YOUR STORY MATTERS HERE: Ralph Duckworth

By Tim Wesley

For Ralph Duckworth, it’s a date that will live in epiphany. 

April 15. 

Tax Day. 

A day of deadlines, stress and dismay for those with a large tax bill.

As he settles into semi-retirement after a nearly 50-year career as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) – during which he’s prepared perhaps 10,000 tax returns for clients – Ralph has compiled a few Tax Day memories, but none rival April 15, 2007, a date that for him has nothing to do with numbers.  A date that would eventually change lives as far away as Zimbabwe, more than 8,000 miles from the Duckworths’ home in New Sewickley Township.

On that date, their home and its contents were in flames.

“To say the least, we were facing some very taxing circumstances,” said Ralph, fully intending that pun and, all these years later, able to look back lightheartedly.  “It certainly ended up being a defining moment for my family and me.”

In that moment, as Ralph and his family – his wife, Jan, and their 17-year-old son, Paul – stood in the street watching their house burn, they were enveloped by neighbors and friends, including fellow members of Dutilh and Tony Fallisi, Dutilh’s then-associate pastor.  And in that moment, Ralph felt “blessed and loved.”

“We were so grateful to have all those people there for us,” he said.  “I remember standing next to Tony and he was just shaking his head.  I looked over at him and said, ‘You know, it’s all just stuff.’  For me, it was like an epiphany.  It gave me a whole new perspective on material things in this world.”

The Duckworths lost most of their material possessions on that date but began rebuilding their brick house and moved back home about eight months later.  Ralph brought with him that new perspective, including a renewed sense of purpose and commitment for service and charitable giving.

“We had to grow into it, but we began to be a lot more generous with our money and time,” he said.  “Our friends, neighbors, clients, and the Dutilh family had been so generous to us, it was only natural that we in turn should be generous to others. What we found was that the more charitably inclined we were, the more God blessed us.  I can say that with no hesitancy and no reservations.”

Ralph’s story started in Cleveland, where he was born and raised, but it has led to blessings as far away as Zimbabwe, as you’ll soon see. 

He graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1973 with a degree in economics and from the University of Pittsburgh the following year with an MBA.  He then began working as an auditor for a large public accounting firm, Haskins & Sells.  In 1977, he had a blind date with Jan, a Pittsburgh native and human resources professional, and they married on Aug. 9, 1980 – even though Jan’s mother had a hard time remembering what her son-in-law did for a living.

“When Jan and I were dating, her mom would always ask me what I did for Baskins and Robbins [the ice cream restaurant],” Ralph said.  “I reminded her that I was a CPA, and it didn’t stand for chocolate, pistachio and almonds.”

He worked at Baskins, um, Haskins & Sells until 1985, then joined Duquesne Light Co., where he eventually served as controller of its nuclear power plant operations, based at the Shippingport plant.  In 2000, he started his own firm, Duckworth Financial Services, which initially focused on tax preparation and later expanded into investment management.  Six years later, Ralph partnered with another CPA to form ATI Financial, and last year he sold his stake in the company and began easing into retirement, although he plans to continue providing some tax services for the foreseeable future.

A confessed jigsaw puzzle fanatic – he has completed perhaps a dozen, 600-piece landscapes during the pandemic – Ralph said he has always enjoyed working with clients to put the pieces of their financial picture together.

“Whether it’s taxes or investments, everyone’s story is like a jigsaw puzzle and you have to put it together to make it work,” he said.  “For me, probably the most gratifying part of working was helping people with financial planning.  Many times, I would meet with people in their forties or fifties who were concerned about whether they had a path to a successful retirement.  We’d work with them, put together a plan and walk them through it.  It was gratifying to see this sigh of relief from them when they could see it would work, that there was light at the end of their work tunnel.”

He also enjoyed the flexibility and freedom of having his own firm, which, for example, enabled him to take an afternoon off now and then to watch Paul play school basketball or soccer.  What didn’t he enjoy? 

“Working with difficult clients,” he said.  “Sometimes, there was just no pleasing some people.”

But that’s also when he had opportunities to demonstrate some Christian principles, whether it meant inviting someone to a church event or simply trying to be understanding of a person’s situation.

“You have to show kindness and treat people with respect,” he said.  “I try to remember that we’re all God’s children, and everyone deserves respect and consideration no matter what.  There are many ways to live out our Christianity outside of the brick and mortar church, without preaching.  There’s not anything wrong with preaching, but not everyone is comfortable doing that.  I will never be comfortable standing on a street corner thumping a Bible, but I like to think I’ve lived out my faith in other ways.”

