A quiet man with a quick wit, Ralph L. Davis passed away on August 17, 2023 in Eureka, California.
Ralph was passionate about his family, friends, faith, and especially reading, whether it was reading the daily comics or revisiting his two favorite novels: The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov and The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovannino Guareschi.
Born in Raymondville Texas on April 16, 1949 to Elbert and LaVerne Davis, he spent the first four years in south Texas. His father's assignments as a Southern Baptist minister took the family to California in 1953, where he attended elementary schools in Berkeley, Fort Bragg, Newman, Modesto, Merced, and Sonora. He adopted Sonora as his hometown, as he spent the most time there, beginning in seventh grade and graduating from Sonora High School in 1967. Tuolumne County is also where his love for theater started, at the Pinecrest Theater. He then began, in his words, "a ten-year college plan," accumulating units at Modesto JC, Columbia JC, San Francisco State, Hayward State, and eventually Humboldt State University as a theater design major. It was while directing a one-act play by John Synge that he met his future wife, Jeanne Sapunor, the house manager for the production. They were married seven months later on August 28, 1976.
Following graduation from HSU 1977, he worked there for two years as assistant scene shop supervisor while spending summers as a carpenter at P.C.P.A Theater in Santa Maria/Solvang. Then Jeanne and Ralph moved to Sacramento where he continued graduate studies in theater at UC Davis. Ralph and Jeanne welcomed their firstborn daughter Caitlin in 1982. Throughout the 1980s they also worked at Sacramento Civic Theater, California Repertory Theater in Monterey, and Western Stage in Salinas. Realizing that what he enjoyed most in his theater work was design and drafting, Ralph obtained a CAD certificate and secured work as a mapping coordinator/systems manager for the Board of Equalization shortly after their second daughter Hannah was born in 1990. He retired in 2012 after 21 years.
Following their retirement in 2013, Jeanne and Ralph moved back to Humboldt County, settling in Eureka. He found a new, caring community at Eureka First United Methodist Church, serving on many committees and singing in the praise band, and continued his involvement with the California-Nevada Conference of the UMC. He and Jeanne also found time for travel, making annual trips to Oregon Shakespeare Festival and trips abroad to Europe to visit his daughter Hannah and her husband. His favorite family highlight was visiting Hay-on-Wye in Wales, also known as "the town of books."
Ralph is pre-deceased by his parents, his beloved brother Henry, his father-in-law Thomas L. Sapunor Jr., and his brother-in-law Timothy Pfaff. He leaves behind his loving wife of 46 years, Jeanne Sapunor, his cherished daughters Caitlin and Hannah (Stefan Geiger), his beloved sister Beth Armstrong (John), his gracious mother-in-law Johanna Sapunor, his sisters-in-law Audrey Davis and Sally Sapunor, brothers-in- law Tim (Cathy), Peter (Suzy), and Stephen (Allison) Sapunor, and a host of cousins, nephews, and nieces– great, grand, and otherwise. He is dearly missed by his cat Captain Jeffrey T. Spaulding and dog Otis B. Driftwood.
A Celebration of Life for Ralph will be held Saturday, October 21 at 1 p.m. at Eureka First United Methodist Church, 520 Del Norte St. A second celebration will be held in Sacramento next spring.
Meanwhile, his wife and daughters would like you to honor his spirit by doing any of the following: per Jeanne, schedule a weekday (preferably Tuesdays) breakfast with a good friend (Ralph's regulars were Bob Morse in Eureka, David Fox in Sacramento); per Caitlin, treat yourself to a vanilla shake, blast some
Willie Nelson, and watch Reverend Jim take his driver's license test on Taxi; per Hannah, whip up a hot
meal with whatever you have in the kitchen (bonus points if it's a tuna casserole) and spend time with someone you love, no conversation necessary.
The family wishes to thank the dedicated staff at St. Joseph's main hospital, ER, the Cancer Center, and
outpatient rehabilitation. He found in them the same compassionate care that his mother, also a nurse, provided for him earlier in life. A special thank you to the Sapunor family who provided rides, visits, and love for Ralph during his UC Davis Hospital stay in Sacramento.
Contributions in Ralph's name may be made to Food for People, Humboldt County Library's Buy-a-Book campaign, the Clergy Emergency Relief Fund c/o Eureka FUMC, or to the charity of your choice.

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by Times-Standard on Oct. 15, 2023.