Ralph Hinsdale Coon 1893-1961  
Categories: Boulder, Colorado, Denver, Colorado, Minister / Pastor, Rev. Duane L. Davis Officiating, Riverside, California, The Sabbath Recorder Obituary
"The Sabbath Recorder", Vol 171, No 19, p 13, Nov. 20, 1961.
  Ralph H. Coon was born in Western New York State in 1893, and grew to manhood in California.   At about nine years of age, he accepted Christ as his personal Savior, was baptized by Elder Eli F. Loofboro, and became a member of the Riverside, Calif., Seventh Day Baptist Church.   He belonged to the churches of like faith where he later lived and served, and was a member of the Salem, W. Vs., church since 1949.
  Educated in the free schools of Riverside, he received the Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from the University of California, in 1915 and 1916.   During World War I, he served in the armed forces of our nation.   He taught for 11 years in San Francisco Polytechnic High School.
  He was married to Miss Madge L. Muncy, May 19, 1918, at Berkeley, Calif., by Elder George W. Hills.   To this union were born five children, who with their mother survive him.   They are: Mrs. Edward (Doris) Rood, Milton, Wis.; Lloyd Ralph Coon, Succasunna, N. J.; Mrs. David (Jeanne) Williams, Biloxi, Miss.; Mrs. Mynor (Marian) Soper, Boulder, Colo.; and Mrs. Ronald (Ruth) Krum, Washington, D. C.   There are eleven grandchildren.   A brother and a grandson preceded him in death.
  In 1930, Ralph answered the call of God that he had been praying about for some time, to go into the full-time ministry of the Gospel.   He was ordained as a Seventh Day Baptist minister, and began serving in Colorado, where for eleven years he worked at Denver and Boulder, and on the Western Slope of the Rocky Mountains, as a field missionary for the Seventh Day Baptist Missionary Society.
  In 1941, he moved his family from the shadow of the Flatirons to become the pastor of the old First Hopkinton Seventh Day Baptist Church in historic Ashaway, R. I.   In 1945 he became pastor of the Richburg, N. Y., Seventh Day Baptist Church.
  In 1949, he was employed to teach at Salem College, as professor of Bible and science.   Thus he realized his long-dreamed-of ambition of combining his two fields of interest, to teach both the physical sciences and the courses of Bible and religion.   Here the years have passed quickly as Professor Coon has worked earnestly, always ready and willing to serve.   Many young men have made their home in the Coon household during this time, the majority of them Seventh Day Baptists and several of our present and future ministers.
  In his teaching, in the home, in the work of the church in the community and neighboring communities, he has made his influence felt as a friend of all, as an eager Bible student and teacher, as a willing preacher where needed, and as an untiring member of the Bible and Physics departments of the college.
  On his last day of earthly life, he stayed up till about 3:00 a.m. grading papers.   He had attended the semiannual meeting of West Virginia Seventh Day Baptists at Lost Creek two days before.   Then he arose early Monday morning to attend a meeting of the West Virginia Education Association in Clarksburg, hurrying home for supper and to get the large telescope he had built himself, and to return to Clarksburg for an astronomy class for Salem College.
  Then about 8 p.m. he suffered what must have been a heart attack a short time after setting up his beloved telescope and died before reaching the hospital.   What better place for Ralph Coon to meet God than on a grassy hillside sharing with his students the mysteries and wonders of God's universe as revealed in the stars and the planets!
  All of the children were able to come to Salem for the funeral services, which were conducted at the Salem Seventh Day Baptist Church on October 19, by the Rev. Duane L. Davis, and the Rev. C. W. P. Hansen.   A sextet of Salem church members sang and members of the Science faculty served as pallbearers.   Interment was in the Seventh Day Baptist Brick Church Cemetery at Lost Creek.