Ralph was born July 26,1921 in Auburn Maine. He was the son of Ralph Scotney Morrison and Lucy Myrtle Alexander. He was raised in Auburn in a house on Lake St. It was not far from his father's shoe shop. His half sister - Verna being older, left home early and he spent most of his home life with his sister Bea and brother Bobby. He completed his high school diploma at Auburn's Edward Little High School in 1939. He enjoyed playing golf and was a member of the Band (played saxophone) and a ski jump team member. With the war looming, Ralph went to Wentworth Institute in Boston for a 2-year engineering degree from 1940 to 1942. After completion he found work in Vermont at Fellows Gear Shaper in Springfield Vermont. Ralph met Florence Eva Adams at Fellows and they were married in 1943. Ralph's farther died while he was working in Vermont on July 8th 1943. With WW2 ongoing, Ralph joined his fellow men at the Gear Shaper and joined the Navy. Leaving Florence, with a child on the way, at home with her parents in Vermont.

Ralph returned from the Navy on February 16, 1946. He returned to Fellows to work and brought his family to Bellows Falls, Vermont to live. They had their second son there. He was named Ralph Scotney Morrison (named for Scott's grandfather) Aug. 20, 1947. Ralph took a job with United Shoe Machinery in Beverly Mass. In 1948. United shoe had an office in Lewiston, this may have led him to this company. The family moved to a house in Danvers, Massachusetts. While in Massachusetts, he was an active Mason and reached past Master.

Ralph and Florence had 3 children. Earl Ladd "Butch" Morrison 1944, Ralph Scotney "Scott" Morrison 1947, Bruce Edward Morrison 1953

Ralph's United Shoe Career:

United Shoe made machines to produce shoes and sold to factories worldwide. The federal Government accused them of monopoly. They broke the company up and it could have been their downfall. It did cause them to sell outside the shoe industry and Ralph worked on government secret projects and other machines. I remember an open house visit and was impressed with a machine to make frozen juice cans at an extreme speed. He got his job in the Research Division Engineering Department. Ralph started as an engineering trainee and over the years was promoted to Mechanical engineer, senior and consulting engineer. In the 70's until he retired, he was Manager mechanics technical group. While there, he held a number of machine patents. He worked with engineering Universities and added to his education as well as published papers. The one he was most proud of was "The Surface Endurance of Materials". He brought his work from Fellow Gear Shaper and was an expert in gear design. Ralph participated is seminars at Oklahoma State, MIT, Purdue, Georgia Tech and did paper reviews for ASME, International Society for mechanisms. He supported machine design groups and development labs.

He was on teams for the government working on atomic power for domestic plants and the first atomic submarine, the Nautilus. During the Vietnam war he helped with a new gatling gun for jungle warfare.