Ron Hazelton (March 29, 1942 – April 30, 2023) was an American television presenter. He was the host of several popular

home improvement The concept of home improvement, home renovation, or remodeling is the process of renovating or making additions to one's home. Home improvement can consist of projects that upgrade an existing home interior (such as electrical and plumbing), ...

series including ''Ron Hazelton's HouseCalls''. He was also the Home Improvement Editor for ABC's ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. ...

'' and hosted several shows for

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Early life

Hazelton was born March 29, 1942 in Binghamton, New York to Earl, a building contractor, and Wanda Hazelton. He graduated from the

Florida State University College of Business The Florida State University College of Business is the business school of the Florida State University. Established in 1950, it enrolls more than 6,000 students including undergraduates and graduate students seeking their bachelor's, master's or ...

with a BS in Marketing in 1965. He was a member of the

Pi Kappa Alpha Pi Kappa Alpha (), commonly known as PIKE, is a college fraternity founded at the University of Virginia in 1868. The fraternity has over 225 chapters and colonies across the United States and abroad with over 15,500 undergraduate members over 3 ...

fraternity and was part of the

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Early career

After graduation, Hazelton joined

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

Officer Candidate School An officer candidate school (OCS) is a military school which trains civilians and enlisted personnel in order for them to gain a commission as officers in the armed forces of a country. How OCS is run differs between countries and services. Typ ...

for Anti-Submarine Warfare School. Hazelton was a marketing consultant in Boston. He founded a storefront restoration workshop in San Francisco called Cow Hollow Woodworks in 1978. He sold the business in 1993.

Television career

In 1989, Hazelton created, co-produced, and hosted a reality-based, on-location home improvement television program called ''The House Doctor''. It ran from 1990-1997 with more than 200 episodes and 600 house visits. It originated on

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affiliate

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, and aired for several years on the

HGTV HGTV (an initialism for Home & Garden Television) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The network primarily broadcasts reality programming related to home improvement and real estate. As of February 2015, ...

network until 2001. He related that he got started on television by accident: his dentist connected him with a

producer for what became ''The House Doctor''. Hazelton was the Home Improvement Editor for

's ''

'' from 1997-2007. Ron reported regularly on a variety of topics related to home improvement, design, repair, health, and safety. He has been featured as a home improvement expert on ''

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'', ''

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'', Discovery Channel's ''Popular Mechanics'', Lifetime's ''Our Home'' and The History Channel's series ''

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— History of Tools'', ''Hands on History'' and ''Save our History: Frontier Homes''. ''Ron Hazelton's HouseCalls'' is a 30-minute

Tribune Entertainment Tribune Entertainment (formerly Mid-America Video Tape Productions, WGN Continental Productions, Tribune Productions and Tribune Entertainment Company) was a television production and broadcast syndication company owned and operated by Tribune B ...

nationally-syndicated home improvement show that Hazelton produced and hosted. He traveled by motor home with a mobile workshop to help people with weekend DIY home projects. As of May 2023, ''Ron Hazelton's HouseCalls'' is broadcasting season 24.

Advocacy

Hazelton was the national spokesperson for the

Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition The Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition (HFSC) was founded in 1996. It is a nonprofit organization working in the United States and Canada. HFSC's web site details its mission statement and board members. For several years, the United States Fire Adminis ...

, a non-profit, fire safety organization, from 1997. He received a special Appreciation Award from

Steering Committee member, the National Fire Sprinkler Association, for his work on behalf of the organization.

Author

Hazelton was the author of: * Ron Hazelton's HouseCalls: America's Most Requested Home Improvement Projects (1999,

Time-Life Books Time Life, with sister subsidiaries StarVista Live and Lifestyle Products Group, a holding of Direct Holdings Global LLC, is an American production company and direct marketer conglomerate, that is known for selling books, music, video/DVD, a ...

) * Plumbing Made Easy (2009,

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’ Home Basics series) * Electrical Made Easy (2009,

’ Home Basics series)

Personal life and death

Hazelton married Lynn Robin Drasin in October 1997. At the time of their marriage, Drasin was a segment producer on ''

'' on

while Hazelton was the show's home improvement editor. Drasin later became a producer on ''Ron Hazelton's HouseCalls''. Hazelton died at his Connecticut home on April 30, 2023, at the age of 81.