Coun, who retired as executive director June 30 after 31 years with the agency, battled cancer for 11 years. In retiring he said he would be devoting his future to his family and to surviving the illness that eventually took his life. “There are a lot of things I have and a lot I’d like to explore,” he told NJ Jewish News on the eve of his retirement. “I’ve got two grandchildren whom I want to get to know better. I owe my wife time. You tend to neglect the most important people in your life because you say, ‘Well, they’re there. You take them for granted. Work becomes everything. The truth is, life is what should become everything. I’m going to try to learn that.”

Friends and colleagues remembered him for his professional and personal gifts.

“He was strong to the end,” said Leonard Schneider, who succeeded Coun at JVS. “His intellectual capacity and his energy and his lust for life were undiminished.

“Within the professional world, he was remembered and loved by many of the clients of JVS and, without question, the staff,” added Schneider. “From the entry level up to the highest staff we have, I’ve had people calling and coming into my office crying. They were touched by the way he touched them.”

Max Kleinman, executive vice president of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ and a colleague of Coun’s for 25 years, remembered Coun as an exemplary agency director. “He really took the JVS to new heights by developing terrific partnerships with the state and federal government, leveraging the allocations JVS received from our UJA Campaign,” said Kleinman. “He assured that the services offered by the JVS were first-rate. He was a strong advocate for the needs of the downtrodden and was a very innovative person at a very innovative agency.”

Kenneth R. Heyman of Short Hills, UJC MetroWest president and a former campaign chair, agreed. “Ron was very compassionate and very strong in his 100 percent commitment to JVS,” he said.

Despite Coun’s often fierce advocacy for JVS funding, “he also understood the community perspective,” said Heyman.

Under Coun, JVS grew into a $7.2 million agency annually serving more than 15,000 clients. It offers career planning, vocational services for the disabled, immigrant resettlement services, and a job bank. It became a voice for people — laid-off executives, the active elderly, recent immigrants — who might otherwise be overlooked in the relatively affluent suburbs that it serves. And it remains animated by a Jewish ethic that says the highest form of tzedaka, or charity, is helping an individual achieve dignity through work.

On Dec. 4, Coun made a final visit to JVS, addressing an audience from a wheelchair at the dedication of the Ronald I. Coun Center for Creative Maturity.

Its mission is to “help seniors, the aging, retirees, pre-retirees, the frail elderly, and the healthy mature adult to maximize and redefine life’s potential,” said Schneider at the ceremony.

In his address, Coun spoke of “the 800-pound gorilla in the room — my disability,” using his cancer to plead against marginalizing the aging, the ill, and the mentally and physically challenged to whom he had dedicated his career. “It’s not just me,” he told the audience. “People who have disabilities need to be included in the society. You’ve got to remember these folks.”

According to Schneider, Coun was deeply involved in a quest to prolong his life. “He looked forward to having the cancer totally eliminated from his body, and he tried every new treatment. He was always hoping for the next new treatment that would come out, and he was battling consistently for the last 11 years. He fought the best fight imaginable, and he did it with quiet dignity. That was the way he lived his life.”

Born in Newark, Coun spent summers as a counselor at a suburban Y camp near Watchung while studying at the University of Buffalo. He received a master’s degree in vocational rehabilitation and worked at the Jewish Family Service in Buffalo. After three years, he was hired to set up the sheltered workshop at the Daughters of Israel nursing home in West Orange. Then he moved to JVS, where, he said, “I did practically every job anyone did — career counselor, job placement, rehabilitation.”

Speaking about his illness Dec. 4, the ever feisty Coun said, “I’m not very angry about this. You must know that. But I am very determined, and I’ll hang in there as long as I can.”

Coun died in his sleep, leaving his wife of 42 years, Dorothy; his daughter, Rachel of Manhattan; his sons, Jonathan of Midland Park and David of Brooklyn; and two grandchildren, Alex and Charlie.

He was buried Dec. 27 after funeral services at the Bernheim Apter Kreitzman Funeral Chapel in Livingston.

Contributions may be made to the Ronald I. Coun Center for Creative Maturity, c/o Leonard Schneider, 111 Prospect St., East Orange, NJ 07019.