My name is Ralph Varn and I was born in Brooklyn, New York a son of Swedish immigrants. My mother's family moved here just in time for the great depression. My father came by himself in the 1936 and served in World War II. My grandfather was a builder; he worked for twenty years in the building trades in Sweden and then in the carpenters union in New York City for another twenty years. So I am certainly following in his footsteps. I have lived in Ithaca for thirty three years, I've worked in the building and apartment business all that time, was married here in 1986 and have a beautiful sixteen-year-old daughter. I've had my good times and bad but life is always wonderful in Ithaca when you are with the people you love the most.