Greer, South Carolina
Ralph L. Wykel, Sr.
2023
Ralph Lawton Wykel, Sr., only 95, passed peacefully on January 27, 2023 surrounded by loving family. He came into the world on the 21st night of September, 1927, but that was long before the song was written and undoubtedly not about small-town Arcadia, South Carolina. "Senior" was spirited to the very end and was mercifully granted the briefest of illnesses before the Lord called him home. As a standard bearer of the Greatest Generation with a childhood forged through the Great Depression, he proudly served as a gun mechanic in World War II. At age 14, he lied about his age to get a job at the rail yard and so began a 46-year love affair with trains and logistical problem-solving. The only...