Ralph Rucker & Sherry Allen
Best buds during and after College High, we finally decided to tie the knot in 1966 after Sherry graduated from OU and taught school in Denver. We moved to Chicago where Ralph was in medical school.

But the wedding could not happen until he finished a 5-month sojourn to the central highlands of Viet Nam as a volunteer physician. With residency in Houston, a two year stint with the U.S. Army in sunny South Korea, and three more years in fellowship, we landed in

Orange County, CA, where Ralph ran a critical care-neonatal service for tiny babies at the Children's Hospital. Twenty years (and 4 kids) later, we decided to head back to Oklahoma (partly to be near the three children who wisely chose OKLAHOMA colleges) to a 460 acre ranch in Wagoner County where we built a log home. Here we have developed a cattle ranch, a retail packaged beef operation, and enjoy the daily involvement in the lives of four of our soon-to-be ten grandbabies. Sherry is the perfect "Nana", never failing to spoil
all of them while extravagantly praising the parenting skills of the daughters-and-son-in-law.

She loves sewing, crafts, reading and loves to undertake "projects" that seem to involve the whole family. Ralph's passions, besides the daily management of the ranch, include genealogy and research projects involving early American large cents, as well as teaching the grandkids to drive bikes, motorbikes, the ranch buggy, and soon the pickup.

Ralph's most fondly remembered teacher was easily Bill Gillham at Garfield 5th and 6th grades. ''He was a father-figure when I most needed one and didn't hesitate to use the paddle when I needed one of those." Burl Stidham was a continuing positive force in character-building during high school. Burl often gave Sherry rides to school because she lived in the same area as he did. Old men picking up young girls at 7:30 a.m. could never happen today!!! Sherry's favorite teacher at Jane Phillips Grade School was George Loyd who was the 6th grade teacher and principal. He had an enormous influence on her to become an educator. Her favorite at Col-Hi was Mr. Klewer because he enabled her to vastly increase her vocabulary due to those 25 words a week we had to learn (amazingly she still remembers them). What we have learned about life over the years: If you can make good choices in the really big things in life, then the little screw-ups fade into the sunset.

Ralph Rucker
05/25/1942 - 7/7/2018
Surrounded by his loving family, Dr. Ralph Weller Rucker II passed peacefully on July 7, 2018. He was born the third child of Dr. Ralph Weller Rucker I and Laura Allen Rucker on May 25, 1942 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Dr. Rucker grew up in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, attending College High. He later attended the University of Oklahoma and then medical school at Northwestern University School of Medicine. He convinced the love of his life, Sherry Lee Allen, to marry him in 1966. He completed his medical training in Houston, TX. He served as an Army physician in Korea until 1972. Serving for over 17 years as a pediatrician, pulmonologist, and neonatologist at Children's Hospital of Orange County (CHOC), where he pioneered the CHOC Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and pulmonary programs.

Ralph and Sherry retired to Haskell, Oklahoma in 1991 where he established the Rucker Ranch, raising cattle and 'growing' his family. There, he continued his passion for numismatics, the Civil War, endless reading, ranching, gardening and his grandchildren. He and Sherry are members of the First United Methodist Church of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. He was also quite active with the Stone Bluff Senior Citizen Center in Haskell, Oklahoma.

Those who mourn his loss include his wife Sherry Rucker; brother Clinton Allen Rucker of Los Angeles, California; son Ralph Weller Rucker III and daughter-in-law Jennifer Rucker of Dallas, Texas; son William Allen Rucker and daughter-in-law Wendy Rucker of Haskell, Oklahoma; daughter Robyn Rucker of Haskell, Oklahoma; son-in-law Brian Arant and daughter Dr. Rebecca Rucker Arant of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Ralph was the proud grandfather of 11 grandchildren: William II, Callie, Ralph IV, Jackson, Trent, Brody, Skylar, Avery, Connor, Jessa and Cole.

He was preceded in death by his father Dr. Ralph Weller Rucker I, his mother Laura Allen Rucker, sister Louise Rucker Connor, and sister Rosalind Rucker Dick.

Celebration of Life was held July 12, 2018 at First United Methodist Church.