Ralph Edward Ragucci, beloved son, brother, uncle, and friend died suddenly and unexpectedly from natural causes in his home on March 11th at the age of 70.
He was preceded in death by his parents Edward and Margaret “Peggy” (nee Smith) Ragucci. He is survived by his brother Robert (Laura) Ragucci and his sister Catherine (Gary) Thoma and nieces Faith (Tim) Schroeder, Deana (Doug) Rummel, grandniece Brooke and grandnephews Cody and Ethan.
Ralph was born in Rockville Center, NY on September 26, 1953, his family lived at the time on Long Island, New York. He lived first in Hempstead, and then in Roosevelt, until Ralph was four. In April of 1958, the whole family loved to the Midwest when Ralph’s Father became the Chicago Branch Manager for Mechanical Mailing. After some 8 months in Winnetka, IL, the family moved to Glenview, IL.
In Glenview, Ralph spent his grammar school years and graduated from Glenbrook South High School in 1971. An interesting High School experience taking a major role in the student walk-out protesting the school teachers strike. He attended Southern Illinois University, specializing in Technology, but having important experiences in dorm life and T-groups. Ralph spent the next decade working and living with friends and family in and around Glenview. He then spent two years working and living with friends in Minnesota.
In 1983 Ralph moved to the Bay Area of California to live with his brother Robert while Ralph pursued a career in computers. Ralph and Robert spent many happy hours playing early computer games like “Wizardry” on an Apple 2E and rooting for then Champion 49ers. Ralph deeply enjoyed his work with youth at the Marin Computer Center.
Ralph eventually moved to Santa Rosa, where he worked in quality control for Air Monitor, a job that took him all over the county.
In the late 1980’s Ralph joined his High School friend Bill to live in Maui, HI. A high point of his life there was when Ralph’s father Ed visited him for a prolonged period of time, touring the island and painting many water colors there.
In 1995, Ralph joined his sister who lived in Michigan and moved to Portage, MI, where he lived for the rest of his life. There Ralphed worked for Best Buy as a member of the Geek Squad.
Ralph was baptized, confirmed, and spent his youth in the Episcopal Church, but eventually attended online (and when he visited his sister in-person) services at the Lord of Light Lutheran Church in Schaumburg, IL.
While his faith was important to him, family was perhaps the central love of Ralph’s life. Fun was a close second. After his sister moved back to Illinois and he retired, Ralph would travel by train to continue spending birthdays and holidays with his sister, his brother-in-law, his two married nieces, their husbands and their children. During the Christmas holidays, you could find him out trudging with the family at the tree farm looking for the perfect Christmas tree. Afterward, helping his sister decorate the tree. It was truly a miracle that each year the tree looked better than the year before. He was great at coloring eggs, celebrating birthdays and family interaction. His sister and him would spend hours playing card games and talking. He enjoyed watching and cheering on his grandniece and grandnephews in sports.
He is remembered as a quiet and gentle soul, ever ready to play with the young, and the young-at-heart. He remembered movie lines as if they were written on the back of his hand and would often quote one or another.
He had a great love of books, especially Science Fiction, and enjoyed reading. He prized his hard back collection of the Dune books. He was fond of films, TV programs, and comic books, and collected figurines for a while. He loved Star Wars, the Marvel Universe, (“I loves me some Marvel”) and was a great fan of “The Expanse.”
He wrote creatively some, in a sparse minimalist style, attempting to convey his experiences in life and in literature.
Ralph played many of the major video games of his time, with a special fondness for all the Legends of Zelda and for the Mass Effect series. He enjoyed playing online co-op video games at first with his father and brother. After his father passed in 2007, the brothers continued to play on Sunday Nights and more often when they could. In particular, they enjoyed the Halo series, Doom, Gotham Knights, and Diablo.