Ralph Edward Folsom, Jr.'s Obituary
Ralph Edward Folsom Jr., son of Ralph E. Folsom Sr. and Bonnie Loraine Lindsey Folsom, was born in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, on March 15, 1942, and died at WakeMed Hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina, on December 14, 2022. When Ralph was a small child, the family moved to Texarkana, Texas, where Ralph graduated from Texas High School in 1960. While growing up, Ralph hunted quail in the Red River bottoms, and especially enjoyed fishing near Broken Bow when he visited his grandparents.
Ralph began college at what was then Texarkana junior college, then transferred to Texas A and M, where he majored in wildlife biology and minored in mathematics. He decided to build on his undergraduate statistics course, and received a master's degree in experimental statistics from Iowa State University. While he was at Iowa State, he met Margaret Davis, a girl from Plano, Iowa, who was a graduate student in entomology. Ralph and Margaret were married in Ames Iowa, on December 28, 1966.
Ralph received a PhD degree in biostatistics from the University of North Carolina, and spent a long and productive career at the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) in Raleigh. While at RTI, Ralph served as task leader, project director, and principal investigator for many complex projects, developing new statistical methods along the way. Ralph was a fellow of the American Statistical Association and advised federal statistical agencies through expert panels and committees. In 2015, when Ralph was awarded the Margaret Knox Excellence Award by RTI, the award recognized that his statistical innovation, coupled with his approachable and collegial style, had made him an invaluable contributor to their organization.
Ralph's roots in wildlife biology at Texas A and M served him well on weekends and vacation. He fished for bass in ponds along the Neuse River in North Carolina, and he loved training and working his bird dogs, and participating in bird dog field trials. Later, Ralph learned to tie flies, to do "match the hatch" and do catch and release trout fishing. He enjoyed fishing for trout in the Holston River in south western Virginia. He and Margaret loved this area, and had a place there that became their much-loved second home.
Ralph was preceded in death by his parents and an infant sister. He is survived by his wife Margaret, of Raleigh, and cousins Fred Allgood, of Fort Worth, Texas, and Phyllis Kramer, of Oregon. He is also survived by brothers and sisters in laws and nieces and nephews from the Davis and Barkley families.
The Thomas Funeral Home in Centerville, Iowa, provided for Ralph's burial in the Union Cemetery in Putnam County, Missouri. The family will gather in Iowa to celebrate and remember Ralph when weather permits. Memorials in honor of Ralph may be made to either Union Church Cemetery Association or Samaritan's Purse, and may be mailed to Thomas Funeral Home, 501 North 18th Street, Centerville, Iowa 52544. Condolences may be shared online at www.thomasfh.com or on our funeral home Facebook page.
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