Ronald "Ron" Villeneuve
Ronald James Villeneuve was born on July 5, 1935 in Cornwall, Ontario, the eldest son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Osie Villeneuve.
Ronald played minor hockey at various levels in Maxville, Bantam to Junior B, as well as High School hockey. In 1952-53 he became the leading scorer with the Maxville Millionaires of the Central Ottawa Valley intermediate League. From 1953-55, Ronald attended Ottawa University where he played defense for the Varsity team in the Ottawa Inter-city Junior A League. He also played University football. In 1954 the team was co-champions in the Quebec-Ontario Conference.
In the fall of 1955, he transferred to Colorado College on an athletic scholarship. Colorado College played in the American Western Inter-Collegiate Hockey Association. In his second year, 1956-57, he helped the C.C. Tigers win the National Collegiate Athletic Association hockey championship.
Upon graduation in 1958, he worked with Canadian Paper Company in Hawkesbury, Ontario. In the following year, he played with the Maxville Millionaires, Vankleek Hill Flyers and the Hawkesbury Hawkes. In two of the three years, Maxville and Hawkesbury were Border League Champions.
After leaving competitve hockey in the early 60’s, he became a referee with the Ottawa District Hockey Association. Between 1962-79 he officiated at all levels from PeeWee to Senior in Eastern Ontario.
In 1974, he got back to playing Old Timer Hockey with teams in Maxville and Hawkesbury. He was transferred to Dalhousie, New Brunswick in 1979 where he continued to play Old Timer Hockey into the late nineties. Ron became involved with coaching after his move to New Brunswick. His first year was assistant coach with the Dalhousie Rangers, which went on to win the Northern New Brunswick Senior Hockey Championship. A year later as head coach the team reached the league finals.
As well as hockey, Ron also played softball. In the early 50’s he helped Maxville to the Border League finals for two seasons. During the summer of 1955, he played in the Kirkland Lake City League. While attending Colorado College, his team won the Intramural League Championship three years in succession. After returning from Colorado, he played for many years in the Hawkesbury Town League and the Hawkesbury Industrial League, being on championship teams on three occasions. Later he umpired in the above leagues. In New Brunswick, he managed a senior fastball team which were league finalists in his first year and league champions in his second.
Today, Ron lives with his wife Lynne in Dalhousie, New Brunswick during the summer and in Florida in the winter. They have three children; Lori (Mrs. Jeff Levine) and Rebecca Clement both of Toronto and John (Lorraine) of Fresno, California. Ron is an avid golfer and follows hockey, football and baseball closely.
