02/14/2016
Today we celebrate the life of our late friend and FOUA member Ralph Finch, who passed this last December.
"Ralph was born Saturday, April 30, 1955 in Sacramento, California, and raised in Paradise, California. His parents were Paul Finch, a Social Worker, and Margaret Finch, a Librarian.
In 1978, Ralph earned a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from California State University, and a M.S. degree at UCDavis in Water Resources Engineering.
Ralph worked for the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City and the Bureau of Reclamation prior to joining the California Department of Water Resources in 1988. In March 2015, after 27 years, he retired from the DWR. While there, Ralph became an expert on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, building and applying software tools to help analyze the many issues that have affected the Delta over the years. He is remembered for his dedication and passion for high quality work and inspired others to do the same. He continually strove for the best and through his work made the significant contributions to decisions affecting water supply, water quality, and the ecosystem in California.
Ralph ha a fascination with flight and aircraft since he was a boy; he just liked things in the air. He acheived his private pilot license in 1975. He had a two-seater airplane which he flew to Washington State, to Southern California and Arizona, and the longest rip he made was to Oshkosh, Wisconsin. He was glad to bring delighted family and friends along, to share the open sky and aerial photos taken of the Delta were used in presentations at the Department of Water Resources. In 2008 Ralph started building his own single engine airplane in the garage and kept an ongoing record of his progress, logging almost 800 entries and over 2200 work hours.
Ralph's generosity ranged from helping nieces and nephews through college, opening their home to exchange students and friends from Japan, China and France.
Ralph is survived by Maria Guadalupe, his wife of 30 years, his brother Felix, his two sisters, Cora and Ronica; his nieces, nephews and relatives in both the United States and Mexico.
Ralph will be missed by family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors."
