Ralph and Kim served with us in South Africa during our first mission. We didn't serve in the same departments but ran into each other at the Gold Reef Ward in Johannnesburg which we attended while we were serving in the Temple. Later when we were transfered to the Mission office in Roodepoort (a suburb of Johannesburg) our offices were in the same Church compound which included a chapel, the South Africa MTC, CES(Church Education) offices and our Mission offices. Ralph was the CES coordinator for the area.
After returning home to Heber City Ralph was called to be their Ward Bishop. He only served a little over four months when he was called to serve as the Mission President for the Uganda Kampala Mission. This mission includes Uganda and Ethiopia. We were looking forward to seeing them in Uganda as part of our new calling because Auditing the finances of their mission would be part of our responsibility. President Duke had asked two senior couples with whom we had also served in South Africa to work with him in this mission. Elder and Sister Williams are serving in Uganda in the CES department and Elder and Sister LaPray are serving as the mission leaders in Addis Abba Ethiopia. Jan has kept in close contact by email with the LaPray's so we were aware of President Duke's death shortly after it happened.
We attended Ralph's funeral yesterday. We greeted Kim at the viewing and she was holding together surprisingly well. She has great support from a very close family and many friends in the area as well as friends, like us, from their missions.
The funeral was wonderful (as good as a funeral can be). The Church was filled with flowers and friends. President Monson from the First Presidency represented the leadership of the Church and gave a wonderful talk as usual. Touching tributes were given by their 3 sons and a daughter.
We had the opportunity to greet President Monson and chat very briefly. We spoke of my parents and his wonderful experiences in Canada. Francis Monson was not with him as she was just recovering from an illness.
We saw several other couples from our Mission in South Africa. President and Sister Fitch have acquaintances who will be serving in the Area offices with us. They are called as the Public Relations coordinators. The Fitch's are going to try and get us together before we leave. This couple will precede us by just a couple of weeks. We also saw the Packs who served as "keyboard/music specialists for the Johannesburg Mission. The Ficklins were also there. He served as the counselor to President Fitch in Mozambique.
Here is a link to the article in today's Deseret News which will give you a few more details.
http://www.deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660222276,00.html
The horse drawn hearse was very unique. The cemetery was just across the street and up the block a little, so the mourners walked behind the hearse to the gravesite.
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