Ralph Huntington Graves ~ 1926-2019

Ralph H. Graves

April 19, 1926 to September 3, 2019

Ralph Huntington Graves was the youngest of five children born to Roy and Grace Graves in Washington D.C. on April 19, 1926.  He kept his parents on their toes until he left high school early to join the U.S. Navy to fight in WWII as a submariner on the U.S.S. Tuna.  Upon his return he took courses at Valparaiso Indiana and Michigan State University in dairy and agriculture, working in partnership with his father on his dairy projects.  While at Valparaiso he overheard a gifted pianist practicing in a practice room, and soon he eloped with Kathryn (Kay) Maier, who was his devoted wife for 45 years.

After several cross-country moves to dairy projects in Washington State and Wisconsin, he settled his growing family on the family farm in Maryland, where he managed his father’s dairy operation.  After having six daughters (Robin, Annie, Jo, Mary, Beth, and Meg), they gave birth to their last born, a son: Ralph Huntington Graves Jr (Hunt).

The position of Plant Manager at his father’s new aseptic plant in Visalia CA (Real Fresh Milk Inc.) beckoned, and Ralph packed his herd into the family station wagon and moved cross-country once again to their new home town.  Ralph soon discovered the Sierra Nevada and developed a love for back country excursions with family, friends, and the Back Country Horsemen Association.  With his “Cadillac mules” and horses he created many memory builders, which he captured in numerous photos and stories published in his own Visalia Times Delta column, “The Muleskinner.”

Ralph lived life to the fullest and enjoyed exercising, skiing, tennis, fishing, photography, the Kiwanis Club, growing in Christ at First Presbyterian Church, telling a good joke; and he especially loved his animals (dogs and horses).  He traveled to Russia and Saudi Arabia and contributed to two books promoting the new process of aseptic packaging.  He enjoyed writing about his adventures and working on the daily Word Jumble.  He inherited the inventive mind of his father and was always thinking of new ways to solve the world’s problems.

Though not gifted musically, Ralph loved a rousing hymn or march and spent his final days singing the doxology at the top of his lungs:

Praise God from whom all blessings flow; Praise Him all creatures here below;

Praise Him above ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.  Amen!