(Ralph) Storm

[Chris]

I am, at this moment, reading the February issue of Baptists Today, and just hit page 28, where I see the obituary of one our oldest members of BaptistLife.com -- Ralph Storm, who posted by the name of "Storm". He has been absent for a while, here. I corresponded with him several times (via email) in the 1990s. For those who dont get the print edition, Storm died January 7th 2015, just shy of his 87th birthday. "...served leadership roles in First Baptist Church of Corpus Christi, as well as with Fellowship of Christian Athletes". He and his wife created and endowed the Ralph and Jean Storm Chair of Mathematics. "He was a Regent at Baylor for 27 years and recipient of University awards including the Herbert Reynolds Service Award."

[Haruo]

Sorry to hear it. I liked Ralph, and wished he had stuck around here longer than he did. 87 is a reasonable age, though. Thanks for mentioning him here.

[Ed Pettibone]

[David Flick]

[Chris]

Thanks, David, for the picture of Storm. I don't think I had ever seen one.

[William Thornton]

I am sad to see of Ralph Storm's death. We got acquainted on the old BL way back. As with David Flick, we weren't exactly on the same side in regard to the CR. Ralph would call the cons "punks" and sometimes "backwards cap punks."

Back when BL was much younger one of the great benefits was being able to connect with other Baptists and cooperate on some things. I took my teens to Chickasha, OK where David was serving as DOM and we had a great time with him and the Indian church where we did a VBS.

I think it was after that trip that we went to Corpus Christi where Ralph's church did some summer children's work. He set me up with a couple in the church that did VBS in two locations in the city. Back then, there was no particular issue with loading a 15 passenger van with kids and adults, hitching a luggage trailer to that, and hitting the road. We did so. I was driving on I-20 near Beaumont, TX when a rear tire threw the whole tread. Only my quick reflexes avoided flipping the van into traffic and complete disaster. We got off the interstate, stayed the night, and I had all four tires replaced. Incidentally, next to the tire place was a hamburger joint where John Wayne ate once. They had his chair on the wall. Great burg.

I say all that to get to this. During the week in Corpus Christi with Ralph, he wasn't involved but would check in ever day or so to see how things were going. One day he brought me his personal check to pay for the four tires. I had told the story but hadn't asked for anything. Sometime during the week he took the whole crowd to Baskin Robbins for ice cream, sort of like David did in Chickasha for us.

David and Ralph might not see eye to eye with me on lots of stuff but I love them as brothers in Christ and friends.

[Haruo]

[David Flick]

[Stephen Fox]

To bring this to our attention.

Like the Stephenson fellow of Oklahoma many great folks of that generation who had sterling integrity and saw the fundy nonsense for what it was.

I appreciated Thornton's gracious testimony as well.