Longtime Pierce County Fair Dairy Superintendent, area milk tester and “friend to all” Ron Thompson will be honored at this year’s Memorial Wall/History Presentation at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 13 in the Kenny Hines Memorial Building.

Thompson, of Spring Valley, died at age 86 on Dec. 19, 2025 after a long battle with cancer.

Current Dairy Superintendent and lifelong friend Bob Traynor said Ron’s wife Sue was the superintendent to begin with, but then “Ronnie” joined her in the role.

“I would guess between the two of them they had 25 years between them, maybe more,” Traynor said. “I took over for him about seven years ago. He did it until he was 79. He wanted to retire from it. We weren’t’ milking cows anymore and I was available.”

Thompson was born Nov. 15, 1939 on the family farm in Gilman Township. He graduated with the Spring Valley High School Class of 1958 and attended Vo-Tech in New Richmond where he studied agriculture. He worked as a milk tester for St. Croix County D.H.I.A., beginning when he was 19. According to his obituary, he also served in the U.S. Army Reserves (Red Arrow) from September 1959 to July 1965.

Ron and Sue were married for 37 years until her death in 2013. He was heavily involved in Gilman Lutheran Church, the Pierce County Fair, 4-H, the Lions Club, Sons of Norway, the Baldwin American Legion, Spring Valley Hawks baseball, the Stagehands theatre group, several dairy promotion organizations, bowling league, Staying Put, the Spring Valley Community Cancer Fund and more.

Traynor said Thompson was a people person who loved connecting with others.

“Ronnie loved people. At his visitation, he had taken pictures of everybody he had ever tested milk for. Tested milk for 50-some years full-time and a few years part-time after that. There was posterboard after posterboard of pictures,” Traynor recalled. “He had an amazing memory. He could remember people’s birthdays. He had an amazing memory for random stuff, birthdays and stuff like that. He was a walking encyclopedia.

Traynor said driving anywhere with Thompson was entertaining, because he knew the names of every person and where they lived thanks to his work in milk testing. Their friends also delighted in playing Euchre with him.

“We had a lot of fun doing that over the years,” Traynor laughed. “It didn’t much to get him whipped up. We knew how to push his buttons to get him worked up. He’d let you know what he thought.”

Even after “retiring” from his role as dairy superintendent, Thompson was eager to help.

“We use milk meters in the milking parlor so the exhibitors get paid,” Traynor said. “I would ask Ron to line up the meters for me. Even if I forgot to ask, until say this week, he would have them there automatically, even right up until last year. When I would take them out of the parlor, he would wash them up for me.”

Thompson didn’t miss a single Pierce County Fair from 1963-2023, his obituary states. Traynor said he loved the whole fair, but especially the people.

“He established new relationships everywhere he went until the day he passed. Ron was always a devoted and loyal friend, ready with a hearty hug, and could tell you the name of nearly every person involved in dairy within the tri-county area -- and beyond!” the obituary reads.

Traynor continues to carry on Thompson’s legacy and will think of him during the fair. As a dairy superintendent, he organizes exhibitor lists, collects premise ID and animal ID numbers, measures barns and figures out stall configurations, helps with check in Wednesday night and Thursday morning of Fair Week, coordinates shows and makes sure “everybody is playing by the rules.”

“Our family showed 70 years for open class consecutively,” Traynor said. “I grew up at the fair. If I wasn’t at the fair in August, it would throw me all off. I love seeing kids develop and accept responsibility and work hard and see them grow up.”

And so the legacy continues.