My grandfather on my mom’s side was named Ralph Leo.  I was named after him. His name was supposed to be Leo Ralph, but after  he was born, his brother and sister were supposed to write his name down for the birth certificate and wrote down Ralph Leo because they thought it sounded better.  He developed dementia before I was born, but from the stories I have heard about him tell me he was a great man and I would have enjoyed spending time with him. I really wish I had been alive before the dementia so we could do things together such as watch baseball, a hobby of both of ours.  My grandfather, Ralph, valued education and family above all.

Ralph loved his family and enjoyed spending time with them.   He was the youngest of 11 children, he loved baseball and sports.  He has a lot of other interests like plays and music and history. It was so sad seeing him forget  everyone in his family whom he loved so much just a few years prior.

Education was also a very important thing in his life.  He believed that education is important because it teaches you about the world so you can decide what you want to do for a living that will make you happy and gives you opportunities to do so. He grew up poor with a family who moved away from the Dust Bowl in hopes of finally making enough money to support 11 kids.   He was drafted into the Navy during World War Two. His parents couldn’t afford to send him to college but being in the service gave him an opportunity to get an education. In the Navy he worked as a janitor on a hospital boat. He was a fish out of water there and wanted to leave as soon as possible. He never saw combat  because the ship was supposed to be used to launch and invasion against Japan that never happened. When he got out of the Navy, he used the GI bill to go to college and studied botany. The reason he chose botany is because he wanted to go to forestry school but it was full. After WWII, many people went into forestry because they wanted to be in nature and have no conflicts.  But Ralph fell in love with botany and became a college professor to share his love for learning with others.

My grandfather was a botanist and was very interested in the environment.  He planted native plants and trees in front of his house instead of just blue grass like everybody else because grass takes up a lot of water and there was not such an abundance in Colorado where he lived.  His love of plants also caused him to be worried about climate change due the fact that they, along with the environment would be in harm’s way. This happened before climate change became a major issue. My grandfather’s love of plants has formed bonds with family members.  My dad loves to plant and used to talk about plants and plant them together.