Ralph Herbert Retzlaff

Ralph Herbert Retzlaff
Born January 26, 1929 in Sincelejo, Columbia
Died July 8, 2016 in Bowie, Maryland

Son of Johannes Ernst Adolf Retzlaff (1875-1933) and Edna Bertha Krug (1897-1990)
Husband of Kathryn Morris Retzlaff (1927-2001)
Brother of Enid Rita Retzlaff Wright (1923 - )
Father of Robert, Laura, Teresa and Ann
Father-in-Law of Leonard, Andy, Packy and Cynthia
Grandfather of Nathan, Peter, Julia, Alex, Vladi, Zachary, Gordon, Kathryn and Duncan
Beloved uncle, cousin, and friend of more than can be counted.

Ralph was born in Sincelejo, Columbia in 1929, and as a young child he lived in Pernambuco, Saõ Paõlo and Rio de Janiero, Brazil. After the death of his father in 1933, Ralph moved with his mother and sister to the home of his grandparents Henry and Emma Krug in Ozone Park, Queens, New York. There he attended PS 63 and Brooklyn Technical High School (class of 1948). Ralph achieved a B.A. in Political Science from Cornell University in 1952, then moved to Washington D.C. to work for the Department of the Navy. While there, he met his wife Kathryn Morris, and they married in her home town of Fayetteville, West Virginia in 1954. Ralph returned to Cornell for graduate studies with the Department of Government, where he specialized in Indian village politics (PhD 1960). He and Kathy lived in Rankhandi, India from 1955 to 1956 while he participated in field research. His dissertation Village Government in India – a case study was published in 1962. By then, Ralph had joined the faculty of the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley.

While teaching at Berkeley, Ralph took sabbaticals with the Ford Foundation in India, which sparked his interest in the field of agricultural development. He moved into this field full time in 1974, working for the Agricultural Development Council in Singapore and Thailand (1974-1981) the Agency for Agricultural Research and Development in Indonesia (1983-1988), Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development in Arkansas (1989), and the International Service for National Agricultural Research in the Netherlands and Tanzania (1989-1992). Ralph continued to consult through 1993, after which he retired with Kathy to Santa Cruz, California.

Ralph was a proud father, and his children experienced a multitude of adventures as they traveled and lived with their parents all over the world. Every year's "home leave" brought the family back to the U.S., where time with extended family and friends in West Virginia, Ohio, Delaware, Florida, Wyoming, Berkeley and so many more places added to the rich store of Retzlaff family stories and memories. As their children left home, married, had children and developed their own careers and interests, Ralph and Kathy took their greatest pleasure from supporting and participating in the lives of their children and grandchildren.

After Kathy's death in 2001, Ralph moved from Santa Cruz to San Francisco in 2004 to share a home with his daughter Laura and her family. In 2010, he relocated to Bowie, Maryland, where he lived with his daughter Ann's family. Ralph's quiet, gentlemanly nature, his sense of humor, and his genuine interest in the lives of others drew people of all different walks of life to him. Everywhere he went, Ralph gradually built a new community of friends around him – a family of the heart that still stretches around the globe. During his last years in Bowie, Ralph benefitted tremendously from the services of the Bowie Senior Center, his many healthcare professionals in Bowie and the wider Metro DC area, and the staff of Heartfields Assisted Living in Bowie, where he moved in 2015 and was cared for by so many with grace and affection. In Ralph's last months, Meshall Morris of Regent Health Care brought special moments of joy and comfort to him, and has became a precious gem in his string of beloved friends and family.

Ralph passed peacefully from this earth in the early hours of July 8, 2016, and now rests in the loving arms of his beloved family and friends that have gone before him.

To honor Ralph's memory and spirit, gifts can be made to Cure PSP (http://www.psp.org/donate/ways-to-give.html) , UNICEF (http://www.unicef.org) or the Seymour Marine Discovery Center (http://seymourcenter.ucsc.edu/get-involved/donate/) .

An open house to celebrate Ralph will take place in September in Bowie, at the home of his daughter Ann. In October, Ralph's ashes will be interred in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Santa Cruz, at the same coordinates where his beloved wife Kathy was placed in 2001. His name will be added to Kathy's memorial bench at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. If you ever visit Ralph and Kathy there, you can sit and watch the sea otters play in the kelp beds, as they used to do. If you would like to attend either of these two memorial events, please contact his daughter Ann for more information.