Ron DiMenna, Founder of Ron Jon Surf Shop Chain, Dies at 88

Ron DiMenna, the founder of the Ron Jon Surf Shop retail chain, died on Sept. 6 at his home on Merritt Island, Fla., near Cocoa Beach. He was 88. Malcolm R. Kirschenbaum, the company’s chairman and a longtime friend and adviser, said he died of a heart ailment. Mr. DiMenna helped expand surfing from a niche sport into mainstream lifestyle culture.

He opened his first Ron Jon store at Ship Bottom on Long Beach Island in 1961 and moved to Cocoa Beach in 1963, where the flagship now fills 52,000 square feet and bills itself as the world’s largest surfing shop. The chain expanded along the East Coast to 12 stores; Mr. Kirschenbaum said annual sales exceed $50 million, and the Cocoa Beach location draws nearly two million visitors a year.

After being discharged from the Marines in the late 1950s, he began making custom surfboards with a neighbor, the Rev. Earl Comfort, and started selling boards from his father’s grocery store and the trunk of his car. He was an enigmatic, flamboyant and private figure who gave few interviews and routinely declined to have his photo taken.

His life combined charitable work and legal troubles. In 2008 he and his wife, Lynne, founded Surfing’s Evolution and Preservation Foundation to help protect Florida’s beaches; after his 1977 release from prison he supported antidrug programs such as DARE and used Ron Jon advertising for antidrug messages.

Key Topics

Business, Ron Dimenna, Ron Jon, Cocoa Beach, Merritt Island, Long Beach Island