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Ralph Eugene Faucett was born in Milton, Indiana, on July 28, 1916, son of Clerk W, and Iva Mabel ( Bertsch) Faucett. He attended IndianaUniversity, Indianapolis (Bachelor of Science, 1938) and EarlhamCollege, Eariham, Indiana (Bachelor of Arts, 1939), and returned to IndianaUniversity, from which he was graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1942 . He was commissioned Lieutenant (junior grade) in the Medical Corps of the U. S. Navy on January 16, 1943, and subsequently advanced in rank to that of Rear Admiral, to date from August 1, 1968.
He was a member of the AmericanCollege of Physicians, the American Medical Association, Indiana State Medical Society, Phi Chi (Professional Medical Society), and Theta Chi (Social) Fraternity.
Farm boy to Navy admiral Milton-area native distinguished himself in U.S. military
Dr. Ralph Eugene Faucett will come home to his final resting place in Wayne County this summer.
Faucett was born in 1916 on a farm two miles east of Milton. In his 97 years, he became a doctor, a U.S. Navy admiral, a researcher, a hospital director and a world traveler.
He died in January in San Diego and was cremated. His wish was to be buried with his family in Zion's Lutheran Church Cemetery in Pershing in western Wayne County.
His first wife, Elizabeth C. (Carpenter), died in 2005 and waits there for him.
"His parents are buried there and his grandparents," said Dr. Mark Woodward, Faucett's first cousin. Woodward is a veterinarian with practices in Richmond and Cambridge City.
"He was born in Wayne County and was very active in that church when he was a boy," Woodward said. "It was an important part of his growing up."
Faucett called military locales across the country and around the world home. His is a quintessential story of rising from meager beginnings.
"For an Indiana boy born on a farm with limited means, Ralph rose to the top of his profession," Woodward said.
Faucett graduated from Cambridge City High School, Earlham College and Indiana School of Medicine before embarking on a 32-year career as a U.S. Navy physician.
During the Cold War, he did cutting-edge research on the effect of living extended periods of time in a nuclear submarine. During World War II, he served in the South Pacific and with the occupation force in post-war Nagasaki, Japan. Woodward, 77, remembered his cousin as a serious man, dedicated to medicine and to the Navy.
"He was very studious, very interested in anything medical," Woodward said.
Faucett rose to the rank of rear admiral in the Navy and was commanding officer of naval hospitals in Japan, Long Island, N.Y., and Oakland, Calif.
"From a very early age he had an interest in medicine and in the military," said Dorothy (Bertsch) Smith, another first cousin who is retired and living in a nursing home in Indianapolis.
"Ralph was a good student, very serious but he could have fun," she said. "We attended Earlham together, but once he left this area, I only saw him on occasion. Still, we were good friends. I was an only child and he was an older brother figure for me."
Dr. Ralph Eugene Faucett will come home to his final resting place in Wayne County this summer.
Faucett was born in 1916 on a farm two miles east of Milton. In his 97 years, he became a doctor, a U.S. Navy admiral, a researcher, a hospital director and a world traveler.
He died in January in San Diego and was cremated. His wish was to be buried with his family in Zion's Lutheran Church Cemetery in Pershing in western Wayne County.
His first wife, Elizabeth C. (Carpenter), died in 2005 and waits there for him.
"His parents are buried there and his grandparents," said Dr. Mark Woodward, Faucett's first cousin. Woodward is a veterinarian with practices in Richmond and Cambridge City.
"He was born in Wayne County and was very active in that church when he was a boy," Woodward said. "It was an important part of his growing up."
Faucett called military locales across the country and around the world home. His is a quintessential story of rising from meager beginnings.
"For an Indiana boy born on a farm with limited means, Ralph rose to the top of his profession," Woodward said.
Faucett graduated from Cambridge City High School, Earlham College and Indiana School of Medicine before embarking on a 32-year career as a U.S. Navy physician.
During the Cold War, he did cutting-edge research on the effect of living extended periods of time in a nuclear submarine. During World War II, he served in the South Pacific and with the occupation force in post-war Nagasaki, Japan. Woodward, 77, remembered his cousin as a serious man, dedicated to medicine and to the Navy.
"He was very studious, very interested in anything medical," Woodward said.
Faucett rose to the rank of rear admiral in the Navy and was commanding officer of naval hospitals in Japan, Long Island, N.Y., and Oakland, Calif.
"From a very early age he had an interest in medicine and in the military," said Dorothy (Bertsch) Smith, another first cousin who is retired and living in a nursing home in Indianapolis.
"Ralph was a good student, very serious but he could have fun," she said. "We attended Earlham together, but once he left this area, I only saw him on occasion. Still, we were good friends. I was an only child and he was an older brother figure for me."
