Ralph Calvin Applebee

Ralph Calvin Applebee was born on November 30, 1937.  He departed this realm on September 21, 2025 to “Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before” and to "Seek Out New Galaxies Far Far Away”.  Before departing Ralph Calvin Applebee or RCA for short, led a most extraordinary life. Born to Dorothy Shaw and Clyde Ralph Applebee (carpenter), of San Francisco, California, he was joined only a few short years later by a sibling, brother, Timothy Applebee.  Ralph grew up in San Francisco's Sunset Boulevard homes, nearby Ortega Street, Sloan Blvd., the city zoo and Pacific Ocean which were all within a mile radius of the 1818 35th Avenue home.  

Ralph attended Holy Name Catholic grammar school; his early school days were filled with music, dance, ice skating and swimming lessons. Weekly radio broadcasts of “The Lone Ranger” and “The Shadow” were Ralph’s favorites. After graduating from Riordan High School in 1955, Ralph joined the Air Force reserves on the weekends and enrolled in classes at San Francisco’s Community College, where he would meet the love of his life and life partner, Phyllis Jean McCann (their common bond being a shared dislike for their expensive Catholic education and love of skiing).  After finishing City College in 1958 Ralph continued his education at Oregon State College (now OSU), majoring in physics.  He would commute by train to and from Corvallis to San Francisco. On September 17, 1960, after Ralph graduated with a bachelor of physics, the first for an Applebee, Ralph and Phyllis were married at St. Michael’s Church in South San Francisco.  The wedding was well planned and attended by many.  Bob Jones, professional photographer for the San Francisco Chronicler, captured the beautiful affair. 

Ralph and Phyllis then moved to Corvallis Oregon where Ralph dove into getting his masters and Phyllis secured a job at a bank.  During graduate studies at OSU Ralph would meet fellow physics and chemistry majors, Tom Roberts and Steve Baker. Tom would marry Jo and Steve would marry Bonnie. The Roberts, Bakers and Applebee’s would continue their friendship to the end of their lives. They would have many travel adventures together and in later years continued visiting each other via weekly zoom meetings. 

Ralph changed his major to mathematics in the fall of 1961, they would also welcome their first born, Lisa Marie Applebee, born December 27th.  During this time Ralph was introduced to the first generation computer the ALWAC-E3 where logic was provided by vacuum tubes. In 1963 Phyllis gave birth to their second child, Michele Louise Applebee, on August 28th. Ralph and Phyllis resumed skiing and took many trips with the Roberts’ to Bachelor in winter and Oregon coast in the spring and summer.  In 1965 Ralph accepted a teaching job at Central Washington State College in Ellensburg.  Ralph and Phyllis would purchase their first home, a tiny one bedroom A-frame cabin in Manashtash Canyon, a very remote and wild place. Ralph and Phyllis taught their two daughters to ski at Yakima’s White Pass, Wanatchee’s Mission RIdge and Snoqualmie Summit. In 1969.  Ralph and Phyllis moved to Caldwell Idaho, where they would live out the remainder of their partnership and where Ralph would spend the next 30 years teaching mathematics and computer science and retire Dr. Applebee Head of Computer Science and Math at College of Idaho.  He would also form another lifelong friendship with fellow OSU student and C of I colleague, Roger Higdem, who introduced the C of I to him.  Ralph would go back to OSU and finish his dissertation, which he started while teaching at Central Washington with fellow philosopher/logician Bishwambhar Pahi. Pahi and Ralph coauthored articles in the “Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic” which led to his Ph.D. dissertation in symbolic logic titled "Finite Models of Zero Order Propositional Calculi” June of 1972.

From 1969 to 1973/74 the Applebee’s rented homes in Caldwell.  Michele started 1st grade and Lisa 3rd grade in Calwell School District. Ralph and Phyllis bought ski passes for the family at Bogus Basin for skiing in the winter and took the kids on backpacking trips to the Sawtooth National Forest and the White Clouds National forests in the summer. 

In 1973 after purchasing a 5 acre parcel on Pleasant Ridge in Greenleaf Idaho, Ralph Applebee and his dad, Clyde Ralph Applebee, began construction of the home. In 1974 the Applebee family moved into the unfinished home where they would start a small farming operation. An agreement with Crockham Seed Co to share crop 1 acre of the land was agreed for cash and corn. Ralph bought 2 Dutch Belted wiener pigs, 20 laying hens, 2 cows and a calf called “Beefsteak”.  The pigs whom he named Porky and Petunia were very fond of taking daily walks with Ralph. Ralph built a barn and milking shed. Michele joined 4-H and acquired Misty, a 6 month Alpine goat, then Zenobia a Nubian breed, both requiring much care and milking twice daily.   Lisa attempted to care for and raise an unruly Beefsteak. Ralph and family put up a metal wire fence the 1st summer, a very hot and unpleasant job.  Phyllis started and maintained a beautiful vegetable garden and strawberry patch. She learned to can lots of garden vegetables, to shuck and shell corn and pluck chickens. Ralph even grew peanuts and tried his hand at viticulture (grapes turned out not so great). The Applebee farming experiment was the most memorable time for the entire family and when the Applebee’s were joined by Phyllis sister’s, Margorie Homer; her two daughters: Kim, Diane and son, Kenny for summer, it became even more eventful and memorable.  Ralph expressed this was a time in his life he very much loved and the memory of Ralph walking with Petunia will not fade by those that remain.

