JAMES A. RALPH

James A. Ralph - Indialantic - James Ralph, a retired aerospace engineer, passed away Friday, February 5, 2010 at his home in Indialantic, FL. He was born in New York City to James and Irene Ralph. He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Marie; three sons, James A. Ralph III, Dr. Stephen E. Ralph and wife Valerie, Christopher J. Ralph and wife Jill; three grandchildren, Stephen E. Ralph Jr. and Jason and Kelly Ann Ralph. Mr. Ralph graduated from Fordham University in New York with a B.S. in Physics. Upon graduation he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army and was stationed at Ft. Bliss, Texas. He served as a guided missile officer and instructor in inertial guidance systems at White Sands Proving Grounds and at the Army Guided Missile School. After leaving the Army he joined the Curtis-Wright Corporation where he worked as a project engineer specializing in ramjet engine propulsion systems. Later he joined the Westinghouse Electric Corporation where he designed control systems for the Atlas missile erector and the low-speed vertical wind tunnel. Mr. Ralph joined Burns and Roe of New York where he managed the modification of the Mach 10 Wind Tunnel Control system at Aberdeen Proving Grounds and the SAGE Program for high-speed protective nuclear blast closures. Mr. Ralph joined the Martin Marietta Corporation as a Test Conductor on the Titan ICBM program and was later promoted to Chief of Advanced Programs and then to Deputy Program Engineer on the Gemini Program where he conceived the effort to fly two manned spacecraft simultaneously. The successful flights of Gemini 6 & 7 demonstrated the feasibility of manned spacecraft rendezvous. Later he joined IBM and managed the On-Line Computer and Launch Assistance (OCALA) program validating the concept of applying general purpose computers to real-time computerized terminal countdown support of Titan III launch vehicles. He was also the co-inventor and developer of the Ground Operations Aerospace Language (GOAL) which was used in several launch processing systems. On the Apollo Program he developed vehicle system software for the check out of systems design and launch team training. On the Space Shuttle program he managed the development of computer resource allocation systems for optimizing shuttle and payload processing at KSC and Vandenberg Air Force Base. He was named Associate Executive Director of the Space Research Institute of Florida. Mr. Ralph also served as General Chairman of the 10th Space Congress and was the Regional Director of AIAA. Additionally, he published several technical papers, lectured at Florida Tech in Melbourne, FL and was Chairman of Melbourne Central Catholic School Board. Mass of a Christian burial will be celebrated at Immaculate Conception Church in Melbourne Beach at 10:00 a.m. Wednesday, February 10th. Internment will be at St. Joseph's Catholic Cemetery in Palm Bay. He will be greatly missed by his family and friends. The family requests in lieu of flowers, donations in his memory may be made to Melbourne Central Catholic High Scholarship Fund, 100 East Florida Ave., Melbourne, FL 32901.