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Residence here · died here · 1948–2023
The genius of airfoil design, in Burt Rutan's phrase, whose main residence throughout his life was this town. John Gregory Roncz designed the airfoils for two aircraft that flew round the world without stopping or refuelling — the Rutan Voyager and the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, both now in the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum — and worked on the Beech Starship, the Cirrus SR20 and SR22 and more than fifty aircraft in all, besides the wing sail for the America's Cup winner Stars & Stripes, and at least eight patents. The reference article states he died of cancer in Lakeville on 27 September 2023, "in the South Bend area which had been his main residence throughout his life," and its obituary record (Palmer Funeral Homes, with AVweb and FLYING beside it) proves the Lakeville life and death: Notre Dame honours graduate, AIAA Distinguished Lecturer, Purdue "Old Master." His birthplace prints at exactly the strength it stands: the reference article's infobox gives "Born 25 May 1948, Lakeville, Indiana," with no footnote of its own, and no independent carrier read states the birthplace in its own words — so he is carried as a Lakeville life, resident and died here, and the born-here line is flagged single-sourced's note rather than blurred into the tie.