Ronald Paul Kemerly

Ronald Paul Kemerly was born on October 16, 1945 in Washington, D.C. to Paul and Helen Singleton Kemerly, and passed away in Lake Charles on June 26, 2018. He grew up in northeastern Indiana and northern Virginia before moving to Lake Charles in 1960. Ron graduated from LaGrange High School with honors and Michigan State University (Honors College) in urban planning. While at Michigan State he was a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society and Beta Alpha Sigma Honor Society. Ron worked in Colorado and California for three years before moving back to Lake Charles to work as a city planner in 1972.

While working for the City of Glendale, California, he co-authored the study that led to formation of the Glendale Redevelopment Agency and the development of the Glendale Galleria. In Lake Charles, he planned and administered various federal grant programs, assisted in revising the City’s zoning ordinance, wrote the City’s first subdivision regulations, and supervised or helped implement numerous capital projects. Projects included the Shattuck Street Overpass, the four-laning of most of Lake and West McNeese Streets, improvement of portions of Twelfth and Common Streets and Sale and Hollyhill Roads, acquisition of property for Chateau du Lac, the southwest Lake Charles water and sewer plants, improvement of the Oak Park drainage lateral and the Woodring Lateral in north Lake Charles, three fire stations, and the paving of over thirty miles of streets in north and east Lake Charles.

In 1986 he was appointed Director of Finance for the City of Lake Charles, and served in that capacity under four different Mayors until retirement in 2007. Due to a combination of good management and a lot of luck, the City experienced a General Fund operating surplus and an increase in fund balance during each intervening year. He also served briefly as interim Vice Chancellor of Finance and Administration at Sowela during 2007. Ron enjoyed making and collecting maps, reading history, and had an inherited love of music. He loved to travel and inflicted his wife with many “back roads USA” adventures. He was, at various times, a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials, and the Government Finance Officers Association. He also served in a number of local organizations, most recently as chairman of the supervisory committee of CSE Federal Credit Union.

He was a proud, loving and supportive father and husband whose leadership, work ethic, and discipline had an extraordinary impact not only on his family but on everyone who knew him.