Ronald Eugene Triano

Ronald Eugene Triano, age 89, of Rio Linda, California passed away peacefully at home on Sunday, February 23, 2025 after a well-fought battle with prostate cancer. As with everything in life, Ron gave it his all and defied the odds, living eight months longer than expected. He was, as his oldest son Dave called him, a “tough old bird.”

The last living founding member (#11, 1958) of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club Oakland Chapter, Ron found camaraderie with other club members that were also war vets. He was a United States Air Force veteran and served as a radar operator on Lockheed EC-121 Constellation aircraft on reconnaissance missions protecting the United States Coasts at the end of the Korean War based out of McClellan Air Force Base in Sacramento, California.

His love of airplanes, flying, and riding motorcycles continued throughout his life. He was a licensed airplane pilot and Flight Instructor with an extensive list of ratings, a remote-controlled airplane enthusiast, and built and flew several airplanes from scratch with his oldest son Dave including Vari-Eze, Dragonfly, KR-2, Sonerai, and Q-200 aircraft designs. Over the years he owned many other aircraft from Cessna 150 Aerobats to Cessna 310’s. For many years he joined his middle son Steve, Bill Croshaw, and his nephews Bill and Don Sayles, on a 600-mile roundtrip trek to Laughlin, Nevada for the annual Laughlin River Run motorcycle rally. The more challenging and dangerous something was, the more Ron enjoyed it, whether it be completing the 2-mile swim/100-mile bike ride/18 mile run in the World’s Toughest Triathlon in Lake Tahoe, supervising underground explosions of nuclear bombs at the Nevada National Security Test Site, or motorbike racing and roller derby competitions with the L.A. Thunderbirds as a young man.

It was at a roller rink that his future wife Carolyn watched him skate and fell in love with the neighborhood “bad boy,” much to the chagrin of her mother. It was their mutual faith in Jesus Christ though that formed the foundation of their love, relationship, and 62-year marriage. They were married in 1963 at Del Amo Church in Torrance, CA and went on to raise three children in the church and devoted their lives to Christ. Ron was an accomplished building superintendent for most of his working life and one of his greatest accomplishments was building a Lutheran church that won the Beautification Award of the Year for the city of Paso Robles. Like his late sister Dolores who was a piano student at Julliard and his middle son Steve, Ron was also an accomplished pianist and especially loved playing the piano and organ in church. Later in life, he stubbornly refused to attend services at a church if they didn’t play his favorite old, southern hymns.

Music and dancing were a big part of Ron’s life. His children “fondly” remember waking up every weekend at 6:00 am to Ron playing his piano or organ very loudly. He was an active participant in the Lake Tahoe community theater and dance scene, including playing the part of a “Rotten Individual” and lead male dancer in an original production of “Ebenezer Scrooge” at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe in the 1980s. He was an avid Jazzercise student and when his youngest daughter Sarah was diagnosed with a hereditary, incurable, immune system disorder at age 12 he took her to Jazzercise class with him in Lake Tahoe and the pair jazzercised together till he was 85.

Born in 1935 in Mt. Vernon, New York to Carmine (“Charlie”) and Louise Triano, Ron and his father had a very close relationship growing up and were always tinkering with projects and learning something new. Ron, his father, and oldest son Dave were all licensed Amateur Radio operators. Likewise, Ron shared many of his hobbies with his children, including building and launching rockets and fixing cars with his son Dave and building and fixing computers and motorcycles with his son Steve. Among Ron’s many hobbies later in life were embroidery, cooking, and building motorized rail carts to ride on abandoned train tracks. His last “passion project” was building an 864 square foot, two-stall horse barn with his son-in-law Jason when he was 88 years old.

As a father and through his faith, Ron exemplified the true meaning of servitude. Whether it was helping his daughter Sarah move homes twelve times all over the country, dropping and picking up his grandchildren from school, or volunteering with his friend Greg and a group at his church called the “old geezers,” he always did so with a generous and giving spirit. He had an exuberance for life and “never quit” attitude, “retiring” at 65 to drive a Mack truck up and down the Pacific Northwest. Along with his commitment to service, he was equally passionate about certain things like the importance of always arriving extra early, paying attention to detail, giving 110% in everything you do, and showing love through your actions.

‍These lessons will live on through the lives of his surviving family members which include his wife Carolyn Triano, his children Dave & Shauna Triano, Steve & Veronica Triano, Sarah Triano & Jason Lopez, and Linda Sheffield, and his grandchildren Steven, Lorenzo, Liani, Tony, Andrew (Thea), and Parker.

‍The family wishes to express our gratitude for the excellent care Ron received from Ron and Jamie Rivera with HomeWatch caregivers, the team at SunCrest Hospice, and from Dr. Rajappa, nurse Jeanne and the entire Oncology team at Mather VA Medical Center. In lieu of flowers, donations in Ron’s memory can be made to LifePointe Church in Rio Linda, CA at https://lifepointenaz.breezechms.com/give/online. When making your online donation, please choose “Give to 120 Building Fund.”