Macon Water Authority CEO Ron Shipman dies after heart attack

Macon Water Authority CEO Ron Shipman died from a massive heart attack Friday, board member Elaine Lucas said.

“You just never know what kind of stress people are under,” she said.

Shipman died Friday at his other home in Thomson, Georgia, Macon-Bibb County coroner Leon Jones said. The MWA board convened Thursday at 2 p.m.

Shipman helped usher some of Macon’s most powerful institutions through uncertain times before taking the helm as CEO of MWA. In 2020, he retired as vice president of Georgia Power’s Southwest Region, according to his biography on MWA’s website.

Two years later, following his brief appointment as interim CEO of MWA, Shipman was hired on permanently to fill the vacancy left by previous CEO Tony Rojas. He served a stint as interim CEO and president of the Greater Macon Chamber of Commerce before his tenure at MWA.

Shipman was the current chair of the Macon-Bibb County Hospital Authority Board and also served on the Macon-Bibb County Industrial Authority as well as various nonprofit and civic boards.