Ralf Walter Kyritz

April 24, 1938 – February 5, 2025 

A Life Well Lived

A life well lived is a precious gift
Of hope and strength and grace,
From someone who has made our world
A brighter, better place
It’s filled with moments, sweet and sad
With smiles and sometimes tears,
With friendships formed and good times shared
And laughter through the years.
A life well lived is a legacy
Of joy and pride and pleasure,
A living, lasting memory
Our grateful hearts will treasure.

By Anonymous

After a well lived life, Ralf passed peacefully in his sleep at the Grace hospital in Winnipeg on the evening of February 5th. He had beaten lung cancer, heart issues, broken femurs, and several other serious health issues, but could not survive the stroke that ended his life.

Ralf was predeceased by his parents, Anna and Walter, his brother Rainer, his sister Suse, his uncle Walter and aunt Mary.

Left to cherish his beautiful memory are his loving friend, companion, and partner of 42 years, Fran, his brother Klaus, his sister-in-law Gail, his brother-in-law Doug, his nieces Kim (Dave) and Renata, his nephews Kris (Anne-Marie) and James (Jasmine), his great-nieces Alexis, Arianna, Kia, and Audrey, his great nephews Mattias, Elliot, Rhys, and Samuel, and his chosen family Sue, Annabelle (Braiden), Adelyn and Spencer as well as many friends and former colleagues.

Ralf was born in Bad Cannstatt, now a suburb of Stuttgart, Germany. During World War II, as his father was an engineer assigned to oversee essential services, Ralf moved with his parents to several locations in eastern Germany and Poland. In Leipzig, their apartment building was set on fire when allied planes fire-bombed a nearby lumberyard. Near the end of the war, his father escaped with the whole family – his wife, mother-in-law, and three small children – from the Eastern Front. It was a lengthy dangerous journey by train to get back to their home near Stuttgart. For many years, the family lived in Esslingen, Germany before immigrating to Canada in 1951 when Ralf was 13 years old. As a child, Ralf loved roaming the hills and valleys surrounding his hometown in Germany, often taking six-hour long walks on his own on Sundays (and in his words, often to the chagrin of his parents). After a six-day turbulent autumn crossing of the Atlantic Ocean and a long train journey from Halifax, Ralf arrived with his family (as he described it) in the flat mosquito land of Canada. Ralf’s Uncle Walter, who owned the Garwood Grill at the time, had sponsored Ralf’s family. Initially the family lived above the restaurant. Living at Garwood Grill, Ralf learned that he would never want to own or run a restaurant. Helping at the restaurant, he peeled many, many potatoes for his uncle and never ever wanted to do that again. Living at the Garwood Grill and later in the house his parents bought on Mulvey Avenue, Ralf attended Earl Grey school and honed his English skills by reading classic writers like Alexandre Dumas. His favourite book being The Three Musketeers.

After Earl Grey School, Ralf attended Kelvin High School. He developed the photography skills he had learned from his father and took pictures for the school’s newsletters and yearbooks. Later he became the photographer for The Manitoban, the University of Manitoba “campus rag,” earning him the nickname THE EYE. During his high school and university years, he also worked for a professional photographer, Harold White. In this role, he did portrait work and took pictures at weddings and other special events. He also worked several summers at Weston Bakery. His earnings from these jobs enabled him to attend the University of Manitoba where he enrolled in the Faculty of Engineering, following in his father’s footsteps. In Engineering, he honed his analytical mathematical skills. He also had to take a second language. Ralf chose German, the only course he ever failed. In his final year of Engineering, he decided that the field of Engineering did not appeal to him, so he changed his career path by enrolling in the Faculty of Education. He graduated in 1963 and took a job in Treherne. During his two years in Treherne, his sister was sent to live with a family there. Ralf formed a strong bond with his sister during this time, despite acting as her chaperone on many of her dates. Till her death, they were very close. In 1965 he took a job in Lynn Lake. He enjoyed his two years in Northern Manitoba, fishing, reading the newspaper at 3 am, and watching the northern lights.

Next in his career path, Ralf got a job in St. James- Assiniboia School Division (SJASD) where he taught physics, mathematics, geography, physical education, and even music appreciation for fifteen years. His first school in St. James-Assiniboia was at Brooklands Collegiate. Ralf respected his students’ initiatives and skills, especially after they got his keys out of his locked car. Ralf remembered his students at Brooklands Collegiate as one of the most cohesive groups he ever taught because the students considered school as an integral, if not the most important part of their community. After Brooklands Collegiate, he went to Sturgeon Creek Collegiate where he discovered the great advantages a student gains in being exposed to both academic and vocational subjects and he wished that he had had similar opportunities in his youth. But he enjoyed his last three years of teaching at John Taylor Collegiate the most, particularly his last class of grade 12 students whom he felt, without a doubt, were the smartest group that he had ever taught. Ralf served on the Manitoba Department of Education committee that introduced a new provincial physics curriculum. He was a dedicated public-school teacher, but for several years also taught summer courses in physics at the University of Winnipeg Collegiate.

