Godspeed, Brass Napoleon
This morning I learned of the passing last weekend of Ron Gorman of Columbia Station, Ohio. I had never met Ron, but I knew him online as user “Brass Napoleon” at the Civil War Talk discussion forum. Ron was one of the users that makes that such a great place, as his posts were invariably detailed, deeply informed, and often amusing to boot. He was a great contributor there, and we will all miss him. Ron was the second prominent member of CWT to go this year, after Hank Trent passed away a few months ago. You can read Ron’s obituary here.
Ron was a software engineer by profession, but his real passion was local and Civil War history. Ron was both a volunteer docent and a trustee of the Oberlin Heritage Center. One of his ongoing passions was to explore and tell the story of the antebellum Underground Railroad in Oberlin. So he probably had a lot of fun last fall, when he portrayed a villainous local man named Chauncey Wack (no, really) who was a staunch defender of southerners’ chattel property rights and welcomed slave catchers to stay at his inn when they passed through town.
Ron’s passing was sudden and unexpected. There will be a visitation with the family and celebration of Ron’s life on Saturday in Elyria. In lieu of flowers, the family suggested donations to the Oberlin Heritage Center or Lorain County Homeless Shelter.
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Dead Confederates, A Civil War Era Blog 
My regards to him and his family, I really enjoyed reading his posts on civilwartalk
Too many, too soon.
Andy,
Thanks for your above tribute to Ron. As a fellow member of Civil War Talk, I always enjoyed Ron’s comments there. I finally met Ron at the forum’s gathering at Gettysburg and enjoyed his company so much. His passing leaves a gaping hole on our forum.
He will be missed.
Neil
A wonderful piece of writing about brass napoleon.