Father: Riley Lee Holcombe, a wholesale seed merchant Ed. John Muir Technical High School, Pasadena CA, East Central State Teachers College Next of Kin: Mother: Grace [Stewart], 830 E 14th St, Ada, OK m. Inez Smith (Divorced, 1 child) prev. Pilot for Newton B. Badgett Flying School, Shreveport Louisiana. Flying Instructor to US Air Corps in Stamford TX, May-41 to Jun-41 Of sick from 20 Aug to 14 Nov 1941 with 'septic mouth' Post-ATA, a test pilot for Douglas, Boeing, Bechtel-Cone and Consolidated, and the inventor of a series of pilot training methods and aids that included "the famous buzz bonnet" used by the US Navy. In 1948 his 6-year old daughter Judy was paralyzed after being run over by a truck and subsequently died. In 1953 his father suffered a stroke which affected his right side; Ralph designed and built a 'walker', made from airframe tube. The invention was taken up by Walk-A-Gain Walkers Inc, of Ada, and "found a market all over the world." The following year, describing himself as a "human engineer", he invented a machine which taught people to dance; it was described as looking like "a cross between a helicopter and a maypole."
Ralph, with a real dancing instructor and the robot helper being fastened to her feet. In 1962 he said he had "well over 12,500 hrs of ferrying, testing, executive flying, instruction work, bush flying, airline work and USAAF." d. 1986 - Oklahoma City
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