Ralph E. Silver, Jr.

Ralph Edwin Silver, Jr., son of Ralph and Elizabeth Silver, was born in Springfield, MA on February 22, 1944, and passed away on December 27, 2025 after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was predeceased by his parents, Aunt JuJu, and his sister Marie LeBlanc.

Ralph is survived by his loving family - his wife of 57 years, Lorraine; his two daughters, Amy Silver White and Kathryn Kiczuk (Christopher); and his granddaughter, Elizabeth Kiczuk, with whom he loved to play, with their laughter ringing throughout the air whenever they were together. He also leaves behind his former son-in-law Christopher, two sisters-in-law, a brother-in-law, several nephews, cousins, and many good neighbors and friends who helped Lorraine care for him over the years.

After graduating Technical High where he was named an All-Western Mass. soccer player, Ralph briefly attended WNEC before his family elders got together and decided he should join the U.S. Army. He became an Army paratrooper, was stationed in Munich, Germany, and guarded the Berlin Wall and Spandau Prison during the holiday season of 1964. He then spent time serving his country in Vietnam.

Ralph and Lorraine started dating when she was 16 and he was 18, and were married in 1968. They raised their two daughters in their Chicopee home where they lived together until she could no longer give him the care he needed. 

Ralph’s daughters were his pride and joy and he was very involved in their lives. He helped found the St. Stanislaus Kolbe House for his daughters’ school’s Junior High students, which was a place they could go on weekend nights to be with their friends. Besides his weekly chaperone duties there, Ralph would take his daughters and their friends on trips to go horseback riding, skiing, hay rides, and to chop firewood on his land in Vermont.

Ralph loved children and could make any child laugh without even talking to them. On one visit to a strict Amish home in Pennsylvania where children were supposed to be “seen and not heard,” a four-year-old who spoke only German burst out laughing because of the faces he was making at her. Her parents were shocked, but Lorraine wasn’t. He was happiest when he was making children, especially his daughters and granddaughter, smile and laugh.

After working for Manny’s Plumbing and Heating in Springfield for a number of years, Ralph decided to start his own plumbing business, Ralph E. Silver Plumbing and Heating. He was known for his fair pricing and worked very hard long hours for his family. He always made time to stop and play with his daughters when he came home from work, and often wanted to wake them up if they were sleeping. After his retirement at age 65, he became a plumbing inspector for the CIty of Chicopee until his Alzheimer’s worsened and he could no longer work.

Ralph was the epitome of the “workin’ man” - to quote the anonymous poem “Workin’ Man,” “Whenever you see a new house built, remember this, my friend, it took the common workin’ man to get that big job done! It’s true - executives have nice desks and stay real clean all day. They plan big projects to achieve, send memos to relay, but to turn their dreams into fact, remember this, my friend, it takes the common workin’ man to get those big jobs done.”

Ralph was very active within his community. He belonged to the Springfield Homebuilders’ Association, the Western Mass. Industrial Pistol League, the Hampden County Plumbing and Gas Inspectors’ Association, and the Westover Galaxy Community Council, where starting in 1987, he and his friend David Canegallo spent days on end working on the Great New England Air Shows and family picnic days for the Westover airmen and their families.

In the end, to the people who knew and loved him, Ralph will be forever be known as “the man who always made me laugh.”

Private funeral services will be held at the Agawam Veterans’ Cemetery at a later date. 

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Ralph’s memory to the Springfield Shriner's Children’s Hospital, Office of Philanthropy, 516 Carew Street, Springfield, MA 01104, or at Ways to Give – New England | Shriner's Children’s.