Biography:
Ron Morita grew up in a blue collar neighborhood on Chicago’s northwest side. When he was twelve, his father, a hard-driving civil/mechanical engineer, moved the family to the San Francisco Bay Area. Ron hated English, which focused on finding hidden meaning in arcane literature. When allowed to write whatever he wanted, Ron got an A+ for a fourth grade science fiction tale. He loved championing causes in Junior Statesmen and made a speech about pay television before hundreds of delegates at the State Convention. Ron earned a B.S. in bioengineering from the University of California at Berkeley, surviving the vaunted Physics for Scientists and Engineers through hard work. He studied neurophysiology at UCLA’s Brain Research Institute, because so much of what we consider ourselves to be is in the brain. Finding himself a practical problem solver rather than a theoretician, he terminated with a Masters in Physiology and earned a Masters in biomedical engineering from Case Western Reserve.
In Madison, Wisconsin and the Boston metropolitan area, Ron designed electronics for iRobot, Medtronic, Lockheed-Martin and other companies. He engaged in spelunking, backpacking, and photography, developed a military history hobby, and was honorably discharged from the National Guard. Ron took an advanced fiction class at Harvard Extension but honed his craft primary in writing groups. The initial draft of his first novel, a science fiction piece about a mind-reading society, was hand-written one rainy Fourth of July weekend. An exposé on fire alarm control panels was inspired by his experience at Fire Control Instruments. His job at PRI Automation led to a novel about the nefarious politics in the semiconductor processing industry. A novel about robots taking over the world followed a stint at iRobot Corporation. Fascination with astronomy resulted in a novel about the settling of a planet by star travelers from Earth. He believes that original thoughts, when they influence others, convey a type of immortality. To avoid becoming a book salesman, Ron waited for a literary agent to tell him his stories were ready. Although his novels are unpublished, his short fiction appeared in Pleiades, Vine Leaves Literary Journal, The Chamber Four Lit Mag., and other magazines.
Ron lives on a knoll among the redwoods in the off-grid house he designed. He attends the Mendocino Coast Writers Conference and a local writers group. For two years he served on the Board of Directors of the local homeowners association. He made speeches, sent letters to the membership, and published articles in the local newspaper, urging the end to harassment of permitted cannabis growers, two of whom were his neighbors. During the eight months his wife of forty-five years battled ovarian cancer, he began her biography/autobiography from memories she dictated.
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