1939-2026: Chief Ronald D. Strosnider Sr. protected Ocoee for 50 years

Ronald D. Strosnider Sr., a former Ocoee Fire Department chief, gave many firefighters their first jobs, and he mentored several generations in his role prior to his retirement in 2004. Strosnider died June 17, 2026, at his home in Portal, Georgia, at age 87.

His wife, Mary Jo Strosnider, is comforted by the memories of 47 years of marriage.

“He was an amazing man,” she said. “He loved his kids, he loved his grandkids. That’s one of the last things he said to me. He said, ‘I love all my grandchildren.’ He loved the community. He loved Ocoee. He loved what he did. … He loved hunting and fishing and the outdoors. That’s why (we) moved to Georgia.”

Ron Strosnider was born June 9, 1939, in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, to Charles M. Strosnider and Velma Strosnider. His family moved to the Central Florida area when he was a child. 

The morning after he graduated from Lakeview High School, he boarded a train headed for South Carolina to attend U.S. Army boot camp. He was discharged from the Army in 1965. He continued to serve his community as a reserve deputy with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and as a volunteer firefighter with the Ocoee Fire Department. 

During that time, he joined the Southern Bell/ATT phone company, a career that lasted 32 years.

Ron and Mary Jo Strosnider met in 1976 at the Ranch House Restaurant in Orlando, where she was a server and he and his coworkers frequented for lunch.

“We just started talking, and one thing led to another,” she said. 

A year later, they were married on his birthday, and she moved to Ocoee, where he was living. By that time, he was serving with the Ocoee Fire Department.

“There was never a day that went by that he (failed to) tell me, even if he went outside to feed the chickens or whatever, he always said, ‘I love you,’” Mary Jo Strosnider said. “I felt that love for so many years. I was very blessed.”

Ron Strosnider, by then a volunteer assistant fire chief, was approached by then-City Manager Ellis Shapiro, who urged him to become a full-time member of the Ocoee Fire Department. He retired from the telephone company and joined the OFD, which was expanding and in need of a chief.

Mary Jo Strosnider remembered the wonderful crew with which her husband worked. That tight-knit team included Wayne Vaughn, Larry Brass, George Ledford, James Coschignano, Kevin Greenhill and Glen Treanor.

Mary Jo Strosnider’s life was further changed after she went with Ron Strosnider on a few of his calls.

“There were a lot of times we were out, and if he got the call and we were together in the vehicle, I’d go with him,” she said. “And I thought, I have two perfectly good hands and here I sit when I could be helping.”

So, she became a paramedic, and they worked alongside each other for years.

Mayor Rusty Johnson credited Strosnider with successfully leading Ocoee’s fire department during the city’s growth. Several fire stations were opened in 1998 to keep pace with the growth in Ocoee, and Strosnider helped break ground on a new $3 million main fire station in 2003, just before his retirement.

“Everything started to boom in the late ’80s, everything started to expand, and he was there during that period of time,” Johnson said. “He was a good guy and put in a lot of years here, starting out as a volunteer under Chief Jimmy Vandergrift. When Jimmy retired, he took over.”

Strosnider was a longtime member and advocate of the Central Florida Fire Chiefs’ Association. Upon his retirement in 2004, he continued his service to the CFFCA on the board of directors as the retiree representative until 2006. Afterward, he was bestowed a Lifetime Membership in recognition of his dedication and contributions to the Ocoee Fire Department, the CFFCA, the Florida fire service community, and beyond, said Matt McGrew, retired Winter Garden fire chief and secretary/treasurer for the CFFCA.

Strosnider was an outdoorsman who enjoyed hunting and fishing.

He was an accomplished woodworker who spent many hours working on projects in his workshop, and he and his grandson built quite a few bluebird houses.

Strosnider was preceded in death by his parents and his brother, Roger K. Strosnider. 

In addition to his wife, he is survived by three sons, Ronald D. Strosnider Jr. (and wife Lisa), James T. Strosnider (and wife Laurie) and James M. Strosnider (and wife Jennifer); seven grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.

Joiner-Anderson Funeral Home & Crematory, Statesboro, Ga., was in charge of arrangements. Memorial contributions can be made to Fixing the Boro, fixingtheboro.com. 

Funeral services were held June 22 in Portal, Georgia.

Several Central Florida colleagues (McGrew; John Williamson, retired Orlando International Airport and former Winter Garden fire chief; and Tom Berrios, retired Winter Garden deputy fire chief) made the trip to Georgia to pay their final respects.

The Statesboro Fire Department Honor Guard was posted by Strosnider’s flag-draped casket and provided military honors. Statesboro Fire Capt. Jamie Strosnider, one of the Strosniders’ sons, gave the eulogy. The local Masonic Lodge offered a traditional Masonic memorial tribute.

McGrew had a long-standing connection to Strosnider and the Ocoee Fire Department from his early days as an Orlo Vista firefighter and later as an Orange County firefighter. McGrew and Mary Jo Strosnider worked in these same areas for many years as paramedics.

“Chief Strosnider will be remembered as an icon by the Central Florida fire service — not just for his 50-plus years of service, but also for his dedication to the city of Ocoee in transforming what was once a small volunteer department into a modern career fire department,” McGrew said.