Ralph Emil Schulz

Ralph Schulz was born to Emil and Genevieve Schulz on May 12, 1928, in Willow Springs, Illinois. Their family moved to Burlingame, California in 1942, where Ralph and his sister Corinne attended Burlingame High School. He quickly became popular and served on the student council. After graduation, Ralph worked in a grocery store on Broadway, Burlingame. It was at this store that Russell P. Morris, a regional manager at General Foods, took a liking to him. Ralph joined General Foods and quickly rose from Territory Manager to Regional Manager in a newly created division in Southern California called Institutional Food Sales. After 5 years, at the request of his wife Barbara, who wanted to return home to San Francisco, Ralph left the company to pursue an opportunity. They purchased a small food company that manufactured a garlic concentrate used by chefs called Garlic Cream. With his wife Barbara and his mother and father working alongside him, that company became Dean Distributors Inc. (named after Barbara’s maiden name), a food manufacturing company that prospered over the years and still exists today. It has received Sysco’s Top 100 Supplier award four times. Ralph was a born salesman and an accomplished businessman, and he was very well respected in the foodservice and distributor community.

Ralph met his wife Barbara Dean at a friend’s wedding, and they married on November 3, 1951. As they built Dean Distributors together, they lived in Parkmerced for a few years, then moved to Burlingame in 1962, and finally to Hillsborough in 1976. During the 1960s and 1970s, they raised 3 children. They all enjoyed family vacations together over the years, where work was forgotten, and they all would have many laughs together. In the 1970s, Ralph took up golf, primarily playing at the Peninsula Golf and Country Club. He served on several committees there, eventually serving as President, in the 1980s. He also was a member of the Olympic Club and California Golf Club.

One of Ralph’s greatest personal accomplishments was pursuing and receiving an MBA from Pepperdine University in the late 1970s. He voraciously read every book that was part of the curriculum and he always said that if it weren’t for that education, Dean Distributors would not have survived.

Ralph will be remembered for his sharp (and goofy) sense of humor. He was an avid reader, especially of history, amassing a library of hundreds of volumes over the years. He was a great family man and a loving father, and he would always drop everything to listen to problems and was always ready with good advice. He was extremely generous, not just in giving to charitable organizations, but also to individuals who had stories that touched his heart. Though he was raised Protestant, he supported raising the children in Barbara’s Catholic faith, and he attended mass on most Sundays with his family and, later, with Barbara, over the years.

Ralph passed away peacefully on Easter Sunday morning, April 17. He is predeceased by his sister Corinne Schulz Recht and his devoted wife Barbara, who passed away in August 2021. He is survived by his son Brad Schulz (Vivian Schulz), daughter Cynthia Schulz (David Stirrat), son Mark Schulz (Kelly Schulz), grandchildren Lindsay Schulz, Drew Schulz, Hilary Schulz Falco (Jon Falco), Michael Schulz, Dean Stirrat, Eliza Stirrat, and granddog Penny Schulz.

Family and friends are invited to a funeral mass to be held at Our Lady of Angels parish in Burlingame on Wednesday, April 27 at 10am, followed by interment alongside his loving wife Barbara at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma.