Ralph Gunther

With family ties in Bolivia and Germany, Ralph grew up in Perú, attended schools in Chile and Argentina, and became a teacher. A linguist, he taught English at the Instituto de Intercambio Cultural Argentino-Norteamericano (IICANA) and at the Liceo Militar General Paz, one of the most exclusive secondary schools in Argentina, and German at the Goethe Institut - all three schools in Córdoba, Argentina. In the early 1960s, invited by the William Penn Charter School of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he moved to the United States; a prestigious Quaker school, he stayed there for twenty-four years, teaching German, Spanish, and French. During a sabbatical leave in France, in the mid-1970s, he felt the first impulse to become a writer. In time, he would do research in libraries in Europe, America, and Asia, consult the World-Wide Web, and write books about the men and women who were awarded Nobel Prizes. At present, he and his wife make their home in Innaloo, a suburb of Perth, in Western Australia, but also live part of each year in Hawaii.