Ralph Davis passed away peacefully at home on January 3, 2022. He was born August 7, 1933 to Harold and Edith Davis in Lansing, Michigan.

When Ralph was two years old his parents moved the family to the Matanuska Colony in Palmer, Alaska before it became a state. As part of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, the colony project settled 203 families as farmers in Matanuska Valley promising each of them 40 acres, a house and a barn. The family was selected for the first group of colonists after a series of interviews. Farming in the area presented daunting challenges: a short growing season, high freight prices, high labor costs, and small, distant markets for produce.

It is not surprising that a few years later, the family moved to the coast, where Ralph’s father could earn a living as a fisherman. Ralph and his older brother, Ron, served as the crew. During this time Ralph decided he wanted to become a ship’s captain. His formal education began in the log cabin, one-room school his father helped build in Homer, Alaska.

He graduated from Auburn Adventist Academy in Washington state, then enrolled at Walla Walla College. During his freshman year, he was drafted into the army where he was assigned to a dental clinic. This experience changed his career goals. After discharge, he returned to Walla Walla College determined to study and go to dental school.

At Walla Walla University he also met the love of his life and future wife, Bobbie Jo Marx. He proposed to her while she was a nurse at Portland Adventist Hospital. They were married in Roseburg, Oregon, on June 14, 1959.

Ralph completed his dental degree at Loma Linda University in 1963. The minister of Arcata Seventh-day Adventist Church, who was looking for professional families to join the community, actively recruited him to the area.

The Davis family, including their two children, Steve and Ruth, arrived in Humboldt County in 1963 and set up the first dental office in the town of McKinleyville. Dr. Davis was a well loved and respected dentist, practicing dentistry for 51 years. Mrs. Ralph Davis would like to thank the faithful employees who worked in his office: JoEvelyn Miller, Connie Yaple, Kim Buhler, Ruth Davis, Steve Davis, Susan Sturges Wallace, Chuck Tibbets, Amy Bertholf Norton and Virginia Oman, who said Dr. Davis was the best boss she ever had.

Ralph joined the Arcata Rotary Club in 1965 and served as its president in 1979-1980. He treasured his Rotary friendships and contributing to the community. He was often asked to lead out in the invocation, one time singing “Jingle Bells” for a holiday. But he will be remembered for vigorously ending many of his invocations with “God bless America.”

In his leisure time Ralph pursued his love of operating ships and fishing. This culminated in 1989 with his purchase of a decommissioned World War II ship. Originally commissioned in 1944, the USS LSI -1091 delivered troops and their equipment to the front. Dr. Davis refurbished the ship, and used it for albacore fishing for nine seasons. In 1995 Ralph was invited to bring the 1091, the last operable LSI, to a Navy reunion in San Diego. He and ten former LSI sailors sailed the ship to San Diego where it hosted more than 6,000 visitors before returning home to Eureka.

The Davis family would like to thank several physicians involved in Ralph’s medical care: Drs. Phil Wagner and Winston Craig who pioneered the opening of a VA clinic in Eureka; Dr. Henry Crevensten, of the San Francisco VA, who told Ralph’s family that seeing him was the high point of his day; and Dr. “T” (Tovian) along with the health care team at St. Joseph’s Providence Hospital.

Ralph was at home with hospice care when he died. At 2 a.m Bobbie Jo gave him what was to be a final kiss. By 4:30 a.m. when Ruth checked on him, he was gone. Ralph would have wanted his family safely asleep while he transitioned to his final anchoring place.

Each family member has specific memories and family routines they miss the most after Ralph’s passing. Steve misses his Dad on Sabbath mornings as he has now taken over getting family and friends to Sabbath School and church. Ruth misses the ritual of saying good morning and good night to her Dad. Bobbie Jo will miss the family vacations, and especially car games and singing.

A ‘Celebration of Life’ for Ralph will be held at 2 pm on Sunday, February 27, 2022 at the McKinleyville Seventh-day Adventist Church on Central Avenue in McKinleyville.

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