Ralph Anthony Cafaro Jr.

Ralph Anthony Cafaro, Jr., 95, passed away peacefully at Pathways Inpatient Hospice Care Center in Fort Collins, Colorado on Saturday, February 14, 2026. His wife Claire, sons Paul and Phil, and daughter-in-law Kris were with him during his final days.

Ralph was born on December 21, 1930 in historic Seneca Falls, New York to Ralph and Nancy Cafaro. He grew up with his parents, older sister Joan (Cafaro Mastropaul), younger sister Joy (Cafaro Murphy) and many nearby relatives. As a boy, he helped his father in his shoe repair store, spending his earnings on comic books and candy. In high school, he played offensive line on the Mynderse Academy football team that went undefeated, untied and unscored upon.

Ralph attended Hobart College in Geneva, New York, where he received a Bachelor's degree in French and was honored with membership in Phi Beta Kappa. He later earned an MBA from Loyola University of Chicago. After college, he enlisted in the Army, studying Russian (one of five languages he spoke) at the Army Language School in Monterey, California and spending two subsequent years on Saint Lawrence Island, in the Bering Strait, listening in on Russian radio transmissions.

After his discharge from the service in 1955, Ralph worked for several years as a banker in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with Citibank of New York. Returning to the States, he joined the pharmaceutical industry, first as a product manager with Merck, Sharp & Dohme and Abbott Laboratories, then as a marketing director with Morton-Norwich Products and G.D. Searle & Company, and finally as a consultant to the Menarini Group and Cole and Associates. He retired after a forty-year career.

Ralph met Claire Condes in New York City on a blind date, and they knew they were made for each other. She was the great love of his life. They married on June 3, 1961 and had two sons, Phil and Paul. For sixty-four years, Ralph could always be counted on as a loving and reliable husband, father, grandfather and friend.

Ralph was a talented amateur musician, who founded and conducted the Twentieth Century Concert Band in Seneca Falls, NY as a teenager. Later he played E-flat alto horn in concert bands in Wilmette, Illinois, Malta, New York and Loveland, Colorado. He loved to sing, especially with his sons and with the Okay Chorale of Fort Collins, right up until his final days.

In retirement, Ralph built an impressive sheet music collection of over twenty thousand pieces representing 16,500 separate titles, from the 1830s into the twenty-first century. The Ralph A. Cafaro, Jr. Sheet Music Collection is housed in the Johns Hopkins University's Sheridan Library in Baltimore, Maryland.

Ralph was preceded in death by his parents and sisters. He is survived by his wife and sons, his daughters-in-law Kris Bronars Cafaro of Fort Collins, Colorado and Julia Lofstrand of San Francisco, California; his grandsons Henry Cafaro of Chicago, Illinois, Tom Cafaro of Santa Barbara, California, and Benjamin Cafaro of San Francisco, California; and several nieces and nephews.

The family is grateful for the excellent care Ralph received in his final days from the staff at Poudre Valley Hospital and Pathways Inpatient Hospice Care Center of Fort Collins, Colorado. A memorial service will be held at a later date and place to be determined.