Ralph Ernest Dittman passed away on July 13, 2026, in Denver, Colorado, after a long and valiant battle with Parkinson’s Disease. He was surrounded by his loving wife and daughters.

Ralph was born on January 13, 1947, in Baytown, Texas, to Ruth Beatrice Allen Dittman and Henry “Pelly” Dittman. As his mother liked to say, “If he’d been the first, he would have been the last.”

Being the son of a Colonel in the US Air Force, his family moved around the country and to Greenland and Paris. But because his mother was a descendent of the Allen brothers, the founders of Houston, they always returned to their roots in the Houston area. This heritage strongly influenced who Ralph would become as an adult.

Ralph had a bright, creative mind. He marched to the beat of his own drum, rarely concerned about what others thought of his choices and imaginative ideas. He blended his intellectual tendencies with his athletic abilities and gregarious personality. He had a kind and generous heart. Perhaps because of his military background, he was exceptionally self-disciplined, which allowed him to be highly productive.

As a middle school student in Paris, he earned honors in his classes, regularly trespassed onto the property of the Pasteur Institute to collect planaria worms to sell to researchers, and played baseball with the US Army’s Babe Ruth League. Yet he still found time with his best buddy to hang out on the streets of Paris with “les filles des trottoirs”. Apparently, these two 8th grade boys were sufficiently amusing that les femmes allowed them to hang around!

When his father was transferred from his Paris post, Ralph headed to Culver Military Academy, a high school in Indiana on beautiful Lake Maxinkuckee. At Culver, he thrived. He loved sports, participating in varsity football as co-captain, baseball as tri-captain, and wrestling. In 1965, he graduated as Regimental Commander, the top leadership position, and garnered various academic accolades.

From there he was Harvard bound where he majored in Engineering and Applied Physics, played football, became a member of the notorious Hasty Pudding, was mentored by famed ethnobotanist, Richard Schultes, fully experienced college life in the ‘60s, and still graduated cum laude in 1969.

Medical school beckoned him, so he headed to Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. The experience he spoke most frequently of was the summer after his third year of medical school when he went to Guatemala and Honduras. He was encouraged by a Baylor professor to run a clinic in Tacaná, Guatemala, that was associated with an Amigos de las Americas program. Ralph was game for any challenge. As Medical Supervisor of a vaccination program, he concurrently ran a combined medical and surgical clinic, treating a wide range of medical conditions. Once he had graduated from BCM, Ralph began his residency there in General Surgery, then decided to move to an Obstetrics and Gynecology residency at Stanford Medical School. There he received the first Exemplary Service Award.

Ralph passed up an opportunity to practice OB/Gyn in California, opting instead to return to Houston. He had a dream of writing a book about the Allen brothers’ founding of Houston. To earn income while retaining flexibility in his schedule, he worked with various surgeons and assisted them when needed. He proceeded to make a life “cutting and sewing” in the mornings and researching and writing in the late afternoons and nights. The result was Allen’s Landing, a 718-page historical narrative on the founding of Houston.

Once the book was published, Ralph had a second dream: one about who would become the mother of his children. He met Terry Huffington when they were still kids - she was the little sister of his high school friend, Michael Huffington. They’d have a date once every 3-4 years after she graduated college, but when she moved from Boston to Houston, they had dinner together and something clicked. They were married eight months later. He described Terry as “a perfect soul mate and life-long best friend”.

Shortly thereafter, Sydney and Lindsay were born and Ralph’s sense of purpose and priorities changed. He adored his girls and became an engaged father, taking on the role of avid family chef, de facto family doctor, and source of sagely wisdom. As he liked to say: “If you can’t dazzle them with your brilliance, baffle them with your bullshit.”

Ralph’s living to his full potential was sadly cut short by the diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease at age 52, but his inner strength continued to shine through. He loved medicine and was a physician to his core. Even when Parkinson’s took his ability to operate, he pivoted and became involved in stem cell research. He threw all of his passion and intellectual energy into attempting to solve the mystery of how to regenerate human cells (attempting a technique which could potentially hold a cure for Parkinson’s and many other maladies).

While living in Steamboat Springs, he started a Parkinson’s support group that grew into a community that meaningfully supports those with Parkinson’s and their care partners. It was eventually absorbed into the Parkinson Association of the Rockies. Ralph continued to live as fully as he could until he couldn’t. He left those of us who knew and loved him with admiration, a bounty of funny stories, and the genuine and enduring love he felt for each of us.

Ralph was predeceased by his parents, Ruth Beatrice Allen Dittman, and Colonel Henry Dittman (U.S. Air Force, ret.). He is survived by his wife, Terry Huffington, his daughters, Sydney Celeste Allen Huffington Dittman (husband, Geoff Smith) and Lindsay Michel Allen Huffington Dittman; grandchildren Marlow Allen Smith and Rory Davison Smith; brother Henry “Hank” Dittman, Jr. (wife, Anne Dittman); very special cousins John “Jack” P. Mooney, Jr. (wife, Lucy Mooney), Col. Donna Ruth Mooney (U.S. Air Force, ret.) and Myrteel Mooney Ward (husband, Tom Ward); brother-in-law, Michael Huffington; nieces and nephew, Mary Ruth Dittman, Henry Mitchell Dittman, Christina Sophia Huffington, and Isabella Diana Huffington; and extended family, Kira Mooney Olson, and John (Jackie) P. Mooney, III.

A celebration of Ralph’s life will take place on Sunday, November 1, at the Sunset Coffee Building at Allen’s Landing, 1019 Commerce Street, Houston, Texas. Exact time and details will be posted at a later date. Ralph’s ashes will be interred alongside his in-laws, Celeste Phyllis Gough Huffington and Roy Michael Huffington, at Glenwood Cemetery at a family-only service preceding the celebration of his life.

The family wishes to thank all the many caregivers and physicians who assisted Ralph as his disease progressed, but they would like to extend special thanks to Olivia Herrera, Roseline Mokwe, and Lilian McFred, who provided stellar, loving care for him over many years. In addition, we’d like to thank Ana Hernandez and Gary Smith, for bringing light and care to Ralph through their friendship and love.

In lieu of flowers, for those interested, a memorial contribution may be made to Parkinson Association of the Rockies (request in online comment section that gift go “for YVPSN”, the support group Ralph started in 2012), Houston Area Parkinson Society, the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s Hospital or any charitable organization of your choosing.