A 73-year-old man drowned in Forest Lake on March 27 after falling into a pond. His name has not yet been officially released by law enforcement, but multiple acquaintances of the man and his family have identified him as Ron Weiss, of Forest Lake.
According to Forest Lake police, a 911 call regarding the man came in around 7 p.m. Easter Sunday. Officers responded to the 6400 block of Appaloosa Avenue North and found a man who had been working in the yard of a home on the road before falling into a pond in the back yard. It is not known if he simply fell in or whether the fall was preceded by a medical issue. Weiss was unconscious when he was pulled from the pond. Officers and ambulance personnel attempted to revive him on the scene, and he was ultimately transported to Regions Hospital in St. Paul, but attempts to revive him were unsuccessful.
Weiss served in the Army Signal Corps from 1961 through early 1964, including an assignment communicating from Florida to the Pentagon during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He was also an active member and past commander of the Forest Lake post of the American Legion. In 2013, the Forest Lake Times ran an article about Weiss’s Army career during the tumultuous early 1960s. It is available online here.
Funeral details have not yet been finalized.