OBITUARY

Ronald Wayne Simmons

NSS 16894

Ron Simmons died in a Florida cave-diving accident on February 14^th, 2007.

Ron was a legendary caver and cave diver. He was awarded a Fellow of the National Speleological Society in 1985 and the Lew Bicking Award in 1998. He was the inventor of the Simmons Roller (which is used with Ropewalker ascending systems), and was the principal supplier of aluminum double-tank backmount plates for cave diving. He was both a cave photographer and cartographer. His pictures have been published in several national magazines and were a mainstay at the NSS Conventions' Slide Salons, and he won four Medals at the Salon for his "live action" shots. His maps also won awards in the Cartography Salon. He was truly a cave explorer of international stature.

Ron was born on September 14th, 1953, and grew up in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. As a child, he talked his parents into taking him to some of the commercial caves in the area, and he explored some of the smaller caves with a friend when he got older. Once in college, he was surprised to learn there was a national caving organization. He joined the University of Virginia Student Grotto and started caving with Ward Foeller, Steve Perry, and Dave Bunnell. Trips were to local Virginia caves, as well as to West Virginia caves such as Sinnett, Carpenter-Swago, Sites, Hellhole, Snedegars, and Crookshank, and to TAG, southern Indiana, and Kentucky. The foursome surveyed Williams Cave in Virginia, which resulted in a map that won the Cartography Medal Award at the 1979 NSS Convention.

Ron soon found himself sketching and drawing his own maps. He met Doug Medville in the mid-1970s and started caving at the Friars Hole Cave System. He went on some horrible digs, and was involved in much of the original exploration of the cave system. Later trips with Doug Medville and Roberta Swicegood included the exploration of the Elk River caves (Falling Springs Cave, Elk River Cave, and Left Tit Pit), and a lot of small caves and digs in Greenbrier, Randolph, Pocahontas, and Monroe Counties. He also (later in life) explored and surveyed in Destitute, Laneville Water, and Indian Draft Caves, and The Portal, all of which are tough, wet caves.

Ron became interested in Mexico and Huautla in 1980, and made an immediate impression on the other expedition cavers and the local villagers. Ron was highly skilled technically and had a knack for making his own gear, including, in this case, an expedition pack that was fully two thirds of his body size, if not larger. Furthermore, it was bright red, and the result was an enormous flaming red bag moving down the street with an ant-like human beneath it. Ron had a high strength-to-weight ratio, and was a tough hombre for his size. 1980 was an extraordinary year in Huautla—one that everyone who was present probably remembers to this day. It was the year American cavers first broke -1,000 meters depth outside of Europe, in Li Nita. Ron was on the team that went to attempt, and make (in a 33-hour push trip), the connection from Li Nita to San Agustín.

Ron began diving in 1982, and headed to Florida to start training as a cave diver after only eight open-water dives. Once back home, his first dives were in the resurgences for Friars Hole. He dove between two cenotes along Spring Creek and connected them, then he tried to go upstream in the largest cenote. The route Ron chose was a bedding plane about 4 feet high and 20 feet wide, with anastomoses on the ceiling and floor. They almost touched except for about five inches in the middle.

To go forward, Ron had to keep flipping onto his side and squeezing between the projections. After about 40 or 50 feet, he discovered the passage was silted in behind him, and that his dive line was swinging freely back and forth in the passage between the ceiling and floor anastomoses. He had no way of knowing which projections he had squeezed between on the way in, and the only thing that saved him (as he worked his way back to the entrance) was his calm resolve and the fact that he had plenty of air.

Ron's later cave dives in West Virginia included Locust Creek Cave and Burns Cave #2, where he helped discover and explore large cave systems; Dream Lake, Matts Black Cave, the Cannon Hole, Clyde Cochrane, and Circulating Cenote, which are all a part of the Culverson Creek and Friars Hole Cave Systems; downstream Simmons-Mingo Cave, where Ron went upstream in the underwater Dry Branch; Scherr Spring in Grant County, which is a small, dangerous hole with great potential and terrible visibility that soon ended; Mott Hole and Scott Hollow Cave in Monroe County; Arbys Spring and Marthas Cave in Pocahontas County; and Zotters Folly Cave on the Renick Peninsula, where he cracked two sumps to break into big cave beyond.

Ron also cave dove in Florida for 25 years. His favorite rivers (where he explored caves) included the Suwanne, Withalachochee, and Santa Fe. He dove in Blacksmoke and Hart Springs, and his and Wes Skiles’ discovery in Black Lagoon led to 22,000 feet of new passage that is arguably Florida's finest cave. He was mapping two spring systems, Ruth and Allan Millpond Springs, in north-central Florida, when he died.

Ron was one of the key players on the 1984 Cass and the 1989 My Cave body recoveries. He was a powerhouse in Cass, and one of only three people to descend into the Big Room to move the body to the Belay Loft Drop. In My Cave, he was one of a group who were able to complete a very difficult recovery that the more traditional rescue people were unable to do.

Ron was active in Kentucky’s Roppel Cave, where he went on many survey trips and dove the Logsdon River Sump. He also caved in New York, Indiana, Wyoming (where he dove in high-altitude caves with 34-degree water), Colorado, New Mexico, Hawaii, Florida, and throughout TAG, as well as outside the United States—such as many return trips to Mexico (to both Huautla and Cheve), multiple trips to Norway, China, to the Gunung Buda area of Borneo, the Tak and Sa Keow Provinces of Thailand, and Vietnam.

Ron was a major player in the Virginia Speleological Survey, for whom he produced many cave maps. He participated in the original exploration of the Chestnut Ridge System, was one of the most active participants in the Omega Cave project, and (early in his caving career) helped survey in Butler-Sinking Creek Cave. Other projects Ron worked on include: Sugar Run, Dulaneys, Barberry, Burns, Bobcat, Bloomer, Raspberry Holly, Spider Web, Gulley, Mossy Blowhole, Hairy Hole, and Corkscrew. In addition, Ron dove in most of Virginia’s major karst springs, including Sugar Run (both upstream and downstream), Barberry, Bane Dome, the two Lost Mill caves, Wabash Spring, Cathedral, Aqua (where he dove to a depth of over 240 feet), Powell River, and Boiling Spring.

Ron graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in electrical engineering. He was employed by the University's Department of Psychology, where he was an instrument maker. He was 53 years old and was one year from full retirement. His parents are both deceased, but he is survived by two brothers. Ron died while solo diving in Allan Millpond Cave, a restrictive and silty maze cave located in Lafayette County, west of Gainesville. He had made 43 dives into the cave system to survey it. He was about 300 feet inside the cave, beyond two constrictions, and it is believed that he may have had equipment problems and then ran out of air while exiting.

Ron Simmons was a good friend to many cavers, and his company (and caving abilities) will be sorely missed. For all his accomplishments, he was modest, approachable, intelligent, and a consummate team player. He was an easy-going person with a devastatingly wicked sense of humor, and he had a kind heart and a keen sense of fairness, justice, and fun. He always gave 110% of whatever he was doing, and he was always willing to contribute a story, picture, cave article, or scientific fact. He was a rare individual, a cave photographer and cartographer, an inventor and supplier of cave equipment, and an exceptional cave explorer. And he was a friend.

(George Dasher and Bill Stone)