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A BJA Profile -
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In 1919 Ralph Clough was born into a Christian family in Ogden Station, Michigan. His father was a farmer; his mother, a teacher. For elementary school he attended a one-room schoolhouse. The Clough’s pastor sent his daughter to BJC. Learning of the school, Ralph had a strong desire to attend the Academy, but end-of-the-depression finances prohibited him enrolling.
Their pastor invited “BJ preacher boys” to conduct revival meetings at his church. Alan Taft, who had been the drill instructor of the cadets at BJA, was the guest preacher at the meeting where Ralph “made certain of my salvation” during his senior year of high school. He graduated from Sand Creek Consolidated Agricultural High School in 1936. That fall Ralph enrolled as a religion major at BJC in Cleveland, Tennessee. His minor was social studies, and his senior year he took the education courses needed for him to qualify as a high school teacher. As a senior waiting tables in the Dining Common, he spotted a freshman young lady, Helen Lorraine Hufstetler, and they began dating. By the end of the year she had accepted his marriage proposal, but with an eye to the immediate future, they agreed to postpone their wedding. |
Meeting with Eunice Hutto
In a 2002 interview, Ralph describes his senior year at BJC and being called into Hutto's office regarding it. |
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The U.S. started its first peace-time military conscription in 1940. Within months following his graduation, Ralph was among its the first draftees. He entered the army in March 1941, and the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entered World War II that December. The Red Arrow Division, Ralph’s company, was sent to Australia and New Guinea, and he was promoted to the rank of Staff Sergeant.
Ralph first saw combat on Thanksgiving Day, 1942. That mission lasted months and was the first territory recovered from the Japanese in WWII. It cost the lives of some and wounded many others. Ralph felt blessed to have been among those who "walked away" form that extended battle. Reinforced, his company was involved in other conflicts. He recalls incidents of his life being spared while others around him died. In 1944 his company made an amphibious landing on New Guinea to capture territory and construct a airstrip. Following this he returned to the U.S. and was discharged.
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Within weeks he and Helen were married. In September they returned to Cleveland. Helen taught English and Bible at BJA while Ralph worked on his master’s degree and taught part-time in the Academy's social studies department. At that time the school was growing exponentially and was having difficulty housing the faculty. As school opened in 1945, the Clough’s housing was not ready. For a while they lived in a guest bedroom of the Jones, Sr. home. At the final graduation in Tennessee, Ralph received his MA in Religion.
Ths summer following his BJC graduation, Ralph enrolled at the University of Tennessee to take additional history courses. He and Helen made a trip to Greenville to see how the new BJU campus was progressing. They met Bob Jones, Sr. in the lobby of the nearly finished Administration Building and were offereld teaching positions in the Academy. They accepted.
The Clough's first child was the first birth to take place in the campus hospital (today’s Brown Building). Helen taught language arts and Bible in the BJA Junior High School from 1951-1963. She died of cancer in 1965, leaving Ralph with three teenage children. |
Ralph and Helen Clough c. 1944
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Theatrical Carrier – As a college freshman in 1966, I met Mr. Clough in the Classic Players' production of Cyrano. We had bit parts. In the opening scene he greeted my entrance with “Cuigy” and I responded with "Marquis." We then grabbed each other's arm and shoulder in greeting, and crossed the stage in silent conversation, which lasted, on-and-off, for the rest of the scene. From then on, we greeted each other with “Cuigy” and "Marquis."
During those “mock conversations” I learned that Mr. Clough was not new to the stage. He had started his carrier in Tennessee, as a walk-on in an ill-fated production of King Lear. During rehearsal a stage platform collapsed. Mr. Clough, sensing the eminent danger, was able to grab a cast member and hold onto a wall, sparing them from the fall which significantly injured several of the cast.
Mr. Clough appeared in several Classic Player productions and also performed on Vespers. He recalled a Vespers dealing with BJU history. He and George Youstra described BJA's first principal, J. F. Collins, and told of his contributions to BJC.
