Dr. Ronald Glen Vincent, 94, passed away of natural causes on Friday, October 9, 2020. He was born on June 8, 1926, in Provo, Utah, to Glen Park and Ada Grange Vincent. Throughout the course of his life, Ron developed a fierce independence, a great appreciation for the value of learning to work hard, a high value on education, a fearlessness for taking on challenges, and an understanding that one’s life is best fulfilled with being engaged in meaningful work.

While mainly raised in the San Francisco area, he spent his summers, as a teenager, working in Provo on the Vincent Family Farm. In 1944, Ron enlisted in the Army Air Force, shortly after his own father, a physician, had enlisted to serve in military hospitals. While awaiting his call up, he completed a semester at Brigham Young University. Thankfully, WW2 concluded without his being sent abroad. Next, came a mission call to Denmark (1946). He served faithfully in many areas of Denmark and aided families in post-war recovery and saw first-hand the deprivations of war.

Back in school at BYU (1949), he met Lenore Bennion, whom he began courting. Ron graduated from BYU and began his medical school training at the University of Louisville. Ron and Lenore were married in the Salt Lake Temple on June 6, 1952. Ron completed his medical training in San Francisco, during which time he became interested in Oncology and began a study of cancer. He was offered a Residency at the Roswell Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York (1959). As a Thoracic Surgeon, Ron’s medical career was focused on patients with lung and throat cancer and researching the causes. Ron created a lecture series revealing the causative role that cigarette smoke and tobacco products were being revealed to play in various cancers. He instigated work with the American Cancer Society and the Surgeon General of the U.S. to require tobacco companies to print warning labels on tobacco products. His videos and lecture series began to be presented at high schools and colleges. Ron had a long career in cancer research and contributed to that field both in publishing and serving on boards and committees in the U.S. and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer. From 1984 to 1995, he was the Director of the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center in Columbia, MO. Ron and Lenore retired to Utah and served a mission for the LDS Church at the Family History Mission in Salt Lake City. They chose Woodland Hills, Utah, as their final residence.

For 23 years, Ron was one of the early trailblazers for growth and development of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in western New York State. He has been called on throughout his life in leadership roles as Branch President, Bishop, stake presidencies, Stake President, Patriarch, and as a Temple Sealer. Ron was a dedicated servant of the Lord, a great leader, teacher and exemplar.

Ron has been reunited with his eternal sweetheart, Lenore, who passed away on January 10, 2016. Ron is survived by their children: Scott Bennion Vincent (April), Marcus Alan Vincent (Janice), Bret R. Vincent (Sue Ellen), Lorraine Vincent Anderson (Douglas), and Lisa Cherie Vincent West; 25 grandchildren, 34 great-grandchildren; and his brothers, Bruce and Alan Vincent.