William (Bill) Ronson was born on 25th June 1923. He began producing space covers in New York under the name ‘Orbit Covers’ in 1960/1961. Issues for the first five years or so consisted of a single-color cachet and did not have a logo. Ronson introduced his two-colour cachet series in 1966, which were produced right throughout the rest of the 1960s & 1970s and even into the 1980s. Starting in about 1962, he also had printed (engraved) photographic cachets made, in particular for the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo & Skylab missions. There are even some long ‘hybrid’ covers with both an engraved photographic cachet and a coloured cachet design element as well. Most post-1966/1967 ‘Orbit Covers’ are easily identifiable by the ‘Orbit Covers’ logo placed somewhere in the cachet design.
Addresses that i’ve seen on early ‘Orbit Covers’ include:
– Bill Ronson / Orbit Covers, 52 W 88th St, NYC 24 NY
– Orbit Covers, 1307 Nelson Ave, Bronx NY 10452
– Bill Ronson, 132 Nassau St, NYC 10038
You may have heard that Bill Ronson killed his wife and went to jail. This is in-fact, true. However I have not been able to find much of an explanation as to exactly what happened, when, and why. I spent a little time researching the legal case and will attempt to present the important facts here as I understand them – specifically how they relate to his space cover making enterprise.
Long story short, Ronson sadly shot his wife on 11th September 1972. This was almost exactly half-way between the Apollo 16 & Apollo 17 missions. I believe it involved a bitter dispute over the custody of their 2 sons. Ronson was charged with manslaughter and served his prison term at Green Haven Correctional Facility in New York, from July 1982 until May 1988, when he was released on parole. I believe he was on parole for a further 5 years until May 1993. There were several long and complicated trials involved in his sentencing, hence the 10-year delay between the crime itself and his actual prison term.
Ronson continued producing space covers throughout the period of time between 1972 & 1982, seemingly without slowing down at all. Just before Ronson began his prison term in mid-1982, he appears to have stopped using the name ‘Orbit Covers’ and starting using the name ‘ASCS’ (American Space Cover Society) instead. This was a name he had already used back in the late-60s/early-70s. I have a copy of the ‘ASCS’ journal for 1970, and I believe there were other yearly journals produced around that time. At this stage I am not 100% sure why he stopped using the name ‘Orbit Covers’.
During his prison term, Ronson petitioned at least twice (in 1984 & 1986) to be moved, due to failing health and medical mistreatment, but his hearings were denied.
After his prison term, Ronson began producing space covers again, continuing to use the name ‘ASCS’ instead of ‘Orbit Covers’.
So, of course you won’t find any covers produced by Ronson between mid-1982 to mid-1988.
The latest ‘Orbit Cover’ that I’ve seen is dated 30th March 1982 for the STS-3 Shuttle Landing.
The earliest ‘ASCS’ cover I’ve seen is dated 27th June 1982 for the STS-4 Shuttle Launch.
From what I understand, Ronson started his prison term on 1st July 1982 and so if that is correct, I’m not quite sure how he was able to produce the STS-4 Landing cover on the 4th July 1982. A few scenarios are possible:
– perhaps the start date for his prison term was actually not 1st July 1982, but later in the month.
– perhaps he had some help in making this particular cover
– or…perhaps someone else altogether made this ‘ASCS’ cover, and/or even the other ‘ASCS’ covers too ?
At this stage, I will presume that ‘ASCS’ covers were all made by Ronson, because I have never read or heard anything to the contrary, and he definitely wrote the ‘ASCS’ journal that I mentioned above so there is a clear tie between Ronson & ‘ASCS’.
After Ronson’s release from prison on parole in late May 1988, it seems he returned relatively quickly to making space covers.
The earliest ‘ASCS’ cover I’ve seen from after his release is dated 29th September 1988, for the STS-26 Shuttle Launch. This was actually the first manned space mission since the space shuttle Challenger exploded in January 1986 and so I imagine a very important space event for many Americans. The latest ‘ASCS’ cover I’ve seen dates from 1993, not long before Bill’s death.
Bill Ronson died on 5th October 1993, aged 70.
It certainly is a sad story, but Bill Ronson has left us with the fantastic space covers he made for over 30 years. If Ronson had not gone to jail, I am certain he would have produced at least 30-40 more space covers (for all the shuttle mission launches & landings between 1982 & 1985) and probably many, many other space-related events between the period of 1982 & 1988.