Who is Ira Pommeroy from Stern Men and what is their importance?

The beloved husband and cousin of Rhonda Pommeroy, who helps raise protagonist Ruth Thomas after Ruth's mother leaves home, Ira is a small and muscular lobsterman with huge hands, which he carries fisted on his hips. He has an odd face, frowning, squinting, and always looking like he is offering a kiss. He dislikes Rhonda's playfulness when drunk, but loves her greatly. Ira drowns early in the novel while fishing alone and drinking, as he regularly does. Like most lobstermen, he cannot swim. His body is found three days later and is buried by the traveling Pastor Toby Wishnell. Ira's drinking had intensified when a prank during the fourth lobster war backfires and a leading fisherman drowns trying to rescue the young man whom Ira had enraged.