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, making improvements or making additions to one's home. Home improvement can consist of projects that upgrade an existing home interior (such as electr ...

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 breakfast television, morning television program that is broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends wit ...

'' and hosted several shows for

The History Channel History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the General Entertainment Content division of The Wa ...

Early life

Hazelton was born March 29, 1942, in

Binghamton, New York Binghamton ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the c ...

, to Earl, a building contractor, and Wanda Hazelton. He graduated from the Florida State University College of Business 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 provisional chapters across the United States and abroad with over 15,500 undergraduate mem ...

fraternity and was part of the

Air Force An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...

ROTC The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC; or ) is a group of college- and university-based officer-training programs for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces. While ROTC graduate officers serve in all branches o ...

Drill team A drill team can be one of four different entities: # A military drill team is a marching unit that performs routines based on military foot drill, foot or exhibition drills. Military drill teams perform either armed or unarmed. # A dance squad ...

Early career

After graduation, Hazelton joined

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

Officer Candidate School An officer candidate school (OCS) is a military school which trains civilians and Enlisted rank, enlisted personnel in order for them to gain a Commission (document), commission as Commissioned officer, officers in the armed forces of a country. H ...

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 ABC affiliate

KGO-TV KGO-TV (channel 7) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. It has been owned and operated by the American Broadcasting Company, ABC television network through its ABC Owne ...

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, and aired for several years on the

HGTV HGTV (an initialism for Home & Garden Television) is an American basic cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The network primarily broadcasts reality programming related to home improvement and real estate. HGTV Dream Home is an ...

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 ABC'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 ''

The Oprah Winfrey Show ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'' is an American first-run syndicated talk show that was hosted by Oprah Winfrey. The show ran for twenty-five seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in which it broadcast 4,561 episodes. The show was taped i ...

'', ''

Inside Edition ''Inside Edition'' is an American tabloid television program that is distributed in Broadcast syndication, first-run syndication by CBS Media Ventures. Having premiered on January 9, 1989, it is the longest-running syndicated-newsmagazine progr ...

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

Modern Marvels ''Modern Marvels'', formally known under A&E as ''Time Machine'', is a television series first aired by the History Channel in 1995, but previously under A&E starting December 10, 1993. It is the History Channel's first and longest-running prog ...

— 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 Br ...

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, a non-profit, fire safety organization, from 1997. He received a special Appreciation Award from Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition 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, Inc. (also habitually represented with a hyphen as Time-Life, Inc., even by the company itself) was an American multi-media conglomerate company formerly known as a prolific production/publishing company and direct marketeer seller ...

) * Plumbing Made Easy (2009, F+W Publications’ Home Basics series) * Electrical Made Easy (2009, F+W Publications’ 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 ABC 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.