Ralph Stokes

Ralph Stokes February 18, 1925 - December 29, 2011

Ralph Keith Stokes, age 86, of Frontenac, Minnesota, passed away peacefully on Thursday, December 29, 2011 at the Keystone Communities in Faribault, from complications of congestive heart failure. Funeral services will be held on Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 6:30 p.m. at the Parker Kohl Funeral Home & Crematory (607 2nd Ave. N.W.) in Faribault, with the Rev. Joanna Mitchell, associate pastor of Our Savior''s Lutheran Church in Faribault, officiating. Interment will be held on Friday at 3:00 p.m. at the Memorial Park Cemetery in Waterloo, Iowa. Visitation will be held on Thursday at the funeral home from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. An additional visitation will be held on Friday at the Memorial Park Cemetery Chapel in Waterloo from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. Ralph Keith Stokes, the youngest son of Ralph K. and Lillian (Hillock) Stokes, was born on February 18, 1925 in Waterloo, Iowa. He graduated from Orange High School in Waterloo. Keith was united in marriage to Jean Ann Hartman on February 17, 1950 at the Zion Lutheran Church in Waterloo, Iowa. After high school, Keith operated a dry cleaning business for 12 years. Keith then became a licensed realtor in 1957 and later acquired an independent insurance agency in 1965, which he owned and operated along with his real estate company. He later sold the insurance company, but continued selling real estate right up until his demise. Keith was past president of the Waterloo Cedar Falls Board of Realtors and served on many local and state Board Committees. He was named Iowa''s Realtor of the year in 1967. After losing his oldest daughter Karen to suicide, Keith started and was facilitator, from 1982 until 1990, for a Suicide Survivor''s grief support group that met once a month for friends and families that have lost someone to suicide. He was a member of the American Association of Sociology and attended many of their National Conventions. He was named Coordinator for a Government Suicide Prevention Program for the state of Iowa and surrounding states in 1985-1986. Keith also appeared on the Phil Donahue T.V. Show in 1985 to speak on the subject of young women and suicide. He was also interviewed by Good Morning America and several other radio stations to talk about the subject of suicide. Keith also presented suicide preventions programs to churches, services clubs, high schools, at the University of Northern Iowa and also held continuing education classed at Hawkeye Tech on suicide grief and preventions. Keith researched multiple sibling suicides in four Midwest states and presented his findings to the American

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