Ball, Ralph Henry                          Husband of Charlotte Louise (Tippin)

Burial Date:  1997,  10/08            Age: 81               Lot:  477 1/2 D

Ralph Ball, a 1933 graduate of Sterling High School, was a leader in agriculture and community activities throughout his life.  He and his son, Bill, operated a farming and livestock partnership, handling corn, milo, wheat and alfalfa, plus a cattle-feeding operation in the Sterling area.
In 1981, Ball was nominated by President Reagan and confirmed by the US Senate to serve a six-year term on the 13-member Federal Farm Credit Board which is the policy-making body of the borrower-owned Farm Credit System.
Ball served as a vice chairman on the board of Farmland Industries, as a member of the Board of FAR-MAR-CO, Inc. and Farmland Insurance.  He was on the Executive Board of Sterling College and served as an elder of the United Presbyterian Church.
Ball was a director of the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers and a past board president of Great Plains Wheat.  He was board chairman of the Kansas Wheat Commission, the USD 376 School Board and the Farmers Cooperative of Sterling.  He served as an observer at the Kennedy Round GATT Negotiations at Geneva and served as a member of the White House Conference on Food, Health and Nutrition.  Ball also was a recipient of the Kansas Master Farmer Award. He received the Sterling High School National Honor Society Black Bear Award for honorable character and his distinguished promotion of scholarship, leadership and service in his career.