Ralph S. Brown

Abstract

At the end of Ralph's suggested list of speakers for this memorial, he said, "Admonish them to be brief." That caveat, of course, mirrored Ralph's abiding modesty. It surely also reflected a weariness induced by his faithful attendance at half a century of meetings that, however worthy and even essential they may have been, were needlessly protracted. And Ralph's courtesy led him to refer to us, the speakers, as "them," using a collective pronoun rather than specifying those in particular need of his advice. We are thus enabled to proceed in the spirit that animated a British cabinet on addressing Queen Victoria, when they amended their introductory disclaimer-" conscious as we are of our failings"-to "conscious as we are of each other's failings."