MILTON, Ga. — After a years-long battle with cancer, retired Col. Ronnie Bjarne Rondem passed away in early January with his wife, Julie, by his side. He was 80.
When Providence Lake Homeowners Association President Don Hoffman heard that Rondem was ill, he sprung the community into action.
Through the support group, Helping Hands, the Providence Lake community built a schedule to deliver meals to Rondem and his wife.
“Ronnie Rondem was a longtime and active member of the Providence Lake community here in Milton,” Hoffman said. “Unfortunately, after just a few days of delivering meals to them, Ronnie passed away.”
With the help of Bill Lusk, founder of Milton Veterans Memorial Markers, Hoffman organized a neighborhood effort to display American flags in honor and recognition of Rondem’s life and service.
Hofman, Lusk and other community volunteers lined the streets of Providence Lake with nearly 1,000 American flags Jan. 29.
Visitation and funeral services were held at the Northside Chapel on Crabapple Road Jan. 30-31. A military honors service Jan. 31 at the Georgia National Ceremony near Canton followed.
Lusk said he first met Rondem more than 20 years ago through the Atlanta Vietnam Veterans Business Association. The two men remained close friends through their work growing the Milton Veterans Memorial Markers.
“I miss him, he was a true American patriot and a hero,” Lusk said. “The United States was his adopted home, and he loved the United States and the U.S. Army.”
An American patriot
Col. Ronnie Rondem was born in 1943 to a Norwegian family in Oslo.
When he was just 12 years old, he immigrated with his parents and older sister to Brooklyn, New York.
In a 2010 interview with the Atlanta History Center, Rondem said he only knew two phrases when he arrived in the United States, “good night” and “just…
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