Ralph Dewey (born August 8, 1944), also known as Dewdrop the Clown, is an American balloon twister who is known as the "grandfather of all twisters". He started twisting balloons in 1975, and in 1976 published his first book, ''Dewey's New Balloon Animals''. Since then he has published 30 books (16 on the subject of balloon twisting), numerous videos and DVDs, and dozens of magazine articles.

Early life

Dewey served in the

US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

before joining

Shell Chemicals Shell Chemicals is the petrochemicals arm of Shell plc. The name "Shell Chemicals" refers to the nearly seventy companies engaged in chemicals businesses for Shell, which together make up one of the largest petrochemical producers in the world. T ...

as a non-degreed engineer. He taught instrumentation at

San Jacinto College San Jacinto College is a public community college in the Greater Houston with its campuses in Pasadena and Houston, Texas. Established in 1961, San Jacinto College originally consisted of the independent school districts (ISD) of Channelview, De ...

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

, where he wrote several reference and training handbooks on instrumentation.

Balloon and clowning

As a leader in balloon twisting and gospel entertainment, Dewey helped found several organizations: ''Joey to the World'', a gospel clown convention; ''DewJam Balloon Convention''; and ''Kingdom Twisters''. Joey to the World is one of the largest and oldest Gospel Clowning Conventions in the world, first staged in 1994 and held in

. In 2003, he started presenting the Ralph Dewey Balloon Excellence Award, which has now become one of the highest honors in balloon-twisting. Dewey is a staff writer for ''The Cross and the Clown'' magazine. He has also written for ''Christian Conjurer'', ''Balloon HQ'', ''Clowning Around'', and other similar publications. Dewey is currently researching and writing a more comprehensive book on the history of balloon twisting. David Grist was another pioneer in the balloon-twisting industry. Shortly before the annual Twist & Shout Convention in 2005, he died after suffering a heart attack. In honor of Grist's contributions to the field, the organizers of Twist & Shout, the biggest balloon twisting convention, instituted the "David Grist Memorial Award", now considered to be the lifetime achievement award for balloon twisters. Due to his contributions to the field of balloon twisting, Ralph Dewey received the first award in 2005.

Awards

*Fellowship of Christian Magicians: 5 time recipient of the "Best Balloon Lecture" *2004 Millennium Jam he was awarded the "Lifetime of Caring" award" *2005 DiamonJam received a plaque celebrating "30 Years of Service to the Balloon Twisting industry" *2005 The David Grist Memorial World

References

External links

*
Gospel Balloons
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dewey, Ralph 1944 births Living people American clowns United States Air Force airmen Balloon artists