Hundreds say farewell to Ron Erbel, firefighter, family man, and friend

More than 300 people gathered Saturday to mourn Ron Erbel, a man whom just about everyone on Key Biscayne knew, but in strikingly different ways. For the honor guard and those in a procession of fire trucks on village streets, he was the hero firefighter who responded to 9/11, contracting the cancer that would take his life.

To others, he was the guy who climbed trees or mowed grass. Perhaps he was the beekeeper, or the barterer, always there with what one needed.

He represented the “cornerstone to this community,” said one of his daughters, Jennifer Hardison.

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