Besides his passion for teaching, Ralf became very active in teacher politics. Starting in 1963, he served on the executives of the Tiger Hills Teachers’ Association, the Lynn Lake Teachers’ Association, and was very involved with the St. James-Assiniboia Teachers’ Association serving on committees, the executive, and as its President in 1971. Ralf was elected to the executive of the Manitoba Teachers’ Society (MTS), becoming its President in 1977-78. He was also a Director of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation Board from 1976 to 1979, chairing the Pensions, Education Finance, and the Ad Hoc Committee studying the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Report. In 1978, he attended the World Confederation of Organizations of the Teaching Profession in Jakarta, Indonesia as an MTS delegate. In a letter to him from the CTF President recognizing his service as a director, it stated that your voice on behalf of the rights of teachers will certainly be missed.

In 1981, Ralf retired from St James-Assiniboia School Division having been hired as an MTS Economic Welfare and Personnel Service Staff Officer. Ralf had served on and chaired local association, provincial society, and national federation committees dealing with welfare, political action, legal, and professional development issues. Being a pragmatist by nature, he ran meetings efficiently, focused on finding practical solutions and getting tasks accomplished despite any obstacles that might arise. He carried this work ethic into his role as a Staff Officer. He spent the years of his career at MTS defending the rights of teachers, solving personnel problems, and negotiating contracts which included two landmark decisions for the teachers of Manitoba on parental leave and duty-free lunch. In his tenure, as an MTS Staff Officer, Ralf was assigned to both rural (e.g. Dauphin, Interlake, Swan River, Thompson) and urban (e.g. St. Boniface, St James, St. Vital, River East) Teachers’ Associations. He was personally responsible for getting many rural and urban teachers involved in both their local Teachers Associations and the Provincial MTS. Ralf retired from the Manitoba Teacher’s Society in 2005 and was awarded a Lifetime Membership, the highest honour given by the Manitoba Teacher’s Society.

Ralf was a Renaissance man. He was trained in the sciences but loved the arts. He enjoyed talking physics, philosophy, logic, and mathematics. He was passionate in his advocacy for teachers and loved using his highly developed analytical strategies in negotiations. In his personal life he also had many passions – his love of family, pets, traveling, photography, skiing, swimming, dining out, collecting art, Formula 1 racing, and music – opera, classical, and jazz. Ralf loved traveling, on his own and with others. He was a traveler, not a tourist. He loved engaging in local customs, trying the local foods, and enjoying the local beverages. He went to Europe, especially Germany visiting relatives, many times; to all provinces in Canada; across the US visiting 48 of the 50 states; to several Asian countries – Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore; and to North Africa. He traveled by car, train, boat, motorcycle, and airplane, whatever would take him to where he wanted to go. Everywhere he went he took his camera, taking wonderful pictures of the local sights, as evidenced by the boxes and bins of pictures and slides he had. He particularly loved going to mountainous areas to hike in the summer and ski in the winter. One of his greatest delights was climbing to the top of the Zugspitze, the tallest mountain peak (2950 m) in Germany. He enjoyed skiing whether it was at ski resorts in Canada like Whistler and Banff or in the US at Aspen or Big Sky. He enjoyed swimming, especially in the ocean. He was taught how to swim by a friend of his father’s, who was a semi-professional water polo player. On his travels, he collected works of art – paintings, folk art, and novelty items – surrounding himself with reminders of his travels when he returned home. One passion he learned from Fran was an appreciation for motorsports, particularly Formula One racing. Ralf and Fran went to Montreal a dozen times to see races at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, wearing their sports regalia, being loyal fans through scorching heat, torrential rains, and student protests, while arguing about who was the best race driver. For Ralf, that was Michael Schumacher, a German driver and a Formula One legend.

Ralf’s greatest passion in the arts was his love of music. Ralf introduced Fran to her first opera, Aida, in May 1983. Thirty-seven years later, he took her on a Manitoba Opera tour to New York City to see Aida at the Metropolitan Opera. They also went to other operas in many unique places – a frontier opera theatre in Colorado; a colosseum in Verona, Italy; by the Lake of Constance in Germany; and at the Komische Oper in Berlin. Ralf introduced Annabelle, Sue’s daughter, to her first opera, The Magic Flute, on her champagne birthday when she turned 13. He had attended his first opera, Hansel and Gretel, when he was seven, and he felt all children should be introduced to classical music at an early age. Ralf and Fran also traveled to jazz festivals in Litchfield, Massachusetts and Newport, Rhode Island where they met Dave Brubeck, Sonny Rollins, and Eartha Kitt as well as watching the performances of many other jazz luminaries. They also went to classical music festivals in Aspen, Sacramento, Boston, and Banff. They attended Manitoba Opera productions (Ralf being a Camerata supporter), Winnipeg Symphony concerts, and Winnipeg Jazz Festival events. They also traveled to other locales to see performances by such luminaries as Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Neil Diamond, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Little Richard, and Jerry Lee Lewis. Ralf enjoyed talking to musicians and performers about their craft. He particularly enjoyed a long discussion with Little Richard, who delayed his plane flight back to Los Angeles to spend time talking with Ralf. Throughout his life, Ralf enjoyed improvising on the piano, on which he was self-taught, but had been able to transfer the skills he had learned playing the accordion in his youth. Many Christmas Eve celebrations featured Ralf playing the piano or accordion with Doug, his brother-in-law, accompanying him on the violin.

