Tony Ralphs

Tony Ralphs grew up in Newport Beach and Rolling Hills, California, the grandson of the founder of Ralph’s Markets, one of the largest supermarket chains in California. Ralphs attended Long Beach State University and Stanford University and represented the California Kayak Club and the Newport Olympic Kayak Club. He raced all three kayak boats at the 1964 Olympics, K-1, K-2, and K-4. Ralphs won AAU titles in K-1 in 1964 and 1971, and won the K-2 in 1971 with Bill Leach. Ralphs was also a top distance swimmer, ranking in the top 10 in the world in 1961 in the 1,500 metre freestyle.

In the mid-1970s, Ralphs left his affluent and drove an old bus to Mexico, to work with the poor people in Tijuana. With his own money, he built a stone-block home, Hogar de los Niños, for the unwanted and un-cared for children. Ralphs had previously been an atheist but had a conversion during his work in Tijuana, and began studying for the priesthood at the Iglesia Sagrada Carazon Catholic Seminary.