Ralph John Lomma (March 13, 1924 – September 12, 2011) is often credited, along with his brother, Al, with popularizing miniature golf in the mid-1950s through their design and manufacture of now famous obstacles such as castles, clown heads and windmills. Lomma Enterprises, which Ralph Lomma founded, is still in business today.

History

In 1959, he engineered the development of Elk Mountain,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

into a ski resort and in 1961, Lomma founded the Village of Four Seasons, Pennsylvania. Lomma Enterprises is the world's largest supplier for the pint-size sport, with courses in all 50 states and five continents. Lomma claimed that one course was built in a federal penitentiary and another aboard an aircraft carrier, nearly 6,000 miniature golf courses in all. In the 1980s, Lomma was appointed by Ronald Reagan to the Coast Guard Commission and sat on the board of directors of

Allied Artists Pictures Corporation An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

, at that time involved with the production of ''

The Wild Geese ''The Wild Geese'' is a 1978 war film directed by Andrew V. McLaglen and starring Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris, and Hardy Krüger. The screenplay concerns a group of mercenaries in Africa. It was the result of a long-held ambiti ...

'', starring

Richard Harris Richard St John Francis Harris (1 October 1930 – 25 October 2002) was an Irish actor and singer. He appeared on stage and in many films, notably as Corrado Zeller in Michelangelo Antonioni's '' Red Desert'', Frank Machin in '' This Sporting ...

, and ''

Cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining o ...

'' starring Liza Minnelli.

References

1924 births 2011 deaths University of Scranton alumni Businesspeople from Scranton, Pennsylvania {{US-business-bio-1920s-stub 20th-century American businesspeople