Ralph Roger Sundquist was born in Galesburg, Illinois, on 5 January 1894, to the Rev. and Mrs Hjalmar Sundquist. In 1910, the family moved to the Yakima Valley because Hjalmar had health problems he thought curable in a warm, dry climate. Ralph graduated from Yakima High School in 1912 and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Horticulture from the State College of Washington in 1916. A year later, he received a Master of Science degree in Horticulture from the State College. He taught biological courses for a year at Whitworth College, in Spokane, before returning to Yakima, where he taught high school for two years. About this time he married Elaine Fager.
The Sundquist family entered the apple business soon after arriving in the Yakima Valley. Around 1920, Ralph purchased his first orchard near Gleed. The Sunnyslope orchards did very well through the rest of the decade, raising a number of apple varieties for nationwide markets. These included the Starking Red Delicious. The early 1930s economic downturn nearly left Sundquist in financial ruin. In 1948, Sundquist and a colleague opened the Hansen Fruit and Cold Storage Company, in Yakima. He later established the Sundquist Fruit and Cold Storage Co. In 1966, he built a new controlled-atmosphere storage facility for processing, storing and shipping apples from his 850 acres of orchards and those of others.
Sundquist was an active member of the community. He was an early communicant of Yakima's First Presbyterian Church, giving much of his time and money. He made large contributions for improvements in the congregation's pipe organ in the 1940s and 1950s, and for stained glass windows. He was president of the Lower Naches Telephone Company, the the Yakima District Horticultural Society, and the Washington State Horticultural Association. He also as a board member of the Yakima YMCA, founding director of the Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital (later a trustee), director of the Yakima Valley College, and member of the Yakima School board. Sundquist also helped organize Yakima's first television station, KIMA-TV, and Yakima's educational television station.
Early in the 1950s, Ralph became a member of the Atomic Energy Commission's Personnel Advisory Board for the Hanford Project. He helped evaluate potential employees' security clearance applications. At this time, he also became a director of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank's Seattle Branch. In 1963, Ralph and two dozen other regional agribusinessmen travelled around the world as part of the U.S. State Department's People-to-People cultural exchange program. They observed crop production methods in many developing middle eastern and Asian countries. Among his many honors for civic activities, Ralph Sundquist received the Boy Scouts of America's Silver Beaver Award for his commitment to the Fort Simcoe Council. He also won the Greater Yakima Valley Chamber of Commerce's Award of Merit for outstanding community service. He received the State College of Washington's Certificate of Merit.
From the guide to the Ralph R. Sundquist Papers, 1909-1980, (Washington State University Libraries Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections)