Ralf’s highest passion was for family. Ralf loved and respected his father, more than any man he ever knew. Tragically when Ralf was 17, his father died in a hit and run car accident. His mother and sister were the most influential women in his life. He greatly loved and admired his mother. She earned his undying respect after the death of her husband when she became a single parent, going to work as a secretary for James Richardson, her first job in Canada. He believed his sister was the core/heart of the family. She maintained contact with everyone as family spread across Canada, hosted family holiday dinners, and brought family together in her home and at her cottage.

There were three other significant women in his life. Chryle who he met while sitting next to her on a plane going to Europe when he was 32, and Fran who he became acquainted with on a plane trip to Thompson while they were heading there to do a workshop for the Thompson Teachers’ Executive when he was 44. In the 1970s, he designed and built a beautiful house, planting hundreds of trees to surround it, in St. Francis Xavier with Chryle, his then wife. From 1984 on, he enjoyed the peace, tranquility, and joy of the home that Fran helped him pick out in Woodhaven. He loved animals, having dogs for most of his life and Snooki, a cat that adopted and lived with him in Woodhaven for 19 years.

Ralf’s love of family was extended to his chosen family. Friends becoming family you chose for yourself. Ralf took Sue, the third significant woman in his life, under his wing as a fledgling negotiator. Over the years, Ralf became close family friends with Sue and her then husband, becoming Uncle Ralf to Sue’s daughter Annabelle. Recently he became Great-uncle Ralf to Annabelle’s children, Adelyn and Spencer. During their early retirement years, Uncle Ralf and Auntie Fran spent many happy days taking Annabelle on field trips around Winnipeg and across the province – skiing at Holiday Mountain, exploring the Whiteshell, and visiting Bruce, the mosasaur in Morden.

Ralf also developed significant male friendships, mostly during his years as a teacher and a teacher advocate. He enjoyed spending time with his buddies, bonding over meals, especially German food at the Gasthaus Gutenberger; discussing politics or investment strategies; biking in Assiniboine Park; or traveling. He met Bernie at John Taylor Collegiate and remained friends with him until Bernie’s death in 2019; Bill who became friends with Ralf while he was teaching in Manitoba, and invited Ralf to visit him and his wife Jennifer, also a former Manitoba teacher, at their Florida home; and Mike and Tom, both economists and former MTS colleagues of Ralf who worked with him on many arbitrations. Ralf’s longest male friendship was with Mike. Even as an ex-brother-in-law, Mike maintained a 50-year friendship with Ralf, spending time during Ralf’s last years taking him for rides, meals and to medical appointments.

In more recent years, Ralf enjoyed getting to know new friends as he got together for dinners and celebrations with Janice, Kathy, Rosanna, Marilyn, and Sandi (Fran’s card ladies’ group) and its male extensions, Dave and Clayton; particularly enjoying prime rib dinners at Johnny’s with Kathy and Fran. He also enjoyed times spent with Fran’s friends Uyen and Hoang and their children Mary and Joseph. Some of the greatest joys of his last year were the field trips he took with Fran and her friends Julie Ann, Barb and Marie. Ralf enjoyed a wonderful drive with Julie Ann to her home in Brandon and going to Riding Mountain National Park. He enjoyed a spectacular day shopping, dining, and learning the history of Barb’s family in Gimli. He loved showing Marie that Manitoba was more than just the city of Winnipeg. Marie told Frani and Ralfie, as she called them, that she had always been under the impression that retirement was a bad thing. After exploring Winnipeg, Seven Sisters, Gimli, Winnipeg Beach, Steinbach, Morden, Selkirk, and Lockport last summer, taking pictures of the unique sights in each of these settings, and finding unique restaurants in each, Marie said that now she could hardly wait to retire. Ralfie and Frani being her role models for what a retiree should be – happy, involved, enthusiastic adventurers and life learners.

A life well lived with a sparkle in his eyes, a bright smile, and a quirky dry sense of humour.

The family extends heartfelt thanks to Dr. L. Chisick and the staff at Grace Hospital for their fine care of Ralf in his final weeks. They also wish to thank Dr. C. Polimeni (G. P.) and Dr. R. Kroeker (cardiologist) for keeping Ralf as healthy as possible for as long as possible. Fran extends her sincerest thanks and gratitude to family and friends who supported and visited during Ralf’s last days.