Journalist, The News Journal
Inducted into MDDC’s Hall of Fame in 2010. This article is based on information submitted at the time.

All Ralph Moyed ever wanted was to be a reporter. And in every sense of the word, that’s what he was. Whether he was getting down the Five Ws as a cub reporter, investigating the heroin trade as a journeyman, or writing biting commentary as Delaware’s top columnist, Ralph’s passion was to get the facts and put them before his readers.
In a long journalism career, 42 years at The News Journal alone, Ralph never stopped battling on behalf of those readers. He fought corrupt politicians and indifferent bureaucrats. During the 1960s, he was manhandled by angry white mobs in Cambridge, MD, and he reported on black rioters in Wilmington.
In the 1970s, he went into the toughest neighborhoods to get the story on heroin dealers, and he tracked down hidden documents that proved local bankers were irresponsibly handling the public’s money.
As a reporter he repeatedly challenged Delaware’s politicians in court and in print to come clean with the citizens and to do the public’s business out in the open. As a columnist, he single handedly prompted the creation of an ethics committee for the state legislature when he exposed a senator’s plan to set up a dating service for his fellow legislators.
Over the years he became a fixture in Delaware jo urnalism. He was a regular commentator on local radio stations and on WHYY-TV in Wilmington. His column became a must-read habit for the state’s public officials, who often feared his wit, and for regular citizens, who appreciated that same wit. Ralph wasn’t all vinegar. He often poked fun at himself. His own weight struggles were often the subject of his humor. At one point he wrote a hilarious series about his attempt to shed pounds. The title: Dear Portly.
He could write about other emotions as well. When his son died, he touched thousands of readers with a father’s sense of loss.
In the end, he was what he always wanted to be, a reporter. Way back in the 1960s, as a reporter in the paper’s Dover Bureau, he was featured in a column called “Meet the Press.” Ralph said working at a newspaper was the realization of a boyhood dream. He wrote at the time, “Maybe it was the books I read or the radio programs I listened to – (Remember Edward G. Robinson as editor Steve Wilson of the Illustrated Press in ‘Big Town’?) – whatever it was, I was fascinated by newspaper work and knew this was the field for me.”
And lucky for us, it was.
– W. Curtis Riddle, President & Publisher, The News Journal, 2010