Ralph Skov
The following notes were submitted by Neil Skov:
I don't have any good, recent pictures of Ralph. I am sending you what I have, which are
scanned images from old prints. I don't have dates to go with these pictures, but the black & white photo of Ralph with his four little brothers is from Sterling, CO, in the summer of 1948. Ralph was a student at Valporaiso Univ. at the time. Ralph and my brother Luther (the tall one) are holding me. Besides being my brother, Ralph was also my godfather. The other two photos of Ralph are from the late 1990s or early 2000s.
Ralph died in July 2003 at Lutheran Valley Ranch, north of Flourissant, CO. He died suddenly, probably from a pulmonary embolism, about a month after a serious surgery. We guess that a blood clot formed in relation to that surgery broke loose and then caught in his lungs.
Ralph was actively teaching until the end of his life. After teaching at CHS in Seward he moved to New Braunfels, TX, in the summer of 1966. He taught with his brother, Norval, in the public high school there. I don't remember how may years. Later he moved to Holyoke, CO, teaching in a public HS there. In the mid-1970s, he took a position as BB coach and professor the former St. John's College in Winfield, KS. While in Winfield he complete a PhD in English as a Second Language from Oklahoma State Univ. (I think, though it may have been from Oklahoma Univ. in Norman). He was on St. John's faculty till the school closed in the 1980s. After St. John's closure, Ralph taught in a long series of shorter term positions, include a couple years at Christ College (no Concordia) in Irvine, CA, Friends Univ. in KS, a semester or two for CU Wisconsin at their site in Latvia, and a year at a Chinese University in the heartland of mainland China. In his final years he continued to teach at a community college in Wichita, KS.
Ralph's wife, Marie, is still alive. Her home is in Holyoke, CO, near her oldest daughter, Dana.
May God grant you and your classmates a reunion that is a blessing to you and your classmates, and glorifies Him.
Blessings,
Neil