Ralph G. Washburn

Ralph G. Washburn was born on April 16, 1931 to parents Ralph E. and Pearl Washburn. He attended New Bedford Vocational High School where he learned a lot about electronics. Shortly after World War II, he built a ham radio station on the family farm. Later on, he earned a living fixing TV's for customers of the family hardware store. He eventually went to work for Sippican Corporation in Marion as a test technician. He had a long career with Sippican and advanced into many of their product design and testing areas. Some of the equipment he worked on was in the Apollo space program. One of these was the warning system that alerted the crew of Apollo 13 that they "had a problem". Traditionally, advancement usually involved stepping into management positions. Ralph was not interested in that so they designed a new position of principle engineer that he held until retirement. With only a GED high school education, he was still able to be awarded 7 patents during his time at Sippican.

His love of electronics also extended into the realm of audio. He had an early interest in audio recording and was a very early purchaser of a reel-to-reel tape recorder. After retirement from Sippican, he operated a recording business that recorded the concerts of several local groups including musical performances at Tabor Academy, the Sippican Choral Society, and the Tri Town Band. He recorded most of the early years of the annual Buzzards Bay Music Fest.

He married Phyllis Mattson on May 16, 1952. They had three children, Peter, Debbie, and Charlie.

Ralph loved vacations in Vermont and ice cream. He enjoyed photography, classical music, raising roses, and good stereo systems. He built and flew a Benson Gyrocopter which looked similar to a very small helicopter, but the rotor blades were unpowered.

He and Phyllis adopted mute swans in Marion Harbor. They published a book called "Good Morning Sam" about their friendship and adventures with a handicapped swan that couldn't fly. Phyllis wrote the story and Ralph provided the photographs. They were known around Marion as the "Swan People" and often had many onlookers when they fed Sam and his friends at the Old Landing. They launched their son Peter's skiff and rowed it exactly one time to follow Sam. The next time the skiff had a brand-new Honda 5hp outboard! From there, they went to a 27' trawler named Cygnus Olor which is the Latin genus for mute swans, all so they could be closer to Sam and his friends.

He is survived by his wife of 73 years, Phyllis, his three children, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

His Funeral Service will be Thursday, October 9, 2025 at 11 AM at the Saunders-Dwyer Mattapoisett Home for Funerals, 50 County Rd., Mattapoisett. Burial will follow in Little Neck Cemetery, Marion. Visiting hours will be Wednesday, October 8th from 4-7 PM. For directons and guestbook, visit www.saundersdwyer.com.