Ralph Mead passed away unexpectedly April 11, 2023 at the age of 90. Mr. Mead grew up in New York City during the musical and cultural golden age studied at Yale where he sang in the A Capella chorus.
After graduating Yale, Ralph Mead enlisted in the army and then attended Harvard to study law. He travelled to Europe frequently by boat and studied in France.
Ralph fell in love with San Francisco and California and moved to Berkeley with his wife to attend the School of City Planning at UC Berkeley in the 1950's, the field of Urban Planning was new and some of its leading proponents were his mentors here.
Ralph went to work in the San Francisco City Planning office as an attorney he was instrumental in fighting to save the historic buildings of North Beach from demolition and he worked in the San Francisco Air Pollution Control District at the height of the smoggy urban sky line. This inspired him to work as an environmental lawyer and become active in the protection of West Marin and farmlands from development and codified into national parks. Ralph was active early in MALT the unique land protection structure that saves farmlands.
Mr. Mead was passionate about and talented in music, he understood compositions in intimate detail and had a refined taste and knowledge of classical music, opera and jazz. He frequented the San Francisco Opera, and San Francisco Symphony. He was a classical film connoisseur and knowledgeable on all the greats.
Please make donations in his honor to the MALT Ralph Mead fund. There will be a memorial later in May for details please email sarahbmead1@gmail.com .