t to Pennsylvania. A full Memorial Service will be held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida--date to be announced. About Ralph's life, as opposed to the above, he did live. He met his wife of 41 years, Elizabeth, in Teheran, Iran teaching at the Teheran American School in 1976 (and yes, Teheran was spelled this way then). Beth's mom arranged for a Presbyterian minister for her family and a Jewish rabbi for Ralph's family to perform their marriage ceremony for them in 1977. That was a party, one of the first of many. The night before the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, Beth's mom and dad bought Crosby, Stills and Nash tickets for them and fellow teachers from Teheran, one of whose mother had played hockey with Beth's mother 20 years prior. Guests from all over the country stayed the weekend. The marriage celebration lasted from Thursday night through Monday. They didn't see that long a marriage celebration again for 20 years, and that was in a tribe they visited during a 6-week trip through Irian Jaya (the name at the time), Indonesia. They returned to Teheran, Iran and worked there another year and a half, until the revolution closed the school and the school withdrew their visas while they were home over Christmas break. They lived in New York City for 6 months with Ralph's parents until they moved to Cairo, Egypt for the next two school years--until the superintendent fired Beth's beloved principal after bestowing an award on him the prior month. They quit teaching until they were called by Ralph's physical-education-teacher and friend from Cairo American College, Don Bergman--having upgraded to high school principal in Jakarta, Indonesia--and the couple ended up staying in Jakarta the longest of all of their stints overseas--for 13 years (after trying to leave every year after the ninth because they knew they wanted to travel the world, but Jakarta was just too fabulous to leave). It was about half way through their time here that Ralph began writing novels. They then moved to Petion-Ville, Haiti because at a teachers' conference, while standing in a long line to teach in Costa Rica, they saw the line to teach in Haiti was nonexistent. So they went there. At the end of their two years there, they attended a teachers' conference in London, England to move to another francophone country. They met this charming superintendent from Shanghai, China and they ended up moving there instead. After they signed their contracts, they decided to take in a three-man show in London that performed foreshortened versions of all of Shakespeare's plays in an hour and thirty minutes. As it turned out, one of the three performers had taught at Jakarta International School with them, and the performer (and his wife and two dogs) had stayed with them almost a week during a flood that made their own home unlivable. Somehow, the actor recognized Ralph and Beth in the crowd during the performance, and he invited them to share dinner with the other two actors and him after the show. Of course they did! They then moved to Shanghai, China during which time Ralph taught for two years at Shanghai American School, and then did freelance writing for ChinaNow.com, various art museums, various other internet sites, and also continued writing his own novels. They have lived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida now for the past 15 years during which time Ralph taught at Dillard High for 2 years, but his health situation truncated this. In lieu of teaching, he wrote several other novels and several articles for the Miami Herald and Sun Sentinel. However, traveling still drew both of them. Once they returned to the States, Ralph chose a European city every year in which the couple would spend a month of their summer vacations, starting learning some of the language in the November prior to the trips. They had started this by taking a Viking River Cruise from Prague (for 2 days, but they arrived 2 days before this so they could explore on their own) up the Elba to Berlin (for 2 days). This annoyed both of them. They couldn't get to know the cultures, the people, anything. It was a waste of time, quick look. The next year, they stayed in Berlin for a month in what would have been East Berlin years ago. The original plan had been to make Berlin a home-base, and travel to Frankfurt, Munich, and Stuttgart from there. They never left the city, went to museums and churches every day, ate great food, talked with the Berliners, and that was the prototype for summer vacations thereafter. Among others they stayed in Stockholm, Brussels, Paris, Madrid, Copenhagen, not leaving the cities except for day trips. It worked for them. In addition to his love for living in foreign countries (as opposed to traveling through foreign countries), Ralph had a wide range of love for the arts including music, painting, sculpture, ballet, opera, literature and drama. Before he met Beth, he had worked in New York City as a graphic designer for 5 years after graduating with a Masters Degree from Pratt Institute. He left that job to travel cross-country and sell his own paintings, and then worked as a college