closer to Rob and their granddaughters. Ron was a devoted grandfather, babysitting, chauffeuring them to music lessons and soccer games, and always encouraging them to dream–and then to be prepared to act on their dreams. Since 2020, he and Blanca had enjoyed weekly Zoom meetings with his brother Gene, sisters Linda and Pat, cousins Jerry and Marcia, and their spouses, Chuck, Ken, Kathi, and Tom. He and Blanca and Rob visited many countries–including a six-month sabbatical in Belgium. Recently, they had all traveled to the Bahamas with Rob’s daughters, Eva (“Evie”) and Gabby. He had just enjoyed a long visit in Texas from Titi, Anni, Sara, and Samuel.

He is preceded in death by his loving parents and sister-in-law, Juanita Rardin. He is survived by his devoted wife, Blanca, adored son Robert Ronald, cherished granddaughters Evangeline and Gabrielle all of McKinney; brother Eugene M. Rardin, Jr. Overland Park, KS, sister Linda (Chuck) Robbins Spring Hill. KS, sister Patricia (Kenneth) Mairs Overland Park, KS; nieces Diane Robbins, Sharon (Robert) Young, Jennifer (Darren) Decker, Melissa (Andrew) King; nephews Michael Rardin, Jonathan Mairs, Christopher (Tarah) Mairs; cousins Jerry Froelke Vienna, VA, and Marcia (Tom Bracken) Coburn Chicago, IL; and very special extended family Titi, daughter Anni, and grandchildren Sara and Sammy of CA.

Services will be held Saturday, August 31, 2024, at 10:00 am at Johnson County Funeral Chapel & Memorial Gardens, 11200 Metcalf, Overland Park, KS 66210.

Contributions may be made to KU Scholarship Halls in Ron’s Memory by going online to KUEndowment.org and selecting gift amount, designation, 005995 ScholarshipHalls, and “In memory of Ron Rardin” or by mailing a check to KU Endowment, P.O. Box 928, Lawrence, KS, 66044, in Memory of Ron or on-line at the Parkinson’s Foundation at Parkinsons.org, in memory of Ron.