DR RALPH D. HARRIS, is the founder, managing director and president of a multi-faceted business, INTERNET POTENTIAL CONSULTANTS. He has been privileged to enjoy a very varied and interesting career as a medical missionary, hospital administrator, medical director in several positions (which include mission hospitals, an H.M.O., a Physician-hospital Organization, medical school department, and several research projects). He has also acted as professor, realtor, businessman, and investor.
Ralph was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1937, the eldest of 5 children of a family which was threatened by the oppressive, racist policies of the ruling government of the time. His father was employed as a brick mason, and his mother was an elementary school teacher.
When Ralph was 13 years old the family relocated from Johannesburg to Cape Town to provide opportunities for their children’s education.
With the inspiration and, under the strict discipline and the insistence on excellence by his mother, Ralph was inspired to apply himself to his scholastic studies, and in 1954 attained honors as he graduated from high school. This enabled him to earn several scholarships to qualify for university education.
In 1955 he received an unsolicited offer for financial support from South African philanthropist, Sir Ernest Oppenheimer (founder of De Beers and Anglo-American Corporations), enabling him to pursue 6 years of medical training at the University of Cape Town Medical School, and graduate with a medical degree in 1960.
Soon after graduation Ralph and his new bride, Esme, left South Africa, for Malawi and Zambia, East Africa, to work for 6 years as a medical missionary and administrator in rural hospitals in those countries.
The birth of their 2 children in Malawi, and the unstable political situation in South Africa, resulted in a decision by the couple not to return to live in South Africa but to emigrate to the U.S.A. in 1967.
From 1968 to 1971 post-graduate training in Chicago prepared Ralph to qualify for American board certification as a pediatrician and pediatric nephrologist.
In 1971 Ralph was recruited to Loma Linda University Medical School in California. 20+ years followed with teaching, research, practice, and administration as an associate professor.
From June 1986 to July 1987, after developing a program for dialysis and transplantation of children with life-threatening kidney disease, Ralph enjoyed a one-year sabbatical to do research in Diabetic Nephropathy at the University of Minneapolis in Minnesota. Ralph then returned to Loma Linda, California to continue the research
Retiring from university academic medicine in 1990, Ralph became the director of 3 large HMO clinics in California, while practicing as a pediatrician and studying to acquire a master's degree in business administration (M.B.A.)
In 1994, as his children were completing their university training, (Karen as a health educator with an M.P.H degree, and Duncan as a board-certified urology surgeon), the family relocated to participate in raising their new granddaughters in the beautiful resort city of Coeur d’ Alene in the Panhandle of Northern Idaho, where he resided for next 21 years, pursuing careers in private pediatric practice, real estate, and as a financial advisor.
Ralph continued his interest and involvement in international medicine. He was able to spend several short terms of service in Africa and the Far East, as lecturer, relief physician and researcher. His most recent tour of duty was as medical director of a research project using lifestyle public health measures for successful intervention in reversing the epidemic of Type 2 Diabetes in the Republic of the Marshall Islands in 2006.
In 2015, as his grandchildren were completing their college education (the girls in nursing and pre=medical studies, and the boys in pre-law studies), Ralph and his wife, Esme, were able to relocate to the San Diego area in Southern California, where Esme’s health rapidly declined with spinal stenosis, quadriplegia, and Alzheimer's Disease. She died in August 2016, Ralph now lives in Carlsbad in northern San Diego county.
Ralph is currently fully retired with his new wife, Virginia (Ginny), with whom he was married in April 2018. He continues to pursue his interests in community preventive health education, (especially for seniors), business, coaching, and internet marketing.
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