Timothy "Tim" Ramsey

Timothy J. (Tim) Ramsey died Monday, Aug. 20 at Three Rivers Community Hospital at the age of 65. He had been a 35-year resident of Grants Pass after moving here from Southern California in 1977.

He was born in Spencer, Iowa, on Oct. 3, 1946, to Alvin and Dorothy Ramsey. When he was 6, his parents relocated with Tim and his two sisters to Torrance, Calif., to work in aerospace.

Tim graduated from North High School in 1964 and enlisted in the US Air Force in 1966. Stationed for the first three years of his service in Colorado and Arizona, he was deployed to Vietnam in April 1970. He completed a year’s tour of duty as an avionics specialist, serving at Phu Cat and Tuy Hoa air bases.

A week after returning from the war, he met Miriam (Mimi) Windsor on a blind date arranged by mutual friends. He proposed six months later, and they were married on January 31, 1971, in Los Angeles. At the end of that year, Tim enrolled at Cal State Long Beach, receiving his BA in economics in 1973. He was hired by Litton Guidance and Control Systems shortly afterward.

Mimi gave birth to their first child, Aaron, in 1974, and to their second child, Joel, in 1976. In the summer of the following year Tim obtained a transfer to Litton’s Grants Pass plant, and their third child, Rebecca, was born here in 1978.

In Oregon, Tim worked in inventory, accounting and database management for Litton, Erickson Air-Crane and Colvin Oil Co.

Tim was an adoring grandfather and an avid reader of fiction and history. He retired from Colvin in August 2011 and spent much of his retirement fulfilling a lifelong dream by taking road trips throughout the West and across the country to Toronto, Canada, where his son Joel lives.

Tim is survived by his wife Mimi, sisters Michele Harbottle and Rebecca Bouchard, children Aaron, Joel and Rebecca, and five grandchildren. As Tim was a two-time cancer survivor, the family requests any memorial gifts be directed to his charity of preference, the American Cancer Society.