RalphDRAPERRalph passed away peacefully, age 84, surrounded by his wife, Ann, Pastor Matt Swaitek, middle son Andrew and his wife Paula, in Ascension St John Hospital, Grosse Pointe area, Michigan USA.
Ralph was a ‘Coventry kid’; his father, Robert ‘Bob’, was a butcher by trade, and well known around the Holbrooks area. His mother, Mabel (née Moss), originally from Sunderland, a home maker.
Ralph attended King Henry VIII school and at 16, became an indentured apprentice at Courtaulds, a local textile and chemical company. After 4 years of training, he completed his apprenticeship and joined the company drawing office as a talented machine designer.
Age 21 he married his sweetheart, Ann; they celebrated their 63rd Anniversary on August 26, 2024.
Ralph’s entrepreneurial spirit led him to open a wallpaper and paint store on the corner of Hen Lane in the Holbrooks district of Coventry next to his father’s butcher shop. During this time, he also undertook odd job work painting, installing windows, gas fires and general house maintenance. His business remained profitable into the 1970’s at which time ‘big box’ stores started to open and compete for business. Ultimately, Ralph made the decision to close the store and return to his machine design position at Courtaulds.
During his many years at Courtaulds he specialised in designing high speed spinning machines for the manufacture of man-made cellulosic fibres. He worked mainly from the Courtaulds Engineering offices in Coventry, but his work also took him to assignments across England and Northern Ireland, Moscow USSR, Mobile, Alabama and others. He also worked on machinery for the automated packaging of chocolates at Cadbury in Bournville, Dur-a-glit polishing wadding, kevlar wrapping of aero-engine fan casings in the USA, and quartz fibre spinning for the US military. He holds patents in this field.
In retirement Ralph enjoyed church, wood working, clock repair, puzzles, crosswords and was a member of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes (RAOB) fraternity undertaking charitable work.
From the mid-1990’s Ralph and Ann made many extended trips to the USA to visit their son, Andrew, and his family. They made many new friends in Michigan and connected with relatives in New York and South Carolina and met with Ralph’s former colleague in Ohio. After Ann also retired, they made the epic decision to uproot from Coventry and move to America, and in September 2007 they moved to the Grosse Pointes.
Ralph continued with his hobbies in the USA and also undertook Christian mission trips to Hungary and Togo, Africa to use his woodworking and construction talents to help those in need. Locally he was the designer and constructor of many sets for Crosspointe Christian Church’s annual Vacation Bible School, transforming the sanctuary with sail boats, an aircraft hangar, a train and a castle.
Always cheerful with a friendly word and willing to lend a hand, Ralph will be sadly missed by his wife, Ann, three sons Robert, Andrew, Michael, their spouses and 9 grandchildren and increasing great grandchildren.
“Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.” (1 Th. 4:13)
There will be a memorial service and gathering in Grosse Pointe in early October 2024; for details contact Robert on 07773 206146.
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