Ronald A. Penfound was a radio announcer and local television personality in the

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

market, specifically on

WEWS-TV WEWS-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, affiliated with ABC. It has been owned by the E. W. Scripps Company since its inception in 1946, making it one of two stations that have been built and signed on by Sc ...

channel 5 where from 1955 to 1971 he hosted an afternoon program for children. As host, he was known as

Captain Penny Captain Penny was the host of a children's television series on WEWS-TV (Channel 5) in Cleveland, Ohio from 1955 to 1971. The show starred Ron Penfound as "Captain Penny" and was produced by Earl Keyes. Captain Penny dressed as a railroad engin ...

and was attired in

railroad engineer A train driver, engine driver, engineman or locomotive driver, commonly known as an engineer or railroad engineer in the United States and Canada, and also as a locomotive handler, locomotive operator, train operator, or motorman, is a pers ...

clothing.

Early life

Ron Penfound was born on January 28, 1927 in

Elyria, Ohio Elyria ( ) is a city in the Greater Cleveland metropolitan statistical area and the county seat of Lorain County, Ohio, United States, located at the forks of the Black River in Northeast Ohio 23 miles southwest of Cleveland. As of the 2020 cen ...

, to Archie and Marjorie (Saywell) Penfound, and served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He attended

Kenyon College Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio. It was founded in 1824 by Philander Chase. Kenyon College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Kenyon has 1,708 undergraduates enrolled. Its 1,000-acre campus is se ...

and was a classmate of actor

Paul Newman Paul Leonard Newman (January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008) was an American actor, film director, race car driver, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. He was the recipient of numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, three ...

. He had originally planned to become an Episcopal priest, but then transferred to study

broadcasting Broadcasting is the distribution (business), distribution of sound, audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio ...

at the

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private university, private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Mountain States, Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is ...

Career

Penfound worked as a radio announcer at KLMR in Lamar, Colorado, while attending school (1950). He was an announcer for

KVOD KVOD (88.1 MHz) is a public radio station broadcasting a classical music format. Licensed to Lakewood, Colorado, it serves the Denver metropolitan area. The station is owned by Public Broadcasting Of Colorado. Its programming is broadcast on o ...

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

before returning to Elyria as news and sports director at

WEOL WEOL (930 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to serve Elyria, Ohio, and features a talk and sports radio format. Owned by the Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting Co., WEOL services Lorain and Medina counties and the western parts of Greater Cl ...

radio. He also worked at Cleveland radio station

WERE ''Were'' and ''wer'' are archaic terms for adult male humans and were often used for alliteration with wife as "were and wife" in Germanic-speaking cultures ( ang, wer, odt, wer, got, waír, ofs, wer, osx, wer, goh, wer, non, verr). In ...

as an announcer and salesman. On April 26, 1953, Penfound was hired as a sports announcer and floorman for WEWS-TV, and began hosting the Captain Penny program on March 2, 1955. During the course of its 16 years on the air, the show featured old cartoons, along with Little Rascals and

Three Stooges The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy team active from 1922 until 1970, best remembered for their 190 short subject films by Columbia Pictures. Their hallmark styles were physical farce and slapstick. Six Stooges appeared ...

shorts. In addition, there were live appearances by Captain Penny and a variety of guests. Following a 1961 appearance by actor Chuck Connors, Penfound was given a small role in Connors' show,

The Rifleman ''The Rifleman'' is an American Western television program starring Chuck Connors as rancher Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his son Mark McCain. It was set in the 1880s in the fictional town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory. The show wa ...

, in the fourth-season episode, "The Princess". During the holiday season, the character of Mr. Jingeling, played by the show's producer, Earl Keyes, would appear. Throughout the year, a feature of the daily program was on a certain day of the week, Captain would present animals from the

Cuyahoga County Cuyahoga County ( or ) is a large urban County (United States), county located in the Northeast Ohio, northeastern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. It is situated on the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the Canada–United States border, U.S.- ...

Animal Protective League available for adoption. The segment was known as Captain Penny’s Pooch Parade. In 1957, a second program was added in a late afternoon time slot ''Captain Penny's Fun House''. The show featured Captain Penny (Ron Penfound), Wilbur Wiffenpoof (Earl Keyes) and other guests such as Bobo (an inflated clown). Captain Penny also hosted a 2-hour show ''Captain Penny's Fun Farm'' on Saturday mornings. Captain Penny would close his daily program with the words of advice to his little viewers: "You can fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool Mom. She's pretty nice and she's pretty smart. Do what Mom says, and you won't go far wrong." After the Captain Penny show had its final broadcast on September 4, 1971, Penfound served as weekend weatherman and staff announcer at WEWS. He was also the public address announcer for the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive F ...

from 1969-72. Upon leaving the station in 1972, Penfound worked as a sales manager and sportscaster for WKBK in Keene, New Hampshire for one year, before moving to Florida, where he worked in both radio and television.

Personal life

Penfound married Gail Gilmore in 1951 and had one child, Amy, but their marriage ended in divorce in 1959. He then married Phyllis Yoder Hunter in 1960, with the couple having two children, Tracy and Matthew. Phyllis committed suicide on May 10, 1964, when she jumped off the Cuyahoga River Bridge of the Ohio Turnpike in nearby Summit County. On May 20, 1967, Penfound married Jo Ann Dudas and had two children, Julie and Samantha.

Death

Although Captain Penny never appeared on camera with a cigarette, Ron Penfound was a cigarette smoker. He died of

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...

Naples, Florida Naples is a city in Collier County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the historical city (i.e. in the immediate vicinity of downtown Naples) was 19,115. Naples is a principal city of the Naples-Marco Island, Flori ...

on September 16, 1974. He was 47.

External links

Captain Penny at TV AcresRon Penfound at Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
{{DEFAULTSORT:Penfound, Ron Television in Cleveland People from Elyria, Ohio People from Naples, Florida Kenyon College alumni 1927 births 1974 deaths Deaths from lung cancer in Florida University of Denver alumni