Meet
Ron Kalpak

Originally discovering Reynolds Lake Oconee while a student at Georgia Southern University, Ron Kalpak came for a weekend with friends and left enamored with the area, and with one eye firmly in the rear view mirror. An accomplished collegiate tennis player, the opportunity to come back popped up later that year when Ron was asked to be the first Head Tennis Professional for the then brand new community. A teaching lesson with one of the real estate executives led to a job with the Reynolds Lake Oconee Properties team, and Ron has been on staff here ever since and will soon celebrate his 31st anniversary as a Sales Executive at Reynolds Lake Oconee.

Tennis is still a huge passion for Ron and he remains an active participant in the tennis programs and tournaments at Reynolds. He helped launch the Tennis Club at Lake Oconee Academy, which quickly became a varsity sport, and produced first a Region, and then a State title the very next year. Even though his daughter and team anchor, Love, just graduated, you will still see Ron on the courts coaching young athletes.

While Ron will never give up his tennis racket, he has found a new passion in Pickleball and he loves that it employs so many aspects of tennis and opportunities to meet new folks. (deleted a sentence there that went first person. If he’s not Pickling or playing tennis you’ll find Ron on the water where his local knowledge has led to multiple Reynolds Bass Tournament victories, including the record for the largest one-day catch in tournament history – 20.5 pounds. Ron also has been known to fly fish in some of the country’s best fly fishing spots, barely a couple of hours away in the north Georgia Mountains. Without question though his best catch on the water is his wife Heidi, to whom he proposed to on a special place on the lake that now carries the name of “Proposal Point”.

Ron is also a self-proclaimed “big foodie” for whom more than a few afternoons have been spent than cooking on one of his five grills and smokers. Ribs, chicken, salmon, steak, and pizza – if it can be put on a grill or smoker, Ron can cook it. Then, surrounded by his awesome wife, Heidi, and daughters, Niah and Love, there is no place Ron would rather be.

Officially empty nesters now, Ron and Heidi look forward to spending even more time experiencing all that Reynolds has to offer.