Ralph Warren Pierson, BS Med ‘52, of Minot, died Sunday, April 18, 2010, in a Minot hospital. He was 83.

Longtime Minot physician and farmer Ralph Warren Pierson was born and raised in York. He attended school on the home farm until his graduation from the Benson County Agricultural Training School in Maddock. In 1950, he graduated from Concordia College, Moorhead, Minn., with a pre-med major. He attended medical school at the University of North Dakota and at the University of Illinois in Chicago, where he met his future wife.

He married Wilma J. Kvenild in 1954. Together they had five children, raising four of them to adulthood with a strong sense of family loyalty and a love of learning.

He and Wilma shared many adventures. After their wedding, the couple moved to Los Angeles to begin Warren's internship. They also lived in Bismarck, where they made lifelong friends. They returned to California for Warren's stint in the Navy aboard the USS Toledo as a naval officer. 

He traveled extensively overseas before returning to the Quain Ramstad Clinic in Bismarck. He continued his service to his country in the Naval Reserve.

Warren felt a calling to become a missionary, and thus began the couples' biggest adventure. With round-the-world plane tickets, they began their journey to Ethiopia, Africa, to serve four years as medical missionaries for the American Lutheran Church with their three daughters.    Warren treated hundreds of patients, including delivering his youngest son, Steve, while in Selek Leka, Ethiopia. 

Upon returning from Africa, Warren decided to expand his medical expertise to surgery. They moved to Seattle so he could begin his surgical residency. After four years, Warren moved his family to North Dakota in a return to his roots. They settled in Minot, where Warren enjoyed years of working with his beloved patients at Medical Arts Clinic and in his private practice