Ralph Charles Kohn
Jan. 11, 1918-Feb. 23, 2011
Menlo Park, California
Submitted by Twink Stern

Ralph Charles Kohn January 11, 1918 --- February 23, 2011

Age 93, Ralph Charles Kohn died peacefully at home with his family nearby. Ralph is survived by his wife Irene Myers Stern Kohn, Menlo Park, her children Twink Stern (Vu-Duc Vuong) and James Stern (Jan); five grandchildren (Theresa, Brian, Elizabeth, Jeanne, and Tuong-Vi); 14 great-grandchildren, and his youngest sister Shirley Kohn (San Jose).

Born in Oak Park, IL, Ralph was the oldest of three children. He graduated from Cornell College in Iowa. At a young age, he was reviled by war, and became a conscientious objector during World War II, spending the years working on the East Coast with children who had special needs. It was there that he met lifelong friends from California: Roy Kepler and George Haight and formed a network of peace activists that spent their later years in California.. Following the War, Ralph joined the Merchant Marines on a freighter and worked as a ship hand. He traveled around the world, to Europe, Africa and the Far East. This experience had a lasting effect on him, and he savored these years of exposure to people and politics.

After his years at sea, he went back to the Midwest and tried his skills with several jobs, and in the early 60s, he opened up a restaurant ?The Agora House? in Columbia, Missouri, so he could provide a place where people could exchange ideas about various world cultures. It was a magnet for all of the journalists at the Missouri School of Journalism (across the street from the restaurant) as well as people who wanted peace in the world. He also met the love of his life, Irene, and began a long-term relationship that later led to marriage.

When Roy Kepler asked Ralph to manage one of two Kepler?s bookstores, Ralph jumped at the chance to move to the Far West. He was proud to work in the largest paperback store on the West Coast at that time, and enjoyed sharing ideas with locals like the Baez family, Ira Sandpearl and Nick Simon. Ralph found a home on Cloud Avenue in Menlo Park honed his management skills, hired many young people and inspired them to read the books they were selling. This was all part of the draw to Kepler?s. When Irene retired from her work in the Midwest at the United Mine Workers Welfare and Retirement Fund, she joined him in his new life in California.

There was always something important happening in Ralph?s life: politics--- local, national and international new authors coming to town, working with publisher?s representatives, and training new young clerks as well as having a welcoming home to friends and family who visited. Ralph also was an adventurer?he loved to take the train across the country and visit all of his friends and extended family and did so in his 70s. He loved talking (in reality listening) to people of various ethnicities, and had friends from every walk of life. He also had an amazing mind that could calculate the cost of the purchase of books in his head, long before calculators came into existence. He was sharp, and his blue eyes, simple beard and bald head gave him the appearance of Mr. Clean in the early years, and in later years he was said to resemble Sean Connery. (He loved to hear that!)

While managing Kepler?s, Ralph became close to the Kepler family, and when Roy?s son Clark became the owner, the two of them became very close. Clark was philosophically the son that Ralph never had. Ralph and Irene became the keepers of Kepler traditions, and each summer, they held a taco party at their home on 990 Cloud so that former clerks who had left the store could ?catch-up? with the Kepler family. That nucleus of friends began small, but over 30 years became quite extensive. Ralph loved hearing what was happening with the children of former Keplerites and even the grandchildren. During those years, he also served as ?chauffeur? -- being an excellent driver, he drove his old turquoise Volvo and took family and friends all over California., Canada and to Mexico many times. They met many people on these trips and Irene kept in touch with them via letters and then email. He and Irene also traveled to Europe several times during the 80s, to Alaska and Hawaii, to Vietnam in the 90s where he celebrated his 75th birthday.

Ralph had a tendency to be challenging and unafraid to discuss almost any subject; he was extremely knowledgeable about the government and the leaders of foreign countries and was able to parlay that knowledge at work and at home with family and friends. When people first met Ralph, they saw the pacifist and conscientious objector, but when you traveled in his Volvo, you saw (and heard) a dock-worker use his vocabulary to describe being was cut-off on the highway.

Ralph stopped working at the store after he had his first stroke in 1997. He was able to recover well enough to get his driver?s license, but he informed his family and friends that while he was still driving his now 35 year-old Volvo wagon, he never turned the radio because of fear of distraction. Ralph depended on his wife Irene to be the social organizer of the family, and he adopted her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They were a formidable combination, and when Irene had cancer, Ralph was there to cook a macrobiotic diet for them; when Ralph had his strokes, Irene was there to make sure Ralph could get to Reach for Recovery, a group of former stroke patients who formed a strong bond.

Ralph?s greatest gift to his family was a great sense of humor (Irene said that they stayed together over the years because he made her laugh. His contribution to society was his never-wavering peace activism, which he continued throughout his long life. Friends are invited to attend the memorial service at the Friends Meeting house in Palo Alto, 957 Colorado Avenue, at 2 pm on Saturday, April 9, 2011.

Ralph?s family wishes to thank his caregiver Lya Vale Cruz and Heartland Hospice for the care and attention while caring for him in his final years. The family requests in lieu of flowers, contributions be sent to 10 BOOKS A HOME in honor of Ralph Kohn. Donations can be mailed to 1735 Woodland Ave. Suite 11 East Palo Alto, CA 94303, or by selecting the "donate" button at www.10booksahome.org. 10 BOOKS A HOME provides free in-home and in-school literacy services to young children in East Palo Alto.

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