Ron St. George passed away on Friday, Oct. 11, after a brief battle with cancer.
He was born on Sept. 18, 1948, in Plymouth to the late Anotonina “Nina” (Costa) St. George. Ron grew up in North Plymouth, living and playing alongside his cherished mother, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and many cousins on their beloved Cherry Street. Although Ron and his family have resided in Kingston for over 38 years, Plymouth was always number one in his heart, and he affectionately referred to it as “God’s country.”
As a young boy, Ron enjoyed his time with his family helping his grandmother on their small family farm, riding his bike to the Cordage Company to scale coal bins to engage with his beloved pigeons, deep sea fishing with his uncles, and playing myriad sports for hours at the Boys and Girls Club. As a seventh grader, Ron discovered the game that would capture his heart and define his identity for the next six decades: football.
Ron was enthralled with football, and it was his lifelong passion. It is, in his words, “the ultimate team sport” and the greatest of games. Ron began his football prowess as a middle linebacker on the fields of Plymouth Carver Regional High School and went on to play scholarship football at Monmouth College in Illinois where he was told that he was “too little to twiddle with the big boys.” A hungry St. George quickly proved his coaches wrong and went on to have a storied career as a Fighting Scott.
St. George’s most indelible impact, however, was as an educator and coach whose career spanned five decades and tenures at East Bridgewater High School, Boston College High School, Cardinal Spellman High School, Middleborough High School, and Bridgewater State University.
Over the course of his career, Coach St. George amassed countless accolades, including 15 league championships, seven super bowl appearances, five undefeated teams, inductions into the East Bridgewater High School and Massachusetts High School Football Coaches Association halls of fame, and the distinction of being the 10th all-time most winning high school football coach in the history of Massachusetts.
From Coach St. George’s perspective, however, his most important professional accomplishment was the positive relationships he built with his players and students alike. Once you were Coach’s student or player, you were part of Coach’s extended family and he treated you as such. Coach was fond of closing his remarks with his players with “T.T.L.O., the tradition lives on.” He has, undoubtedly left behind a tradition: a tradition of love, compassion, loyalty, grit, perseverance, and fierce competition.
Coach’s greatest legacy, however, is his family, a family he loved fiercely and unconditionally. Coach is survived by his wife of 52 years, Barbara, daughter Kaitlin Mills and her husband Abraham, and their three children, Everly, Acadia, and Isla; his daughter Shivonne St. George, her wife Erika Schluntz, and their son Micah; as well as his sister-in-law Marilyn Farnsworth, her husband Ron Witenauer; and his sister-by-choice, Nancy Babington.
The family would like to extend its heartfelt thanks to the BIDMC oncology team and the Palliative Care and Hospice Teams at South Shore Hospital for their kind and compassionate care.
Family and friends are invited to celebrate Ron’s life in the coming days. Visiting hours will be at Cartmell-Davis Funeral Home, 373 Court St., Plymouth, on Sunday, Oct. 20 from 4 to 7p.m. A funeral Mass will be held at St. Mary’s Church, 313 Court St., Plymouth, Oct. 21 at 10 a.m. Burial to follow at Vine Hill Cemetery, Plymouth. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Ron’s honor to the Plymouth Boys and Girls Club at 9 Resnick Road, Plymouth, MA, 02360, or to South Shore Health, 55 Fogg Road, South Weymouth, MA, 02190. Please make your gift specifically to “palliative care” and reference that it is in memory of Ron St. George. For more information and to sign the online guestbook please go here.