Ralph Allan Wach was born May 28, 1941 to William Fredrick and Emilie Schultz Wach. Country doctor Frosall delivered him. Years later, when applying for a birth certificate, they realized his name was spelled “Ralf” and was listed as “born someplace in Hayes County, Nebraska”. He spent his childhood years and most of his adult life working on farms and raising horses. He was the middle child of seven.
    Ralph married Zania Marie Russell on May 9, 1944. They raised three children, Sheryl Fortin, Carol Henderson and James (Jim).
    In 1965, Ralph moved his family to Albany, Ore., where he worked for the Oregon Highway Dept.
    After his retirement in 1985, he and Zania helped build churches in Oregon, Alaska and Idaho. They also took their travel trailer to Yellowstone National Park and worked for the park during the summer months. In 1989, due to throat cancer, he had a laryngectomy. Following this surgery, Ralph had to learn how to replay the harmonica. After successfully self-engineering an adapter to utilize his stoma and perfecting his skills, he recorded a video on YouTube of playing his harmonica. Ralph also became a member of the Eugene Hearing and Speech New Voice Club. He loved being able to work and share information with the speech therapy students from the University of Oregon who would come and visit the group meeting under the instruction of Jane Eyre McDonald.
    For hobbies, Ralph loved working with his hands and helping others. Friends and family remember him by his love for horses, leather work, wood working, sense of humor but most of all his love for his Lord and Savior.
    He passed away on Feb. 17, 2017.
    Ralph is survived by his three children and their spouses, four granddaughters and nine great-grandchildren. He is also survived by two sisters-in-law, Granta Wach and Verla Russell Krula, as well as numerous nephews and nieces and great nephews and nieces.
    He was preceded in death by his parents, sisters Naomi, Helena, Dorean and Colleta, and brothers Harold and Vernon and a great-granddaughter Gracie.
    A funeral service will be on  Thursday (today) at Fisher Funeral Home, followed by a committal service at Palestine Cemetery, and then a lunch reception at Riverside Baptist Church.
    In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in memory of Ralph Wach to the Evergreen Hospice Program Fund in care of Fisher Funeral Home, 306 SW Washington St., Albany, Ore., 97321.