Dear Colleagues,

To avoid sending numerous emails, I am compiling the emails about Ralph into one that I will send once or twice a day.

In the meantime, here is the email that Francis Churchill shared with the Campus Safety, Health and Environmental Management Association and to people at University of Vermont.

From Francis Churchill:

It is with great sadness that I report the passing of Ralph Stuart III on 6 December. Ralph was a dedicated champion for worker safety, a world-wide leader in the field of Environmental Health & Safety, a thoughtful mentor to many, and a dear friend.  

A leader in the field for more than 30 years, Ralph created the Chemical Right-To-Know Office at the University of Vermont in 1988 and guided the growth of that effort into a full EHS Department. He was one of the first in our field to connect the challenges of managing worker safety programs with the tools of the emerging world wide web. Though it may seem trite in today’s world of high-speed internet search engines, the on-line database of SDSs (“SIRI”) and the SAFETY email list that Ralph created and maintained in the 1990s were visionary. A decade later, Ralph helped convince the U.S. EPA to reconsider how laboratory chemical waste could be regulated, an effort that resulted in the Academic Waste Rule. For the last decade, Ralph worked to develop chemical safety levels that might guide laboratory design and lab operations; his work on this effort will continue in the many partners that he recruited and mentored along the way.   

Despite – or perhaps because of -- his quiet ways, Ralph deeply valued colleagueship and collaboration. He always looked for ways to connect people to share knowledge as well as questions. Ralph was an active contributor to the Campus Consortium for Environmental Excellence, CSHEMA (Campus Safety, Health & Environmental Management Association), and the Division of Safety & Health of the American Chemical Society.   

Following his 27 years at UVM, Ralph worked briefly at Cornell University and then managed EHS at Keene State College for almost a decade. He planned to retire from Keene this year.  

Throughout it all, Ralph made time for and was deeply proud of his two sons and was happy this year to become a grandfather. He maintained a Quaker thoughtfulness in his interactions and responses. He taught me to honestly wish good luck to others and kept two mantras that I will share.  

Professionally, I believe he would want you to remember
“We do not pay you to get hurt.”    

Personally, he might want us all to think of Wendell Berry’s words,
“Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.”  

Ralph’s family plans a private service in 2024.