Ron Bliss to Agriculture Export Manager

Ron Bliss, like a great many alumni, belongs to a strong SUU legacy family that through the years has been an enthusiastic advocate of T-Bird Nation. 

A graduate of Spanish Fork High School and transfer student from Stevens-Henager Business College, Ron graduated from SUU (then SUSC) in 1983 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He was introduced to the institution by his father, Ferron Bliss, who attended the BAC from 1938 to 1939 and was student body president, a fullback for the Thunderbird football squad and a member of Adagio, a dance and performing group coached by LaVeve Whetten. In addition to his father, Ron’s aunt and several cousins are also members of the Thunderbird family.

Ferron Bliss, BAC Football Team

While a student, Ron was an active member of Phi Beta Lambda (PBL), a campus business club then under the direction of Professor Doris Williamson. He helped organize PBL’s Business Person of the Year Banquet, worked on homecoming floats, and decorated the organization’s Christmas tree for the annual Christmas Tree Walk. Through his PBL experience Ron created some of his closest friendships and today stays in touch with those friends. 

In 1983, Ron represented SUU at the Utah State PBL Convention/Competition winning first place in the business administration category, and was among five first-place winners from SUU that year, a record for the Thunderbirds at the time. All five individuals went on to represent the state of Utah at the national PBL convention in San Francisco that summer, and each finished in the top 10, with Ron and two others finishing in the top three in the national competition.

PBL Conference in San Francisco, CA

“It was a great way to end my college career at SUU,” he says of the experience. 

Following graduation, Ron decided to stay in Cedar City and took a job with the Leavitt Group, a step he credits for “turning him into an accountant,” which was a career path he had never anticipated. 

After several years there, Ron pursued another opportunity elsewhere but found that his heart longed for southern Utah, and so he returned, eventually landing in Enterprise, Utah, working for Holt farms in exports and, you guessed it, accounting. Ron oversees the exporting of agriculture products to the Pacific Rim, along with accounting, scheduling, safety, insurance, IT, and regulatory compliance.

Ron credits his SUU professors and their encouragement and care that taught him how to learn and how to study. Besides the aforementioned Williamson, among his favorite teachers were Richard Dotson, Dean Harold Hiskey, Vic Isbell.

He says that among the things he learned about himself at SUU is “that great things can happen when you step outside of your comfort zone and try something new and challenging.” He found that his empowering professors were ever supportive of him trying something new. 

His favorite place on campus, he says, was the War Memorial Field House (1950-1986), which held fond memories of SUSC basketball games and concerts. 

Ron Bliss Family

Ron and his wife, Trina, have two sons. His oldest, Cameron, lives in Enterprise, Utah, with his wife and three daughters, and his second son, Riley, continued the family legacy and attended SUU for his first year of college and currently attends the University of Arizona. 

An Enterprise volunteer EMT for 18 years, Ron loves serving in his community and has a special interest in amateur radios. He holds an Amateur Extra Class license that spun from a licensing class at SUU.

Ron comes back to campus often and maintains a strong connection to the University, cheering on the Thunderbird football team at both home and away games while proudly wearing his SUU red. For the last several years, he and his two college roommates Scott Johnson (’84) and John Reidhead (’83) make an annual pilgrimage to SUU for homecoming.