Ralph Healey survived a lot of things during his life.
He stepped on a landmine, and had to have his right foot amputated in the 1940s. He was in a plane crash in the 1950s. He was in a head-on collision with a semi-truck in the 1980s.
“He was a tough guy,” said his son Mark Healey, of Marietta. “We used to say he was like a cat with nine lives. I guess it all finally caught up to him.”
Ralph Sutton Healey of Johns Creek died Friday from complications of a heart attack and pneumonia. He was 87. A military funeral service will be held at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at H.M. Patterson & Son’s Arlington Chapel. Burial will follow at Arlington Memorial Park. H.M. Patterson & Son, Arlington Chapel is in charge of arrangements.
The elder Mr. Healey didn’t let his age, or a prosthesis, stop him from doing anything, friends and family said. He hosted parties, he loved to play golf, he cut his own grass and he still drove himself anywhere he wanted to go.
Mr. Healey was still very active in his Johns Creek community, too. He had a host of friends he regularly met up with at the Atlanta Athletic Club, a group of golfers and a group of singles.
“He was a wonderful host,” said Casey Wilhelm, a friend from the singles club. “He would offer his home up for the parties we would have.”
Mr. Healey, who earned an electrical engineering degree from Georgia Tech in 1950, was well-known for the good technical advice he gave, Ms. Wilhelm said.
“He could tell you how to fix anything,” she said. “And he gave the best instructions on how to do it.”
Playing golf was a great love of Mr. Healey’s life, his son said. He regularly played with the Duffers at the athletic club and still had a good game.
“He has loved the game as long as I can remember,” his son said. “Earlier this year, he shot his age, and he was proud of that, even though it wasn’t the first time he’d done it.”
Mr. Healey was a decorated solider and a businessman, his son said. While in the army, he was a paratrooper. During his service in World War II, he earned a Purple Heart and a Silver Star. After his military service, he got his degree and started Ralph Healey and Associates, a company that represented manufacturers. The business, now called Control Instruments, eventually evolved into a systems supplier for water and wastewater plants, and is now run by his son.
The younger Mr. Healey said his father had an uncanny ability to understand machinery and was an excellent mathematician.
“I’ve always said my dad is the smartest man I know,” he said. “He understood how motors worked in a way I don’t. I went to Georgia Tech, too, and I majored in electrical engineering, too, but I don’t know all that he knew. I don’t think I ever will.”
Mr. Healey is also survived by nine grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; one brother and a host of nieces, nephews and extended family members.
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