Ralph E. Gallimore peacefully passed away on Friday August 28, 2020 with family by his side. Ralph was survived by his three children and their spouses, five grandchildren, two siblings and their spouses, a niece by marriage, and three nephews (one deceased). He was fortunate to have great friends and fond memories. He loved his profession, dentistry, and how he was able to have friendships with many of his patients, often measured in decades and commonly including multiple generations in the same family. Ralph always considered himself to be a small town dentist and helping patients was his priority.
Ralph was born in 1936 in Pulaski, Virginia, to Grover and Virginia Gallimore. Grover and Virginia made their living by farming, bricklaying, and other handy-man/skilled labor work. Ralph and his family, including two siblings, older brother Charles “Charlie” and younger sister Francis “Fran”, moved several times during Ralph’s childhood, working and living in Southwestern Virginia, Kentucky, and southern Ohio (particularly in the Cincinnati area). Ralph would tell you he grew up poor and that there is no shame in being poor. He would share stories of working in fields during harvest season, of being hungry, and living in houses with no glass for windows. He would also share stories of the kinds of trouble he got himself into as a kid, finding ways to entertain himself and his siblings the way life was in the country at that time, during World War II. He used to say, half-jokingly, that the reason he and his siblings lived past their generational peers was that they were vegetarians throughout most of their childhood. A frequent childhood meal he would often talk about was pinto beans and cornbread. He ate that throughout his life, including his last year. About the time Ralph was in high school, his family settled on their own farm in Mount Orab, Ohio. Grover built the house himself and raised corn and soybeans, in addition to having his own business as a home builder. Virginia planted strawberries which she sold and also used to make amazing preserves. Ralph graduated from Mount Orab High School in 1954.
Ralph left home for his first year of college at, what was then, Washington Adventist College, located in the Washington DC suburbs of Maryland. After his first year, he transferred to Ohio State in Columbus where he completed his degree in Bacteriology. He supported himself through college by working as a waiter, primarily at a restaurant called the Jai Lai. That job was a milestone for Ralph; it made an enduring impact on his life. He spoke fondly of friends he made during that time, at the restaurant, and people that helped him complete college. Learning to wait tables led to a life-long appreciation of the skills of a professional server and well-run restaurants.
At Ohio State, in physics class, Ralph met Judith “Judy”, who he would marry later. After graduating from college in 1958, Ralph worked in a clinical laboratory but then was drafted into the Army in 1959 and made a corpsman at West Point. The Army was a formative experience for Ralph. Throughout his life he would talk about things he learned, people he met, and the impact the experience had on him. He considered staying in the Army but left after his mandatory service ended. Judy and Ralph married June 11, 1960 at her parents’ home in Bexley, Ohio. After the Army, Ralph went to dental school at Ohio State. Judy and Ralph ran a boarding house for college students during those years and he worked in a blood typing lab while going to dental school. In 1961 he was an intern at Philadelphia General Hospital where he made life-long friends and had experiences he never forgot.
After Ralph graduated from dental school in 1964, Judy and Ralph moved to the Washington DC area, living in Jamestown Village. Ralph set up his dental practice in Arlington Virginia and later they bought a home in what is now the Ballston area. In the ‘70s, Ralph moved his office to Falls Church, Virginia, where it remained until his retirement in 2015. In 1972 Ralph and Judy moved their family from Arlington to a house in Falls Church, Virginia. Ralph and Judy had three kids, Alexander “Alex”, Andrea “Andi” and Samuel “Sam” and raised them into adulthood before their marriage ended in 1995.
At his dental practice in Falls Church, Ralph offered his patients access to the vegetable garden at his home office, a cape cod style house he converted (doing much of the work himself) to contain dental operatories, a laboratory (where he did all his own lab work), an x-ray room (which was unusual in the ‘70s and ‘80s) and his own dark room where he developed the x-rays he took. Using what he learned growing up on farms, he was an avid gardener as an adult. During the growing and harvest seasons, when a patient visited for a dental appointment, they would get a paper bag at their visit to go out back to the garden and harvest what they wanted. Ralph loved sharing that part of his life with patients and hearing about what they cooked with what they took from his garden. Ralph loved working with his staff, and while some came and went, others worked with him for decades, becoming like a family. Ralph always said that his staff (their personalities and skills) were a big reason why patients said they loved coming to his office.
Ralph loved reading. While he would read nonfiction, particularly history, he loved reading fiction. He sought out books with adventure, political intrigue, or spies. He was also a reader of romance, a Nora Roberts fan (along with many other authors), and wanted stories with “happy endings”. If a book of fiction seemed like it would have a sad ending, he didn’t want to read it. In the final months of his life he was re-reading the Lord Ramage series by Dudley Pope and would talk out loud to the characters, responding to what he was reading.
Ralph was a news junkie and a life-long (at least as long as his kids can remember) Democrat. He consistently watched the PBS News Hour (and all of its previous iterations), BBC America and Meet the Press. He loved to talk to people (anyone who was willing) about the latest in politics. He was opinionated, to say the least, but loved to hear other people’s views on the issues of the day.
Although he was a dentist, Ralph had a sweet tooth. It is impossible to overstate how loved sweets. He didn’t overeat but had a little every day. Ice cream, chocolate chip cookies and lemon cake were among his favorites. He loved Bit-O-Honey and Butterscotch hard candy. In the ‘80s and ‘90s he would come home on Friday after work with movies he rented from a Falls Church video store, Kokos, and bags of candy (Skittles and Twizzlers particularly) for the family to enjoy together. He loved the Hot Shoppes’ Orange Freeze drink and when the DC area chain closed, he recreated it. In the last year or so he would have it for breakfast, calling it a “smoothie” (even though it was a combination of orange sherbet, vanilla ice cream and a little of either milk or orange juice – depending on what was in the fridge).
The last thing we want to share is that from about the mid-1980s until he was forced to quit in the last year due to his declining health, Ralph was an avid walker. He would walk the C&O trail from Falls Church into Arlington every morning at the same time and in the same section. Over the decades of walking, Ralph made friends with both people and dogs who were regulars on that part of the trail too. Ralph loved dogs. He loved learning about dog breeds. He loved to tell stories of dogs he met on the trail.
Ralph will be cremated and inurned at Arlington National Cemetery at a future date yet to be determined. In light of the current pandemic we are not holding a memorial or service at this time. Plus, Ralph hated speeches and formalities. Once the pandemic ends (thinking positive) we may have some sort of a wake. If you would like to send us a note with your memories and/or be put on a contact list please email us at memorial@ralphgallimore.com.
One of Ralph’s favorite charities was Doctors Without Borders. He would have volunteered with them if he could have. If you would like to remember Ralph by making a donation in his memory, you can do that here: https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/support-us/explore-donation-options/make-donation-honor-someone or by calling 1.888.392.0392.
By Emerson’s definition, Ralph succeeded.
To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
Success, Ralph Waldo Emerson