Ralph Rucker Collection Fixed Price Pt II

Ralph W. Rucker MD

A more personal word about Ralph... I n the following pages you will find the numismatic opus of a figure many of you know well. Had he been here, Ralph, as he was known to most of you, would have been delighted to share his collection personally. Had he been here, he would have enthralled you with the provenance of all his beloved beauties and defamed ‘dogs’ alike. He would have entertained you with titillating tales of coin collecting folklore, with a hint of exaggeration to be sure. The following pages contain echoes of his life long passion, pride, and solace. However, similar to each coin he loved, there was much more to Ralph Rucker than ‘face value.’ Please allow a proud family to digress for a moment and attempt to capture the essence of the most interesting man in the world.

Ralph Weller Rucker II was born on May 25th, 1942 in Bartlesville, Oklahoma to Dr. Ralph Rucker I and Laura Rucker. The third of four tight-knit children grew up as the man of the family; his father suffered a tragic accidental death when Ralph was the tender age of five. His early years in this small town were characterized by an incredible drive to succeed. He was the first

American Field Service foreign exchange student from Oklahoma, spending a year in New Zealand as the rugby-playing ‘Yank.’ The whip-smart young Ralph zipped through The University of Oklahoma in three years and then secured a position at the notable

Northwestern University School of Medicine in Chicago. During medical school, Ralph was told by many (his bride to-be, his mother, his educators) that he should not/could not volunteer to go to Vietnam. However, true to form, he cajoled the administrators and manipulated his curriculum to find a way. He then spent half a year in the very center of the conflict as a wide-eyed yet capable third year medical student. He would recite almost unfathomable stories of a war-time medical camp in the Vietnamese DMZ. When he survived this harrowing campaign (well, it was harrowing for everyone else and more like a calling for Ralph), he promptly made the smartest decision of his life. He somehow

charmed his long-time schoolmate and best friend into marrying him. He married our mother, Sherry Lee Allen, on August 27th, 1966 in their hometown church in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. He would joke that he married her because she had a car, a TV and a job... but she would always smile knowingly when he said this. He was lucky enough to find his

steel magnolia in this incredible woman and build a life with her. She would prove to be the calm to his storm, but ever-game for their adventures over the next 50 plus years. His unquenchable thirst for knowledge drove him throughout his life. After medical school and residency in Chicago, he completed his fellowship in Houston and added three medical boards to his resume- Pediatrics, Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine and Pulmonary Medicine. In the early 1970s, Ralph dutifully joined the