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My friend and one-time employer Simon Edye, who has died aged 73, ran the popular Ronaldo Ices in Norwich for more than 40 years, starting with one homemade, hand-hauled Victorian-style barrow and going on to supply shops, restaurants, theatres and visitor attractions throughout East Anglia.

Born in Sidlesham, West Sussex, to John Edye, a journal editor, and Alison (nee Allan), a teacher, Simon was the eldest of three brothers. He went to Chichester high school for boys, then in 1970 started a social sciences degree at the University of East Anglia, but dropped out, settled in Norwich and tried his hand at various jobs: fruit and veg picker and ganger, acupuncturist, taxi driver and bicycle repairman, for which a friend painted the humorous sign “Honest Ron Enterprises – Bicycle Repairs”.

With Simon’s brother, Jo, “Honest Ron’s” then went into the stir-fry business, with a stall at Stonehenge, Albion Fairs in East Anglia, and even the Epsom Derby. In 1983, Simon built his barrow and started selling ice cream on Norwich’s pedestrianised London Street. With a nod to Italian traders, Ron became Ronaldo, and following that same tradition, sold hot chestnuts in the winter.

Discerning customers wanted real ice cream – no artificial flavours or ingredients – so, in 1987, after completing a one-week ice-cream-making course at Reading University, Simon opened his factory and started to create hundreds of different flavours, using local milk, cream and fruits where possible.

Ronaldo’s barrows were ubiquitous at summer events, where I often worked, but following the retirement of Simon’s righthand man, Rob Ellis, in 2016, and then lockdown in 2020, the company concentrated on its wholesale market and Simon handed over the reins to his son, Chris, while keeping a proprietorial eye on the business.

When not working he had a passion for sport. A cricketing friend suggested running to help quit smoking and, never one for half measures, Simon was soon competing in marathons and triathlons.

Then he took on Iron Man triathlons – 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26-mile run – competing in world championships in Hawaii in 1999, 2004 and 2009. Remarkably, that first Hawaii event came just three years after a time-trial cycling collision with a taxi put Simon in hospital with life-threatening head injuries.

Simon was instrumental in setting up Tri-Anglia Triathlon Club in 1992 and fought for several years to gain official swimming access to the new Norfolk Broads at Whitlingham for the first Norwich Triathlon in 2005.

Interviewed for BBC Radio Cambridgeshire last year, Simon said: “The wonderful thing about ice cream is it makes people happy. And when you make people happy, it makes you happy.”

Simon married Jan, a social worker who later became a breastfeeding consultant, in 1979. She survives him, along with their son, Chris, and two daughters, Joanne and Ruth, six grandchildren, Cooper, Otolie, Albert, Baxter, Solomon and Poppy, and his brother Jo. His youngest brother, Pete, predeceased him.