The farming experiment came to an end in 1979, with a pig epidemic and teenage hormonal angst.  Ralph moved his family back to Caldwell and eventually into 512 E. Spruce St. house in the spring of 1980.  The 512 E. Spruce house would provide the next 42 years of much fun and endearing memories . The 40’x80’ 10’ deep swimming pool with a 10’ slide provided endless summer entertainment. Countless graduations, birthdays, faculty retirements, reunions, weddings, Holiday Parties and weekend BBQ’s were celebrated at poolside throughout the hot summers.  The occasional midnight skinny dip was enjoyed by a few folks.  Ralph and Phyllis’s first grandchild, Sarah, learned to swim and snorkel in the big pool. In 2003 their youngest daughter and granddaughter would move back and live with them for a year. 

Dr. Ralph C. Applebee retired from the College of Idaho in 1999 and soon thereafter began Ralph and Phyllis’s epic foreign travel adventures. From 2000 through 2019 they traveled to Turkey, Panama Canal, Egypt and the Nile, China, Singapore Indonesia and Thailand, Ecuador, Amazon, Galapagos, Greece, Cyclades Crete, Chile Argentia, Antarctica, Madagascar, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Bhutan and India, Patagonia, Chilean Fjords, Australian and New Zealand , Adriatic cruise, Burma and Irrawaddy, 30 day Holland American Cruise, Costa Rica , Iceland, Ireland, England Scotland and Wales, Nova Scotia, and a final trip along the Paris, the Seine and Normandy.  

Ralph and Phyllis’s health started to decline. Shortly after COVID, Phyllis in particular after the departure of her sister, Marge Gonzales (McCann) in March of 2020.  The isolation of COVID, not traveling and the grief of losing her sister took its toll. Phyllis became ill in March of 2022 and peacefully departed this earth September 10, 2022. She was surrounded by her husband, Ralph, and family she so loved and who so loved her. 

After serious health issues, Ralph decided downsizing was the best option rather than restoring the very big swimming pool. A final pool party/memorial for Phyllis J. Applebee and Roger Hidgem was held on August 6, 2023. Ralph C. Applebee moved into a retirement community in Eagle on July 10th.  While the Applebee family departed 512 E. Spruce on August 17th 2023, the memories live on in many that visited.

At 85 and widowed Ralph started taking Tai Chi classes and enjoyed his dining companions at the Revel dining hall. Monday and Wednesday afternoons were spent playing Domino’s. Ralph’s health improved with many health interventions from 2023 through 2024, daily walks, Tai Chi and taking fun trips with his nieces, daughter and granddaughter to Crane Creek Hot Spings, Bruneau Sand Dunes, Seattle and Whidbey Island and a two week fall trip in 2024 to Vancouver Island via Port Angeles, and the Ho Rainforest.  While touring Victoria Bay an Orca family of 4 circled the Bay, much to everyone's delight.    

In May 2025 Ralph was diagnosed with Urethral carcinoma, options were limited to a surgery or do nothing. It was a risky surgery for Ralph's age and condition. The reluctant decision to go forward with surgery did not extend his time here, as hoped by all. After most family members said their goodbyes Dr. Ralph C. Applebee exited at 3:55 on September 21, 2025. His loving granddaughter was standing by and was witness to his quiet departure. 

Dr. Ralph Calvin Applebee is preceded in death by his beautiful bride, life and travel companion, Phyllis Jean Applebee (McCann); parents: Dorothy Applebee (Shaw), Clyde Ralph Applebee; brother, Timothy Applebee; his lifelong friends: Jerry Mulligan, Roger Higdem, Tom Roberts and Joe Dadabay. 

He is survived by his daughters: Lisa M Applebee of Boise, ID (Charlie), Michele L Applebee of McCall, ID (Richard); granddaughter, Sarah Lenda of Boise, ID (Ernie); nieces and nephews and the many grand nieces and nephews. His lifelong friends, Mary Higdem, Jo Robets, Steve and Bonnie Baker, Jan Boles.       

Ralph’s favorite non-profits he contributed to were: PBS, NPR, Idaho Youth Ranch, The Nature Conservancy, Ocean Conservancy, Union of Concerned Scientists, Act Blue.  Please in lieu of flowers or cards please consider donating to any of these non-profits.