Mr. Clough's major Shakespearian role was Tubal in The Merchant of Venice. Tubal tells Shylock, played by Dr Bob, Jr., both good and bad news which catalyzes a turning point in Shylock's character. I was also in that production, and backstage we always greeted each other with "Cuigy" and "Marquis," and the period handshake we had learned years before. Dr Bob found that amusing. – William Pinkston
During those “mock conversations” I learned that Mr. Clough was not new to the stage. He had started his carrier in Tennessee, as a walk-on in an ill-fated production of King Lear. During rehearsal a stage platform collapsed. Mr. Clough, sensing the eminent danger, was able to grab a cast member and hold onto a wall, sparing them from the fall which significantly injured several of the cast.
Mr. Clough appeared in several Classic Player productions and also performed on Vespers. He recalled a Vespers dealing with BJU history. He and George Youstra described BJA's first principal, J. F. Collins, and told of his contributions to BJC.
Mr. Clough's major Shakespearian role was Tubal in The Merchant of Venice. Tubal tells Shylock, played by Dr Bob, Jr., both good and bad news which catalyzes a turning point in Shylock's character. I was also in that production, and backstage we always greeted each other with "Cuigy" and "Marquis," and the period handshake we had learned years before. Dr Bob found that amusing. – William Pinkston
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Ralph continued his education at the University of Tennessee and the University of South Carolina. He also received grants for advanced summer study at Pamona College in California, and Reed College in Oregon.
Violet Ann (Vi Ann) Bock attended BJU in the late 1950s. In May, 1968 she returned to BJU to work for BJU's radio station, WMUU. She caught Ralph’s eye in the Dining Common, they dated, and were married in August of the same year. In what Ralph occasionally called “the second shift” they had three children: one of which was the first birth in the Barge Memorial Hospital on the BJU campus. All the Clough children graduated from BJA. Ralph learned construction skills building cement silos with his father. He was a skilled carpenter and a journeyman electrician. He fashioned wooden toys for his children, which made them the envy of their playmates. As the Academy grew, the need of cabinets and shelves specifically designed to fit odd places and hold specific materials became apparent. Ralph often designed and built what was needed. He installed light switches in the front of classrooms to give teachers control of the lights without having to go to the rear of the room. To build his own house was a life long dream. Eventually he purchased a lot in a subdivision near the BJU campus and spent free afternoons, weekends and vacations working on the house. It took years, in part because he refused to go into debt for what he sometimes referred to as his hobby, and also because he sought help only when the work required multiple people or specialized skills. Eventually the family moved in. |
1949
Frugality – “Living through the depression affected Mr. Clough's thinking in teaching economics and frugality was also a way of . . . running our department. [For years the social studies] department budget was $100 a year. We had fun trying to figure out how to stretch this amount to get all the audio-visual materials we could. We wrote numerous letters to companies that offered free or inexpensive learning materials, . . . and exercised lots of creativity to augment that $100. – Rachel Larson |
Ralph Clough's Teaching
Ralph claims to have taught twenty different courses at BJA during his carrier. He primarily taught required social studies courses (U.S. History, Economics, Problems of Democracy, Civics, Geography) and the popular social studies elective, Psychology. For many years he served as the chairman of BJA's social studies department.
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Ralph said that he most enjoyed teaching U.S. History (where his students memorized the names and dates of all the presidents), but said that he received more comments about his Psychology class (where students prepared a family tree) and his Economics class (where students did a mock stock market investment project).
A colleague described Ralph's teaching as "practical and reflected real life situations. He often spoke from personal experience and his experiences were quite varied." 
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In a 2002 interview, Ralph tells of a humorous
incident that happened in auto mechanics class. |
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Periodically Ralph was also called on to teach Bible. In 1976 he began teaching in BJA’s industrial arts department. He taught auto mechanics, home maintenance, and carpentry until his Academy retirement in 1982.
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The 1980 Academian was dedicated to Ralph Clough.
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After leaving the classroom, Ralph worked in the University's cabinet shop. In 1992 he received the Academy Student Body's Appreciation Award. He went to be with the Lord in 2004.
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