Ron Hazelton (March 29, 1942 – April 30, 2023) was an American television presenter. He was the host of several popular

home improvement The concept of home improvement, home renovation, or remodeling is the process of renovating or making additions to one's home. Home improvement can consist of projects that upgrade an existing home interior (such as electrical and plumbing), ...

series including ''Ron Hazelton's HouseCalls''. He was also the Home Improvement Editor for ABC's ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...

'' and hosted several shows for

The History Channel History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...

Early life

Hazelton was born March 29, 1942 in

Binghamton, New York Binghamton () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the conflue ...

to Earl, a building contractor, and Wanda Hazelton. He graduated from the

Florida State University College of Business The Florida State University College of Business is the business school of the Florida State University. Established in 1950, it enrolls more than 6,000 students including undergraduates and graduate students seeking their bachelor's, master's o ...

with a BS in Marketing in 1965. He was a member of the

Pi Kappa Alpha Pi Kappa Alpha (), commonly known as PIKE, is a college fraternity founded at the University of Virginia in 1868. The fraternity has over 225 chapters and colonies across the United States and abroad with over 15,500 undergraduate members over 30 ...

fraternity and was part of the

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Drill team A drill team can be one of four different entities: # A military drill team is a marching unit that performs routines based on military foot or exhibition drills. Military drill teams perform either armed or unarmed. # A dance drill team creat ...

Early career

After graduation, Hazelton joined

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

Officer Candidate School An officer candidate school (OCS) is a military school which trains civilians and Enlisted rank, enlisted personnel in order for them to gain a Commission (document), commission as Commissioned officer, officers in the armed forces of a country. ...

for Anti-Submarine Warfare School. Hazelton was a marketing consultant in Boston. He founded a storefront restoration workshop in San Francisco called Cow Hollow Woodworks in 1978. He sold the business in 1993.

Television career

In 1989, Hazelton created, co-produced, and hosted a reality-based, on-location home improvement television program called ''The House Doctor''. It ran from 1990-1997 with more than 200 episodes and 600 house visits. It originated on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

affiliate

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San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, and aired for several years on the

HGTV HGTV (an initialism for Home & Garden Television) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The network primarily broadcasts reality programming related to home improvement and real estate. As of February 2015, appr ...

network until 2001. He related that he got started on television by accident: his dentist connected him with a

producer for what became ''The House Doctor''. Hazelton was the Home Improvement Editor for

's ''

'' from 1997-2007. Ron reported regularly on a variety of topics related to home improvement, design, repair, health, and safety. He has been featured as a home improvement expert on ''

The Oprah Winfrey Show ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', often referred to as ''The Oprah Show'' or simply ''Oprah'', is an American daytime broadcast syndication, syndicated talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in Chicag ...

'', ''

Inside Edition ''Inside Edition'' is an American news broadcasting newsmagazine program that is distributed in first-run syndication by CBS Media Ventures. Having premiered on January 9, 1989, it is the longest-running syndicated-newsmagazine program that is n ...

'', Discovery Channel's ''Popular Mechanics'', Lifetime's ''Our Home'' and The History Channel's series ''

Modern Marvels ''Modern Marvels'' is an American worldwide television series that formerly aired on the History Channel and is currently shown on Story Television. The program focuses on how technologies affect and are used in modern society. It is History's f ...

— History of Tools'', ''Hands on History'' and ''Save our History: Frontier Homes''. ''Ron Hazelton's HouseCalls'' is a 30-minute

Tribune Entertainment Tribune Entertainment (formerly Mid-America Video Tape Productions, WGN Continental Productions, Tribune Productions and Tribune Entertainment Company) was a television production and broadcast syndication company owned and operated by Tribune Br ...

nationally-syndicated home improvement show that Hazelton produced and hosted. He traveled by motor home with a mobile workshop to help people with weekend DIY home projects. As of May 2023, ''Ron Hazelton's HouseCalls'' is broadcasting season 24.

Advocacy

Hazelton was the national spokesperson for the

Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition The Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition (HFSC) was founded in 1996. It is a nonprofit organization working in the United States and Canada. HFSC's web site details its mission statement and board members. For several years, the United States Fire Adminis ...

, a non-profit, fire safety organization, from 1997. He received a special Appreciation Award from

Steering Committee member, the National Fire Sprinkler Association, for his work on behalf of the organization.

Author

Hazelton was the author of: * Ron Hazelton's HouseCalls: America's Most Requested Home Improvement Projects (1999,

Time-Life Books Time Life, with sister subsidiaries StarVista Live and Lifestyle Products Group, a holding of Direct Holdings Global LLC, is an American production company and direct marketer conglomerate, that is known for selling books, music, video/DVD, ...

) * Plumbing Made Easy (2009,

F+W Publications F+W, (formerly F+W Publications and F+W Media), was a media and e-commerce company headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1913, F+W published magazines, books, digital products (including e-books and e-magazines), produced online video, offer ...

’ Home Basics series) * Electrical Made Easy (2009,

’ Home Basics series)

Personal life and death

Hazelton married Lynn Robin Drasin in October 1997. At the time of their marriage, Drasin was a segment producer on ''

'' on

while Hazelton was the show's home improvement editor. Drasin later became a producer on ''Ron Hazelton's HouseCalls''. Hazelton died at his Connecticut home on April 30, 2023, at the age of 81.