Ron is one of our Recreation Coordinators at our DSL facility Stone Brook who is widely and affectionately known in Chinese watch and clock circles by his nickname “Bethune of the Watch Industry”.
Ron Good began his work with Care (ASLS) on March 1, 2012 as a Casual Community Support Worker, working overnight shifts at the Peace River I residence. He transitioned to a Full Time position as a Community Support Worker in September of that year.
He remained a Full Time night shift CSW, working at both PRI and PRII until the late summer of 2017, then assisting with the company’s HR department as a Coordinator, until the spring of 2018.
That spring, he returned to his position as a Community Support Worker, initially as night staff at the Berwyn residence and later, working also days or nights, at both PRI and PRII as needed.
During the summer of 2018, Ron was tasked with a specific full time project: finding additional appropriate candidates for the CSW positions at our residence in Berwyn, working with a very challenging Complex Needs resident. By the end of that summer, the Berwyn residence was fully staffed with suitable employees, many of whom are still employed with the Care.
In October of 2018, Ron accepted the Residential Coordinator position at the Berwyn Residence. Ron continued in that position until taking a medical LOA in March of 2020.
On his return to work, Ron was offered and accepted a new position as Recreation Coordinator at Stone Brook. He now works primarily for the PDD side, but also cooperates with the Recreation Coordinator for the DSL side, ensuring a full slate of recreation activities for all residents of the facility.
Ron has an active community life apart from his work with Care and, even though his brother Don also resides in the Peace River area and he has many friends here, ‘community’ might best be seen as world-wide.
In 2008, Ron became interested in the history of wristwatches and clocks in The People’s Republic of China, a history that had – until that time – been almost entirely overlooked by anyone in the West. Since then, Ron has amassed a leading Western collection of Chinese timepieces, mostly wristwatches, as well as a substantial collection of associated ephemera, parts, tools, and historical documents.
Since 2011, Ron has visited China six times, for a month each time, meeting industry pioneers and leaders, executives and workers, and collectors and educators across that county.
In 2014, Ron became the first non-Chinese person with a membership in the China Horologe Association (the governing/coordinating body for the Chinese timepiece industry). He is now recognized by the Chinese government, and known in the greater Chinese horological community, as the prominent Western historian on this subject. Hosted and provided hospitality by the CHA, he’s visited numerous factories and museums, and attended China’s most respected watch and clock industry expositions and summit meetings.
Ron’s activities have appeared in local newspapers, but also in the Financial Times and he’s also been featured in Chinese TV, radio, magazines and newspapers. He is very widely and affectionately known in Chinese watch and clock circles by his nickname “Bethune of the Watch Industry,” after Norman Bethune, another widely known Canadian in China’s history. His own related website is amchpr.com, for those who’d wish to see his collection, his travel writing and photography.
In 2020, scholars at the Oxford University Press asked Ron to contribute a section for an upcoming scholarly text “A General History of Chronology” (edited by Anthony Turner, James Nye and Jonathan Betts), covering the entire history of world time-keeping. Ron collaborated on the section covering China’s development from 1900 to the present day. The book is to be released in 2021 and will also include Ron’s photography.
Ron will be 70 years old in June 2021.