Ron Palmer - Pillar of Achievement

When Ron Palmer was growing up in Glendale in the 1940’s, the city was filled with citrus orchards and vineyards, the film and aviation industries were thriving and playing sports was a way of life for kids and their families.

If you were really fortunate, like Palmer, you might even have a regulation badminton court in your backyard.

Those humble beginnings over 60 years ago were critically important to Palmer, who played tennis and pole vaulted for the track team at Glendale College in the late 1940’s and represented the United States in Thomas Cup badminton competitions around the world in 1958 and 1961.

Palmer, an inaugural inductee into the University of Redlands Athletic Hall of Fame in 1983, said his youth spent in Glendale was critical in his development as an athlete. “Badminton was really pretty big in Southern California in the 1940’s and 50’s so it was not uncommon for people to have courts in their backyards like we did,’’ he said. “Families could play the game together like mine did and if you wanted to play at a competitive level, you could enter local   tournaments which is what I did. The first one was with Jack Quinn in the Glendale High girl’s gym and I don’t think we did very well as a doubles team.”

Despite the loss in badminton doubles for Palmer and Quinn, the former Hoover High classmates of 1948 remain close friends to this day, supporting the college through the Glendale College Foundation and participation in the annual Foundation golf classic.

Palmer was a pole vaulter for Walt Smith, a 2002 Hall of Fame inductee, at the college but really stood out as a tennis player for the Vaqueros. In 1951 he won both the Western State and Southern California singles tennis championships and later transferred to the University of Redlands.  He also won the Ojai singles title for small college players in 1954 and helped Redlands win the National Association for Intercollegiate Athletics that same year.

A credit to his versatility in athletics was the fact that Palmer competed in two sports at Glendale and still continued to improve as a competitive badminton player in Southern California. After a two-year stint in the Army from 1952-54, he was ranked as the No. 1 badminton player in the United States in 1958 and represented the USA as the No. 1 player on the Thomas Cup team. He retired from competitive badminton after the Thomas Cup tournament but returned on request for the 1961 team competition.

“If it had not been for the extreme heat and humidity in Malaya, now Malaysia, in 1958, I truly believe we would have been the World Champions. I know I was ahead in my match but I just hit the wall in the second game and could barely finish,’ said Palmer, who retired in 1990 from his job with the Redlands Unified School District. “It takes a tremendous amount of leg strength and stamina to run down shots and to keep rallies going and I think that’s what lot of people don’t understand about the game. But it was a great experience for me and something I will never forget.’’

We, at Glendale College will never forget Ron Palmer’s contribution and are proud to give him the Pillar of Achievement award.