Ralph Dwight Kelley

November 26, 1915 – July 20, 2003

Ralph Dwight Kelley, 87, died Sunday, July 20, 2003 at St. Joseph's Hospital.

Born in Goldendale, Washington, November 26, 1915, his parents, Ernest, and Cynthia Kelley, brother Keith, and sister Vera, moved to San Jose, California in 1920.

He graduated from San Jose State College in 1940 and from the University of CA, Berkeley in 1941 receiving a Bachelors degree in History and Secondary Degree in Education with a Secondary Teaching Credential.

He enlisted and served his country as an officer in the United States Army Air Corps and later in the United States Air Force until his retirement from Hunter Air Force Base in 1964. During his military career, he served as Adjutant of the 335th Bomb Squadron, 95th Bomb Group, returning from WWII in 1945 and to teaching at Sunnyvale High School California. He reentered the United States Air Force during the Korean Conflict and served in the Training Command in Texas and New York State. His next duty station was with USAF Central European Command, NATO in Fontainebleau, France, after which he returned to the United States to command the ROTC unit in Cedar City, Utah. His last duty station was with Strategic Air Command at Hunter Air Base where he served as Public Information Officer until his retirement in 1964. It was during his service as PIO Office that he served on the Centennial Committee honoring the 100th Anniversary of Fort Pulaski and was able to invite the Official U.S. Air Force Band to play a stirring concert on the ramparts of the historic Fort.

The family returned to CA, in 1964, where he taught at Pioneer High School in San Jose, returning to Savannah in 1967 where he took up the position as Dean of Middle School at Savannah Country Day School until 1969 to serve as Director of Civil Defense for Chatham County for eight years.

He was active in community life, serving on the boards of both the Salvation Army and the Humane Society of Savannah. He was an Officer in the Military Order of the World Wars. He was a member of the Exchange Club, and Sons of the Revolution, and he served as President of the Friends of the Library for a number of years.

He met the former Iva LaVerne Fuller in college in 1937, and they married in 1941 in Palo Alto, CA, and together they raised three children. He was part of the group working with the late Bishop Albert Rhett Stuart to found and build St. George's Episcopal Church in Windsor Forest and served on the Vestry and as Senior Warden a number of times. He became a Lay Reader and Chalicer in the Episcopal Church and thereafter served in that capacity at Trinity-by-The-Sea, Maui, HI, and St. Edwards in Los Gatos, CA. He will be remembered as a Godly man and a lovable Irishman, devoted to family, God and Country and as a man who loved and served Savannah.

Survivors: wife of 62 years, Iva F. Kelley; children, Dwight M. Kelley of Tucker, Cynthia J. Kelley of Savannah, and David K. Kelley and his wife, Lynn of Tucker; grandson, David Nathaniel Kelley of Tucker.

Memorial Services: 11:00 a.m. Friday, at St. George's Episcopal Church, 15 Willow Rd. Burial: Hillcrest Abbey West.

Remembrances: Friends of the Library; Savannah Humane Society, Mighty Eighth Museum, Savannah Red Cross and Parkinson's Disease Foundation.

Fox & Weeks Funeral Directors Hodgson Chapel Savannah Morning News, July 23, 2003

Savannah Morning News (GA) - Wednesday, July 23, 2003