Ralph Joseph Reinhofer

It is with great sadness that the family of Ralph Joseph Reinhofer announces that he died peacefully on February 14th, 2023, at age 92.  Born December 19, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois, he was predeceased by his parents, Ralph J. Reinhofer and Ruth Rose Holvick Reinhofer, and his siblings, Cynthia G. Roos, Carol A. Miller, and Robert L. Reinhofer. He is survived by his loving spouse of 18 years Helen Arbaugh Reinhofer, his five children, Lynn Grogan (James), Christine Kuehn (Kenneth), James Reinhofer (the late Kathleen), Ralph Reinhofer (Susan), and Peter Reinhofer (Rachel). He was beloved by 12 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren.

He attended Edgebrook Elementary School and Steinmetz High School in Chicago and received a degree from the Warsham College of Mortuary Science. While awaiting the results of the Illinois Funeral Director and Embalmer examination, he was drafted into the United States Army in 1951 and was shipped to Korea after his basic training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He was initially assigned to a rifle company, but when his commander learned of his background, he was assigned to the Graves Registration Service in the Kumhwa Valley. After a time, he was promoted to private first class and transferred to a Company Communications Group.  He served in a communications role until his term of service in Korea ended in mid-1953. He mustered out of the Army with the rank of Sergeant and after returning stateside began working for the Illinois Bell Telephone Company and raised his family.

He was a devoted father and grandfather to his many offspring. He became an executive with AT&T and conducted training programs in communications software throughout the country. He retired to Florida and eventually settled in the Kings Ridge community in Clermont. Prior to the illness that marked his final days, he was known to family and countless friends as a joy filled, seize-the-day, look for the silver lining, wring the fun out of anything, good looking raconteur with a joke for every occasion sort of man.

He was a talented storyteller, an engaging party guest, a believer in laughing out loud and picking up the phone to say hello to a friend or neighbor who was going through a rough patch.  He lived to celebrate holidays, decorating his house on tall ladders long after he should have engaged in such activities. He was fiercely independent for most of his life, even after macular degeneration deprived him of several cherished joys: driving his boat and commandeering his car. Ralph and his dog Moe did, however, pilot a golf cart around his beloved community, even doing so in the last week of his life. He insisted that he "saw well enough" to be safe. As far as the family knows, there were no collisions left in his wake.

Internment is to be at the Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell, Florida, with a graveside service to be held on March 13, 2023 at 1:00 PM.