Ralph Frederick Voss

His education in the public schools of Lyons and Plainville, Kansas, Fort Hays State University, and the University of Texas at Austin prepared him for his lifelong career as an educator.

Voss taught at the high school in LaCrosse, Kansas; Texas A&M University at Commerce; Atlanta Junior

College; and the University of Utah before serving for 31 years at the University of Alabama. His academic specializations included Rhetoric I, Composition, and American dramatic literature, and he authored writing textbooks, books about the American playwrights William Inge and Tennessee Williams, and a book about Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, as well as numerous articles in his academic specializations.

Voss was the recipient of the Eugene Current-Garcia Excellence in Scholarship Award given by the Association of English Teachers of Alabama; the Distinguished Tennessee Williams Scholar Award given by the Tennessee Williams Festival of Columbus, Mississippi; and the Jerome Lawrence Award for Distinguished Contributions to the American Theater, given by the William Inge Theater Festival. He was nominated three times for the University of Alabama Judy Bonner Excellence in Teaching Award, given by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.

Among his lifelong interests were maintaining friendships with people he knew from everywhere he had ever lived and worked, popular music, singing, strumming his guitar, and going to movies. He loved to read biographies and histories, and after his retirement in 2009 he continued to teach senior courses and make presentations for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute's Greater Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, Alabama chapters. He was a regular participant at the William Inge Theater Festival in Independence, Kansas; and Tennessee Williams Theater Festivals in Columbus and Clarksdale, Mississippi.

Voss is survived by his wife, Glenda Weathers of the home in Birmingham, Alabama; sons, John Voss

of Knoxville, Tennessee, Walker Voss of Hays, Kansas, and Collin Voss of Cullman, Alabama; and four grandchildren, Alexandra and Zachary Voss of Knoxville, and Kyler and Kash Voss of Hays.

Memorial contributions are suggested to the Fort Hays State University Foundation, specified for the Ralph F. Voss, Elvon and Ruby Feldkamp English Scholarship, sent to the Robbins Center, One Tiger Place, Hays, Kansas 67601.