\t\t\tJohn Ralph Thomas \t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\tOBITUARY\t\t<\/p>\n
John Ralph Thomas passed away peacefully on February 17, 2026, in Long Beach, California, at the age of 89. He lived a full and meaningful life marked by service, humor, and deep devotion to his family and friends. He was preceded in death by his beloved wife of 63 years, Mary Ann Thomas; his parents, John and Kathleen Thomas; his brother, Rodney Thomas; and his sister, Roberta Blodgett. Ralph is survived by his children Robert Thomas, Marya Zlatnik, Shannon Thomas, Colleen Morey, Kristen Easley, and Scott Easley. Ralph was born on December 29, 1936, at Letterman Hospital in San Francisco. His parents made the journey by ferry from Marin County, as the Golden Gate Bridge had yet to be built. He was raised in Corte Madera, California, and attended Drake High School. After graduating, he followed in his father\u2019s footsteps by joining the Marines. He later attended the College of the Pacific in Stockton, where he supported himself by working summers as a craps dealer at Harvey\u2019s Wagon Wheel in Stateline, Nevada. Those years gave him some of his favorite stories of wandering into the neighboring Cal Neva and catching impromptu performances by members of the Rat Pack.<\/p>\n
After college and Officer Candidate School, Ralph joined the Navy and served for five years aboard the USS Aludra, a naval supply ship. While on board, he played in the ship\u2019s band, carrying on the tradition of entertaining other crews during at-sea resupply missions. It was while stationed in San Diego that Ralph met Mary Ann. Ralph left active duty in 1962 but continued to serve for another 30 years in the Naval Reserves with the Naval Security Group. Always the sailor, he never stopped reminding the family to take short showers and when two bells rang, it was time to get to the table.<\/p>\n
While stationed in San Diego, Ralph\u2019s executive officer encouraged him to consider law school. He later recalled that this was some of the best advice he had ever received. Ralph and Mary Ann moved to San Francisco so he could attend Hastings College of the Law. After passing the bar in 1966, he joined the Marin County District Attorney\u2019s Office. He later entered private practice, served as a judge, and took on leadership roles within the Marin County Bar Association. His legal career included work on significant cases, including his service in the DA\u2019s office during the 1970 Marin County Civic Center shootout, and his representation of victims of the Synanon group.<\/p>\n
Ralph and Mary Ann made their home in San Rafael for 40 years, building a life rooted in family and community. In 2015, they returned to Coronado, where they spent their final years together doing what they loved most, watching the ships head out to sea and the jets fly overhead, just as their life together had started. <\/p>\n
There will be a celebration of the lives of both Ralph and Mary Ann on June 8, 2026, from 3-6pm at the Falkirk Cultural Center at 1408 Mission Avenue in San Rafael. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Ralph Thomas OBITUARY John Ralph Thomas passed away peacefully on February 17, 2026, in Long Beach, California,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-241945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}