Remembering Ralph Obler
(1927 -2022)

I liked my uncle Ralph better than my father. He always had this unguarded smile when we met, no sense of unfinished business, no unmet expectations, no judgements or competition, just open interest. Ralph Obler might have been the same man, with a mustache: the same open countenance, available and curious and alert. They had the same name, the same demeanor, and the same influence on me. I cried when I heard of each man's passing.  But this is supposed to be an obituary, not a eulogy: let me remind you of Ralph Obler's identity as a man and husband and father and psychiatrist.

Ralph passed away April 14 this year at 95. He came from Elmira, upstate New York, served in the U.S. Navy during W.W.II, and then attended Union College, about which he had many stories. He got his M.D. at the University of Buffalo, and met his wife, June, there as well. His psychiatric residency was at the University of Colorado  after which he and June and their children came to Los Angeles. Here he joined the attending faculty at UCLA, started a private practice, and completed his analytic training. True to his character, he served on multiple hospital attending staffs, held a clinical (teaching) position at UCLA NPI for 68 years, was a member and officer in the SCPS, the L.A. Psychoanalytic,  APA, LACMA, CMA, etc. He also served on the Board of our Psychiatric Clinical Faculty Association, where he took the role of True North when we took to wandering a bit too much. He will be missed not only by me and his many friends and colleagues, but also by legions of patients and trainees and most of all, his family.

Allen Pack, M.D.
Cartographer of Inner Space