Holp “got involved in the restaurant business at a drive-in on Route 4, later in operating a Cassano’s Pizza franchise store on Miamisburg’s Main Street,” according to the Ron’s Pizza website. He opened Ron’s Pizza on North 12th Street in 1964, moving out in 1999 to several different locations before coming to 1 South Main St. in 2002.
“When we started, we only had two rooms,” Holp told this news outlet in 2023. “We had a kitchen-type area where we make the pizzas and (people) pick them up, then we had a dining room that seated about 34 people.”
The restaurant installed a 40-seat tavern in an adjacent room in 2005. It completed its most recent renovation in 2023.
The city of Miamisburg recognized Holp in August at the Rock ‘N’ Green Tomato Festival, an event he and Hamburger Wagon owner Jack Sperry helped create in 2012 to highlight the city and its businesses. The event features live music, local vendors, food trucks and more.
At the event, Miamisburg Mayor Michelle Collins called Holp one of Miamisburg’s most influential figures and said the city recognized his “outstanding accomplishments and valuable contributions” to the community.
Reached by this news outlet Monday, Collins said trying to verbalize what Holp means to the community is impossible.
“What a dedicated, hard-working, story-telling, true friend and family man he was,” Collins said. “Ron made it his mission to make Miamisburg everything it could be through being a part of the original Miamisburg Merchants Association. He had the vision to see what downtown would become and invested in it.”
News of Holp’s death also spurred words of praise from local businesses via their social media accounts.
Pappa’s Pizza Palace said Holp was “truly an icon — an inspiration, a mentor, and a pillar of our community.”
“His passion for his business and dedication to making Miamisburg a thriving downtown will never be forgotten,” the pizza place posted to Facebook.
Flooring N Beyond Design Center said Holp had “such an impact on so many.”
“Since the day we built our business here in Miamisburg, Ron took us under his wing, mentored, and supported us!” the business wrote. “Rest easy, dear friend.”
Good Time Charlie’s said Holp was “an icon, a hero, a guide and someone for us all to look up to and want to be like.”
“He lived and breathed his business all through the years, through the good and bad and created a staple and a place where everyone wants to be!” the restaurant said.
Longtime friend Doug Sorrell, who ate in Holp’s pizza parlor on Main Street as a child and knew Holp since his teens, said the word “icon” gets tossed around often, “but there are very few that are truly icons to their chosen community.”
“Ron Holp was an icon without question,” said Sorrell. “You will be missed my friend. The Burg has become the envy of many suburbs. You helped make that happen. Thank you.”
Funeral arrangements for Holp are pending.
We as a town and community are sad to hear the passing of one of the greatest, Mr Ron Holp, the founder of Ron’s Pizza...
Posted by Good Time Charlie’s on Monday, November 4, 2024
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