US Foreign Service worker returns to Valley, ‘where there’s so much going on’

By Ashley Luthern

aluthern@vindy.com

POLAND

Ron Elkins was reading The Economist at work in Budapest, Hungary when he ran across an article, “Youngstown, Ohio: A Youngstown town again.”

He said that was the final sign that he should return to the Valley, “where there’s so much going on now.”

Ron, his wife Natalie, and their son, Caleb, have traveled around the world during Ron’s 23-year career in the U.S. State Department’s Foreign Service. Now, they’ve come home, and in June, Caleb will graduate from Poland Seminary High School, his father’s alma mater.

Ron’s last assignment at the International Law Enforcement Academy in Budapest was set to end in 2010, the same year Caleb would begin his senior year of high school. Not wanting to uproot Caleb right before graduation, Natalie and Caleb returned to Poland in 2009, so that he could complete his junior and senior years of study in one place.

Ron debated retirement or taking a job in Washington, D.C. and decided to retire at the end of last year because he wanted to be with his family and “Youngstown seemed like the place to be.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.