Ralph began the journey to living out his faith when Jan and he started to attend Dutilh in 1995, thanks to Rev. Larry Homitsky.  A high school classmate of Jan’s, Larry was serving as Dutilh’s interim pastor that year, when the Duckworths ran into him at a Chinese restaurant.

“He came in for takeout and Jan recognized him, so he came over to our table and sat down,” Ralph said.  “By the time he got up to leave, I’m sure his food was cold.  We were unchurched at the time and very impressed by Larry.  Jan started going to Dutilh and I decided to go along.”

After one Sunday service, Bob Pearce, then the leader of Dutilh’s men’s group, invited Ralph to a meeting, and the group became an important step on his journey.

“It was a great group of guys, with good discussions and good fellowship,” Ralph said.

He later served as treasurer for the group, and for years delighted in manning the ticket table at its annual Father-Daughter Dance.

“That was one way I could participate in the dance, even though I didn’t have a daughter,” he said with a laugh.

Ralph also began attending men’s Sunday school classes, which sparked a burning desire to participate in international mission work. 

As the story goes, in 2012 the men’s class read a book that included a chapter about the plight of the world’s poor, particularly in Africa.  It noted that two-thirds of the people in the world lived in “extreme poverty;” that half of the world’s six billion residents subsisted on less than two dollars per day; that when you combined extreme poverty with disease, lack of medical care, poor education and a shortage of water, the only outcome was a death spiral with no end in sight.  Then the author delivered his seminal point:  How can we, as Christians, knowing what we know about Jesus’ teachings and about the incredible needs of those less fortunate, and not be committed to doing something to help? 

During the class discussion that followed, Ralph leaned over and whispered to the guy next to him, “I have this dream about digging water wells in Africa.” 

“Why does it have to be only a dream?” came the whispered response.

From that exchange, Dutilh’s work with The Nyadire Connection (TNC) began.  TNC was founded in 2006 after a group of Pittsburghers from Christ UMC in Bethel Park returned from a trip to the Nyadire United Methodist Mission in northeastern Zimbabwe.  In 2012, Jan introduced Ralph to a work colleague who had been on that first trip, and the next year Ralph visited Nyadire with a small group to tour the mission’s six rural medical clinics. 

During the tours, they met with hundreds of local villagers, many of whom had walked miles to tell their gut-wrenching stories about their need for the clinics.  One woman told of walking to a clinic to have her baby, but before she could get there she gave birth to her son in a river bed.  Another lady tried to get there in an ox cart but fell out and broke her leg.  Ralph noticed one new mother who had to be moved outside of the clinic from a birthing room just a couple of hours after delivering her baby to make room for another woman to deliver hers.

After visiting the six clinics, the TNC group returned home with a clear, yet daunting, mission:  to begin raising money for the refurbishment projects.  Based on detailed construction plans and cost estimates, each clinic would cost roughly $300,000 to rebuild.  For TNC, with an annual budget of about $200,000, coming up with that kind of money – let alone $1.8 million for all six clinics – would be by far the organization’s most ambitious effort.

Which is why Ralph looks back today – with five of six clinics completed – and calls it an “astounding, amazing adventure.”

“At the time, we just knew that there was a desperate need for more modern facilities, and that it was going to be a monumental task ahead of us.  We had no idea how to pay for it, but God has led the way.  At times, it looked like the project was going to stop and then we would come up with new funding in some way.  As we sit here today, I have no clue how we’ll fund the sixth clinic, but I have no doubt that it will happen.  People have been touched by the need, so they’ve opened up their hearts and wallets to make this happen.  I’ve been blessed to be part of it.”

Ralph has been to Nyadire three times, and he has many fond memories of the people he’s met there, but one occasion stands out – another epiphany, you might say.  After attending a dedication ceremony for the Nyahuku clinic, he was talking to a group of young school girls about what the refurbished clinics mean to them.

“It gives us hope,” they said.

“That said it all,” said Ralph, reflecting on that conversation recently.  “If we can do something to bring hope to a desperate part of the world, that’s a good thing.”

 Find out more about Dutilh Church’s history and connection with TNC.

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If you or someone you know in the Dutilh family has an interesting story or profession, send us your ideas! We would love to help tell the story. Email: communications@dutilhumc.org.