Ralph Jordan Polley ’52

Ralph Jordan Polley ’52 died on June 27 at his residence in Niantic, Connecticut. Ralph was born on July 16, 1930, in Danbury, Connecticut. After graduating from Danbury High School, he earned a degree in physics at Dartmouth and began work as a physicist at the Naval Underwater Systems Center in Connecticut. He remained there for 29 years, retiring in 1981 as head of the submarine electro-optics division. He married Melitta Ann Conner on July 21, 1962, and in 1965 they moved to East Lyme, Connecticut, to raise their family. After retirement Ralph, an accomplished musician, served as president of a southeastern Connecticut classic music club, playing the piano with a classical quartet as well as a 1940s-style swing band. Ralph was also an outdoorsman, camping and climbing many mountains in the western United States, Yukon, and Northwest Territories with Ann. She survives, as do daughter Allison ’89, Tu’98, and husband Andrew Hirsch ’97, Tu’97; son Lee and wife Liliana; and four grandchildren.