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Born Ronald Alexander Dickerson on 27 November 1935 in Orange to Ron and Stella Dickerson, Ron was the eldest of the three siblings, followed by brother Jim and sister Pauline. Ronnie was father to Tom and Errol, Grandfather to Amy, Jessica, Hannah, Sharni, Carly, Storm and Shannon and he was a great-grandfather to six children.

Ronnie spent the majority of his childhood living in Orange surrounded by a large network of family and friends. They moved to Randwick for a brief period so that Ron Snr could work in the horse industry but returned to Orange when the war started in the 1940s.

From 1952 to 1954, Ronnie completed his apprenticeship under the guidance of his father Ron and went on to win the Western District Association Apprentice Premiership with 17 wins, beating his uncle Reggie Coye by one win. Ronnie had his first win on a horse called Gold Beau October 1952 and his second win came on Sister Shena on 7th February 1953.

Ronnie covered 29 meetings ending July 1957 and 25 Country & 4 City meets. He won 12 races and 19 placings from 82 rides

Ronnie then became a fully-fledged jockey on 27 November 1956 and his first city ride was at Rosehill on a horse owned by Sid Taylor and trained by Doug Spence, he then rode at Hawkesbury and Kembla Grange.

In 1957, Ron won the President Handicap at the Orange Cup meeting and was 2nd in the Orange Cup on Scapegoat owned by Terry Sparkes.

Ron also finished 2nd in the Forbes Cup on Burkanako and 3rd in the Wellington Cup on Pharaoh’s Castle trained by Bill Sheridan. He also rode for Stan Haydon, Dick Cornish, W. Regan, W. Sheridan, Doug Spense, Bob Harry, Jack Paton (Jnr), W.Booth, K.Webb, and Des Frazers.

Ronnie and his subsequent ex-wife Dawn started training again when he moved to Wellington. He had a racehorse by the name of Banjo and he got back into the saddle and starting riding trackwork again for a short period of time. Ronnie & Dawn had some wins with Banjo.

Ronnie & Dawn parted and Ronnie moved to be closer to his Mother Stella, where he spent the rest of his life.

Ronnie was diagnosed with lung cancer and had one lung removed. After surviving with one lung for over 10 years, Ronnie passed away from a lung infection at Port Macquarie Base Hospital on 5th June 2018.