RONALD DANA MACKIE

Ronald “Ron” Mackie, age 84 of Rogersville, TN.  Born in Chesapeake City, Maryland on September 02, 1938, and passed away on Wednesday May 24, 2023 at American House assisted living facility in Kingsport, TN.

Ronald resided in Pensacola, Florida for some 30 years before following his first wife Brenda to her beloved Tennessee, where he resided until his death.

Ron was accepted to MIT and attended until he ran out of money during his first year. He then joined the Marine Corps.  It was in the Marines, while in training in Millington, TN. That he met and married Brenda Lee Neal for 54 years.   

After the Marines, Ron worked at a number of jobs before landing with the FAA and settling in Pensacola where he retired in 1993.

Ron was an avid pilot and flier since the age of 14 getting his start as a civil air patrol pilot.  Ron also was an innovative self-taught electrical engineer and inventor, who held several patents in the field of automotive ignition systems as well as the inventor of the “remote fuel dispensing controller” in 1965.  Ron’s “Mackie Systems” ignitions ran at speedways throughout the south, and drag strips as far away as Australia where they set or tied world records.  Mackie Systems went on to become “Firepower” computerized ignitions, and then Holley “Annihilator” ignition controllers.  

Ronald is preceded in death by his daughter Ronda Marie, and his first wife Brenda Lee.  He is survived by his tireless and loving wife of the past nine years Phyllis (Williams) Mackie, Brother Neil Alan Mackie, Son William Franklin Mackie and wife Rita, Daughters Dana Lee Mackie and Ronda Lynn Mackie, six grandchildren and thirteen great-grandchildren.

Ronald will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery with his daughter and wife at a date to be determined later this year.

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