Ferdinand, Ralph E & Eleanor C

He was born Ralph Edmund Ferdinand on the second of May 1900 in Winthrop, Massachusetts to Arthur Gilman &  Hattie May (Joslin) Ferdinand. There he resided with his family at 63 Temple Road. He registered for the U.S. World War I Draft on the tenth of October 1918 to serve in the Army.  At the time of registering for the WW1 draft, Ralph was a student at M.I.T in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Ralph was a man of medium stature with blue eyes and brown hair.

Much of his life, Ralph worked for the Joslin Showcase Company of Boston and Cambridge. A business that began with his Uncle, Edmund Joslin (brother of Ralph's mother). Ralph started as a sales representative before becoming the general manager about 1938.  After his uncle's death in 1944 he became the owner. 

The Joslin Showcase Co. was the principal supplier of interior store equipment to the Jordan Marsh Company of Boston and other stores all over New England. Joslin supplied most of the interior furnishings for Jordan's new store at the Framingham Shoppers World, built after the end of World War II.Ra Elelph marriedanor Constance Dunn, daughter of John and Elizabeth Whelan Dunn on May 20, 1930. They lived in an apartment in Quincy, Mass., and then bought a home at 75 Maple Street, Milton, Mass., in 1937. In 1962, they winterized and moved into their former summer house on the South River in Marshfield, Mass.

Ralph suffered from periods of mental depression in his mid-forties. He sold the showcase business in 1956, during one of these depressions and semi-retired.

In 1964, Ralph purchased the Tides Motel at Chatham, on Cape Cod and operated it for two years. In 1968, he purchased and operated another Cape Cod motel property for a year. His wife, Eleanor, shouldered a great deal of responsibility in Ralph's later enterprises due to his recurring depressions.

Ralph had a strong interest in religion and supported all churches. He particularly enjoyed his class reunions at MIT and had a sincere desire to help those less fortunate.

Ralph and Eleanor had two sons: Paul Joslin Ferdinand and Warren Arthur Ferdinand.

Ralph died on the twenty-third day of December 1974 at South Weymouth, Massachusetts of injuries received from being struck by an automobile on Plain Street (Rt 139) in Marshfield on the eleventh of December while trying to cross the street.  

References:

Created by: Barbara Ferdinand Record added: Feb 29, 2012, Find A Grave Memorial# 86012399

Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005.

Ancestry.com. U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Original data: Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS) Death File. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.