professor of art in Pittsburg, PA. He painted surrealistic paintings in the early years of their marriage, moved to more freeform work, and at last painted Chinese Water Colors. It was while living in Jakarta, Ralph started writing novels and continued doing so for two decades. His nine novels include: The Missionary Position about a feisty female pilot inflight seeing a Vatican hit squad killing natives in Irian Jaya, Indonesia; The Torah, the Director's Cut about God Himself coming down to visit Ralph in the apartment and telling what he really meant by all the apparently misogynistic material in the first five books of the Bible; My Enemy My Friend, a quasi spy/love story about a couple meeting in Teheran, Iran; The United Hates of America, about the different factions in the USA whose inabilities to connect needed addressing; Four Guys Gospels, not his wife's favorite, but if one is not a Christian may be amusing; Something Came Up, an autobiographical account about his cross-country trip after his first marriage fell apart, the people he met, and his observations on life; Laidback & Co., about his coaching trauma in Jakarta International School and the difficulties a coach has to deal with, not with the students, but with the administration; Maiden Shanghai, about a high powered Chinese woman and an obnoxious American man having to work together with a Taming of the Shrew kind of relationship exploding between the two; and Shanghai'd about a complex set of circumstances that interwove taking the main character to the far west regions of China, regions the couple had traveled through in 1987 on their own. And that was just about his books. His love for music grew from travels around the world. It included a love for jazz--especially the Dillard High Jazz Band, but the couple had followed jazz in every country in which they'd lived. They also loved Portuguese Fado music (and one of their favorite hole-in-the-wall Portuguese restaurant's singers was just featured on a Rick Steve's program on Lisbon). They loved Indonesian Gamelan music, and Ralph had just played some for Beth when he picked her up after school one time this month. The couple also fell in love with Afghani music during a bus ride in northern Afghanistan near Mazari Sharif where the bus driver--while driving the bus at night at about 40 mph--stood up and started dancing down the aisle to the live music being played in the back of the bus (this must have happened before, because a man sitting near the front got up and took the bus driver's place and drove for him). They loved Egyptian tribal music that they saw regularly performed in a large tented locale called Sahara City near the pyramids in Cairo, Egypt, the pyramids that the couple had climbed 5 times during their two years there. Belly dancers from different tribes up and down the Nile River performed their specific tribal dances to the music. They also learned a deep love for Chinese opera when first seeing it in 1987 on a 6-week trip around China that ended in Beijing for 10 days and 5 of those 10 ended with Chinese operas during which Ralph would whisper to Beth his version of what was happening. They would find someone in more western clothes during the one intermission and learn the real story, and then Ralph would make up the rest of the story from there. He had quite the mind. He also loved rock music and would laugh at himself in the gym as he worked out to songs such as "Hot Blooded" by Foreigner. The list extends. His love of all the other genres of art branched this extensively as well. But most of all, he loved his friends and Beth's family who were so very special to him. The stories here remain private, but the love was real. He honestly loved and thanked his doctors almost daily for helping him extend his life and giving him great conversations. Many thanks to all of you who helped keep him with Beth all these years. Ralph continued to make life a party thanks to them. Although Beth still has not read his Facebook page, one of their friends, Lea Singh, wrote the following after critiquing this missive: I feel this first draft obituary lacks the impact Ralph had on his students' lives. I would encourage you to read his Facebook wall/page and you will see how he is being referred: "Sir or Coach" . . . . there is an outpouring of respect and admiration for the influence he had on his students . . . while teaching them and many even mentioned; after school. . . .he maintained friendships with so many students, all over the world. They saw him as a life long teacher. They saw him as a man with a great sense of humor. Beth was then told to reread his annual Christmas letters. Then Lea shared: Last, your love story is unlike any we know. You two were devoted to one another.. . . Your crazy travels, sharing food with Aborigines in far-away lands (this speaks to your acceptance of all people), your devotion to each other and your mutual respect for each other. Perhaps I've said too much. But after all, Ralph was a unique man who spoke his mind. Let's convey this with gusto and pride. I could say more, but you may be hoping I won't. Elizabeth Dinlocker, wife of Ralph Dinlocker