Ron Bazzelle was born and raised in Wichita, Kansas. He is the 2nd oldest of 7 siblings. His mother was a stay-at-home mom and daycare provider for hundreds of children over her more than 50 years of being a daycare provider. His father spent most of his career as a carpenter. During his youth he enjoyed anything outdoors, playing sports, climbing trees, camping with family, fishing and hunting. He also enjoyed helping his father with projects around the house and helping other family and friends with projects.
After graduating from Wichita North High School in 1983, he attended Pratt Community College on a baseball scholarship. His focus that year was improving his baseball skills, strength and conditioning to help propel him to fulfill his dream of being a professional baseball player. After one year of playing baseball and earning all-conference honors, he left PCC with the GPA to prove his focus was on baseball. In 1985 he prepared to serve a full-time mission with a desire to serve anywhere in the world, except California. So, in early 1986 he was called to serve in the California, Santa Rosa mission. There his faith and testimony of Jesus Christ increased, and he very quickly grew to love the people of California and would not have wanted to serve anywhere else.
In 1988, 6 weeks after returning home from his mission, he married his high school sweetheart, Karen McCalla, in the Denver, Colorado temple. They have been married for 37 years and have 5 children and 4 grandchildren. They love spending time with their family and traveling to visit their kids and grandkids.
After his mission and wedding, Ron returned to school at Wichita State University and earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting and started working right away in public accounting and then transitioned to private accounting for local companies in Wichita. He has worked in the accounting field for 33 years, the last 25 at the same company where he is currently the Chief Financial Officer. Karen has spent most of their married life as a stay-at-home mom loving, teaching and inspiring their 5 children.
His church service has included serving as Counselor in ward YM Presidency, Ward YM President, Ward Clerk, Sunday School Teacher, Counselor in Bishopric, Bishop, High Councilor and currently servings as Counselor in the Stake Presidency.
