Ronald C. Kephart

Ronald Clay Kephart, III, was born in Missoula, Montana, on 28 March 1941 and died in Missoula, Montana on 13 June 2018.

Ron was a born academician. At age seven, while reading Scientific American, he was inspired to cut a hole in the roof of his stepfather's chicken coop to view the constellations of the night sky through his telescope. After graduating MCHS class of ‘59, his esteem and gift for learning were recognized and acknowledged by the University of Pennsylvania. He was awarded a full Benjamin Franklin Scholarship and George Washington University's full scholarship Alumni Award. He was accepted to every Ivy League College. He chose the University of Pennsylvania for its emphasis on reading and for the proximity to the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Ron loved classical music and attended concerts and recitals of the world’s greatest living conductors and pianists in the US and abroad.

He explored all fields of the liberal arts: philosophy, literature, musicology, natural sciences, psychology, and political science. Ron’s quest for knowledge and wisdom was life long. He read all the classical and modern literature, the philosophers, and scientific theorists. His library was immense. Ron spent years exploring European culture, art museums and cathedrals. He had a great passion for the Spanish culture.

In the early 1970's, by a miracle of God's grace, Ron was converted to a near perfect knowledge and faith in the truths and mysteries of the Catholic Church, thanks in part to prayers of his friend, Fr. Recesvinto, the Canon of Almeria, Spain, a seminary classmate of the founder of Opus Dei, St. Josemaria Escriva. Ron studied Catholic theology at the Pontifical Seminary of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Angelicum, in Rome, and read all the classic tomes of the great Saints and Doctors of the Church. He lived at the Franciscan Friary of the Immaculata in Frigento, Italy under the spiritual guidance of his mentor and confidant, FFI founder Fr. Stefano Manelli.

In Washington, D. C., Ron continued his studies in Catholic mysticism. He also embarked on a comprehensive study of books on the occult sciences at the Library of Congress in order to know and combat the enemies of the Church.

His ambition was to use his knowledge to convert those mislead by error and sin to the supernatural reality of the omnipresence of a loving and holy God.

Ron was assisted into eternal life by the grace of a traditional Requiem Mass in the Tridentine Rite.

Ron left behind Sue, his wife of forty years daughter Anne Caberto, grandchildren Gemma, Anthony, and Sienna, his step-father, Lon Dannenbrock, and sisters, Nancy Garcia and Carol Sue Dannenbrock who loved him so much! “He gave such joy and sweetness to our lives and inspired us to always seek the loftiest heights we could reach, and then try to reach even higher. Ron is a part of us; he will never be gone from our hearts.”

“What makes us so happy is having the Truth,” Ron said. He achieved this, his life’s goal, before his death.

"Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain." 1 Corinthians 9:24

May you rest in the peace and glory of the Beatific Vision of the Face of Christ forever, Ron, as you deserve for your supreme efforts and your deep love of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph..

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