In the streets of downtown Clarkston, young Frank ‘Tink? Ronk and his friends could play baseball all day and only move for one car.
That was a simpler time for Clarkston ? and for the boy who’d play in those streets.
He’d one day end up running Ronk’s Barbershop, where everyone in town went to find out community news.
He’d become the first full-time firefighter in the township. He’d help start what evolved into today’s sophisticated Independence Fire Department, now led by his son Fire Chief Steve Ronk.
He’d serve as township supervisor while early developments paralleling today’s growth flowed to the area.
Through all that, Ronk would develop a passion for the area while contributing much to the township.
Tink Ronk joined the volunteer firefighting force at the age of 13 in the early 1940’s. He became familiar with the firefighters as a paperboy and liked being a part of the firefighting program. While many of the men were occupied with World War II, someone needed to step up and fight fires.
‘You were a firefighter and there wasn’t all the training then, so you learned it as you went on the job,? said Ronk who is now 76. ‘There were times you got in positions you weren’t sure if you could get back out, but fire back then was just like it is now, except there’s more sophisticated extinguishment and so forth today.?
Being there were no full-time firefighters, like the other volunteer firefighters, Ronk had his own career. He spent his workdays cutting hair at Ronk’s Barbershop at 25 S. Main Street which shared a building with the fire trucks manned by the volunteer force.
From the barbershop Ronk and the firefighters would cover Independence Township and Clarkston, occasionally trekking into surrounding townships.
‘I had the barbershop downtown for 20 years (from 1952-72) and during that 20 years we ran the fire department out of the barbershop during the daytime Monday through Friday. We had the phone and the radio in there,? said Ronk.
Working alone in the first few years of the shop in the early 50’s, Ronk sometimes got a call forcing him to leave the customer sitting in the chair whether the haircut or shave was finished.
‘Whenever there was a fire in the daytime, I just went,? said Ronk. ‘It was amazing, there were very few times where anyone was upset about it. The guy would either wait, go home or back to work or whatever it was. When I got back I’d call him and say ‘I’m back? and he’d come down and I’d finish his haircut.?
Ronk recalls times when he’d return to the barbershop, shed any gear he wore to fight a fire, and hop behind the chair picking up scissors and starting where he left off in the haircut.
Besides a haircut, customers received an update about area events, as everyone from mothers with children to businessman sat in the chair sharing information and chatter.
‘The barbershop gave you a feel (for community). It was a friendly atmosphere where people offered their bit on topics,? said Ronk.
‘There’s the people who come just to sit around the barbershop. There’s always been those people that just go to the barbershop to sit and listen. Today, I don’t know if they do that or not,? said Ronk. ‘But at that time, that particular spot (they did). We were involved in the community. If a decoration fell off the light pole from Christmas, we got the ladder’if someone dropped their groceries in the street, you went out and picked them up.?
As the community would grow, so did the fire department and so did Ronk’one of the men important to the department’s early history. The department bridged the gap between dosing fires with buckets along waterlines and the modern fire department with state of the art technology and professional training.
‘Back in those days, we had a lot of barns and when you put hay in and there was combustion in the barn there was a fire. We had to go to those and those were usually a tough program because we didn’t have adequate water to put the hay out,? said Ronk.
Looking back at the role of the fire department, Ronk remembered the excitement when the department purchased a new 1940 Ford American LaFrance truck which could hold approximately 350 gallons of water, dwarfing the previous outputs of the Model A and T trucks the department had.
‘It was a big deal for the community because the ones we had were secondhand when we got them. It was just a change completely in our whole operation. You had more equipment. You had more water that you took with you,? said Ronk who noted the truck was displayed for people to come and look at. ‘It was a giant step forward for the community.?
In 1953, the township purchased the building where the Clarkston DPW and police operate now on Church Street, said Ronk. Coincidentally that building on Church where Tink Ronk helped build the fire department was the same building in which his father was accidentally shot months before his birth.
‘There was a lot of conversation in the barbershop that really helped me grow,? said Ronk acknowledging the importance of some community men to his personal growth.
Even with the new buildling the calls still came to the barbershop during days and the fire chief received the calls at his house on weekends and at night.
‘The community was growing enough that if I was still in the barbershop, I could not have responded as often because instead of one fire a week or every four days, we were getting a fire every two days or multiple fires at the same time,? said Ronk.
In order to address the changing times, the township started hiring full time firefighters in the 70’s.
‘I became the first full-time firefighter in Independence Township and was made chief at that time in 1972,? said Ronk.
Ronk left the department in 1984 to become township supervisor through 1992. During that time, Independence Township was developing, forcing local officials to make decisions on how to handle an influx of people.
Widening and improving Dixie Highway in the mid 1980’s is one project Ronk recalls fondly. The program involved the Downtown Development Authority, a district including Dixie, M-15 and White Lake Road set to handle growth and provide funding for the overall operation of the schools and community, said Ronk.
‘We improved that area to the point it developed and became a real resource to the township and the schools,? said Ronk. ‘We knew the community was going to develop and we had it zoned like we’d like it to (grow) without any big explosion of growth.?
Today, as the development that Ronk saw from the barbershop window and on a fire truck continues, he knows the leaders face tough decisions.
‘Growth is a tough thing in a community where people move to the community for a slower life and not so much traffic and burdens of the taxes. When that happens, you provide nice schools, nice communities and organizations and people want to live in those areas,? said Ronk, who acknowledged he’s been away from the supervisor’s position too long to know the intricate details needed to comment on anything specific.
‘It’s between a rock and a hard spot. They’re going to come and the thing you need to do is be aware they are coming and try to make it as balanced and easy flow as it can be,? said Ronk.
‘Today the problems are much greater than they were then. Growth isn’t all wrong but you have to be sure it doesn’t over power you.?
Now years removed from serving as fire chief and supervisor, Tink lives with his wife Mary, who he married in Clarkston in 1950. They raised three children: Kathryn Vachon, Steve and Robert. Steve and his wife Anne have three kids Andrea, Rob, and Tom. Robert and his wife Melissa have three kids also. Drew, Emma and Maryn.