Our father couldn't take another breath without his true love, our mother.

Ralph Dennis Maltby passed away Friday June 5th, 2026, 18 days after losing the love of his life Donna.

He was born on August 31, 1943 in Cleveland, Ohio to Viola Irene (Reece) Maltby and Ralph Wilkinson Maltby.

He lived in Mayfield Heights and Solon, Ohio and played baseball, football and basketball as well as stints on cross country and wrestling teams. They moved to Sarasota where he also pitched for the Sarasota Tarpons baseball team and was named MVP of the Riverview Junior High basketball team. He attended Riverview High School where he met Donna.

After working up his nerve at the water fountain in school, he asked Donna out and the rest is history. He married Donna Drayton on September 14, 1963 in Sarasota, FL.

He graduated from the University of South Florida with a Marketing degree and studied engineering. He played on scholarship for the golf team during his college days. While attending USF, he operated a club repair and custom golf shop; and became a father with the birth of their first daughter Tracy in 1966. Tracy's scribbles can be found throughout his textbooks.

After graduation, they moved to Westfield, Massachusetts and Ralph and Donna's family grew with 2 more girls: their 2nd daughter Kelly born in1969, and 3rd daughter Cathy born in 1971.

In 1969 he joined Spalding designing new golf clubs and was promoted to Product Manager for golf products. In 1973 he joined Faultless Sports as Director of Marketing where he developed and patented a number of highly innovative club designs and was promoted to EVP of Operations.

At the age of 30 in June of 1974, he wrote his first book detailing how to repair golf clubs and how to fit them "Golf Club Design, Fitting, Alteration and Repair".

In September of 1976 he started a company in the basement of his home in Forest Hills in Heath, Ohio. The GolfWorks, a company that sold golf repair supplies, manufactured golf clubs and the expertise to do it through books and education became the largest supplier of golf club tools, gauges and supplies in the world.

Ralph influenced every aspect of modern clubmaking from golf club fitting to his many patented innovations in golf club design to his many best selling reference books. Two of his technical books have been the official golf club design and fitting manuals for the Professional Golfers Association of America (PGA) for over 30 years.

He had a passion for the game of golf that stretched beyond the boundaries of manufacturers. He developed the Maltby Playability Factor (MPF), a concise way to determine the playability of a set of golf clubs, thus giving every person a better way to choose their equipment. He lectured at over 250 PGA Business Schools on Golf Club Design Principles, Golf Club Fitting and Golf Club Repair Procedures, lectured annually at the Tour Players School with a 5½ hour presentation entitled "Working with Your Equipment" and taught repair and fitting workshops for the PGA and wrote countless articles for golfing publications around the world. Ralph also was honored to be a Technical Consultant writing for Golf Magazine. He has made appearances on The Golf Channel and is a member of the Golf Writers Association of America, The Golf Collectors Society and the Professional Club Makers Society.

In 1991 he was listed by Golf Digest magazine as one of the 36 most powerful men in golf and in 1996 inducted into the "Professional Club Makers Society Hall of Fame". He was also inducted into the "Ohio Golf Hall of Fame" in 2005, as well as receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Southern Ohio PGA in 2015. He was distinguished by being appointed an honorary member of the New Zealand Professional Golfers Association in 1980.

He is noted by The Professional Clubmakers Society as being one of the most influential designers and people in the custom fitting and golf industry.

Ralph designed golf clubs for GolfWorks/Maltby, Spalding, Faultless, Rawlings, Toney Penna, Ram, Tommy Armour, Maxfli, PowerBilt, Next Technology, Toski and Dynamic Casting.

Ralph loved Christmas and was known throughout the county for his amazing Christmas light displays that got bigger each year on the GolfWorks farm house; as well as the food pantry collections by the wonderful GolfWorks employees volunteering their time.

In 2006, The GolfWorks was purchased by Golf Galaxy (Dicks Sporting Goods) and he semi-retired and focused on other hobbies. He remained active with Golf Galaxy as "Chief Technical Officer, Research and Development" and also recorded educational videos on many different golf club technology subjects. As recently as the past few years, Ralph designed a final series of putters using CAD/CAM software and his own CNC Machine outfitted with a 4th axis system.

"Golf has given me much, but I know that giving my knowledge back to the game has truly been my biggest passion."

In between his golf career, he was a pilot with a commercial license and advanced ground instructors license in both single and multi-engine aircrafts and owned The AviationWorks,

the FBO at the Newark-Heath airport. He trained and ran a full marathon at Walt Disney World when he was 59 years old. He enjoyed scuba diving with his family and taking underwater photos. He loved snow skiing, water skiing and boating.

Racing and building cars were also a notable hobby. He built a kit car replica of the 1966 Shelby Cobra with 750HP. He built a 1979 Ford Mustang LX into a drag car and raced in the Super Street class. He joined the SCCA and raced a 1994 Mustang V8 in F Stock, then personally modified it to a Cobra R and raced it in E Street Prepared. He road raced a 1998 Mustang Cobra and then purchased a Panoz GTS (serial number 3) racing in the American Le Mans Series. He held a national competition license from the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) and a professional license from the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). One of his biggest thrills came when he achieved his first podium finish in a pro race - he placed 2nd in an ALMS race at Mid-Ohio in 2004 driving the Panoz GTS.

In 2009 Ralph and Donna moved back to Florida. During this time, he had his dream boat built, a custom 40' Endeavour TrawlerCat, Dolphin Speed. They spent their time taking many adventures and enjoying the dolphins who always 'picked up' the boat because they loved the pressure wave it created.

Ralph had a brilliant mind and an unmatched quest for knowledge on any subject that intrigued him. He did not simply learn a subject; he mastered it. He passionately explored every aspect of it to be as knowledgeable as possible.

He is preceded in death by his mother Viola Irene (Reece) Barkman, father Ralph Wilkinson Maltby, brother Ronald Maltby, and his wife and eternal love Donna Diane (Drayton) Maltby.

Ralph is survived by his daughters Tracy (Ed) Rizor of Granville, OH Kelly (Roger) Welch of Cape Coral, FL and Cathy Zeno of Granville, OH; grandchildren Morgan Carroll, Justin Rizor, Alex Rizor, Anthony Zeno and Alyssa Zeno, as well as his cherished great granddaughter Bailey.

The family has chosen to celebrate his life privately, without a formal service.

Ralph loved animals so in lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Licking County Humane Society at https://lchspets.org/

To order flowers locally, please visit www.johnedwardpriceflowers.com/

To order memorial gifts please visit memorial-gifts-at-brucker-kishler.myshopify.com/