''TO GOD BE THE GLORY---GREAT THINGS HE HATH DONE."

Abstract

  Ralph spent his boyhood years in South Pasadena and was nurtured in the Christian faith by devout parents and from 1938 at Lake Avenue Church where he was active in Christian Endeavor.  Later he joined the Navigators.  He pursued a degree in civil engineering at Caltech, joined the navy and was training as a pilot when WW II ended. He earned an M.A. at Columbia University in teaching English as a second language and a Ph.D. at Cornell University in structural linguistics, with minors in cultural anthropology and mathematical statistics.  While in seminary at Princeton, he served as a pastor of a rural New Jersey church.