John Elliott Ragland ’44

After suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for two years, John died April 29, 2010, in Paris, Mo.

At Princeton, he majored in biology (writing a thesis on fruit flies) and was a member of Key and Seal Club. He left in 1942 for three years in the Army Air Corps as a radar-bombardier instructor before finishing his education at Duke University Medical School. John chose to become a general practitioner, first in California, before returning to his roots in Missouri. For 50 years he worked as a country doctor in the small towns of Ballwin, Linn, and Paris, where he was known for his compassionate interest in his patients.  

John had an extensive knowledge and love of plants and animals. He raised fantail pigeons and bantam chickens, creating a hybrid chicken called “Silver-blue.”

After several years working at the Haskell Institute of Indians in Lawrence, Kan., and with the Navajos in New Mexico, he spent his final years in Big Springs, Mo.

John’s wife, Maybelle, died in 2006 after 53 years of marriage. He is survived by his daughter, Jennie Mills Ragland, and son Richard B. Ragland II, who was named after John’s brother, Richard B. Ragland ’45, who also survives. A sixth-generation descendant of Missouri pioneers, John was buried alongside his great-grandfather, grandfather, father, mother, and wife.