Who is Ronald Pye from A Sparrow Falls and what is their importance?

Ronald is an older man whose once prosperous bulges have sagged, and jowls have begun to droop. Once enjoying controlling interest in the Ladyburg Farmers Bank, Ronald had sold controlling interest to Dirk Courtney ten years previously. The deal had been attractive - six hundred thousand pounds in cash for sixty percent interest in the bank, but what had really swung the deal in Dirk's favor was Ronald's desire to get even with General Sean Courtney, Dirk's estranged father. Now, he bitterly regrets the deal.