Ron’s Oriental photographs from the late 1920s included the Temple of Heaven in Beijing.

1924-1929:
In the first months of 1924 Ron earns an additional eighteen merit badges and on 25 March, becomes the nation’s youngest Eagle Scout.

After completing the school year in early June 1927, Ron travels to San Francisco, boarding a steamer to meet his father who is now stationed in Guam. By way of Hawaii, Japan, China, the Philippines and Hong Kong, he arrives at the island of Guam during the first week of July 1927. There, he befriends the local Chamorros and teaches in the native schools.

By late September 1927, Ron returns to Helena where he joins the Montana National Guard’s 163rd Infantry. While at Helena High School he becomes an editor of the school’s newspaper.

	Ron, while attending Helena High School, served on the school newspaper’s editorial staff.

Finding classrooms and schools too confining, he ventures out alone again and travels aboard the USS Henderson, returning to the Orient. Through the next fourteen months, Ron journeys inland to the Western Hills of China, out again to Japan, then down to the Philippines and further south to Java. He plies the waters of the China coast as a helmsman and supercargo aboard the Marianna Maru—a twin-masted coastal schooner.

By late September 1929, he returns to the United States, completing his high-school education in Washington, DC.