He was a proud Bruin and for more than half a century played an immense role in the life of the campus as a donor, volunteer, mentor, advisor, board member and friend.

Shapiro’s family immigrated to the United States from Lithuania when he was a boy and settled in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Boyle Heights. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from UCLA in 1953 and a juris doctorate from UCLA School of Law in 1958. UCLA was also where Shapiro met his wife, Shirley, an alumna of the class of 1959 who received her bachelor’s in education.

Throughout his life, Shapiro credited UCLA with providing him and so many others with the opportunity of a world-class public education. He was thankful to the university and dedicated to investing in its faculty and students to enable them to do great things for the betterment of the world. He and Shirley gave generously to a broad range of campus areas, including athletics, the arts, law, music, dentistry, nursing and more.

The UCLA Terasaki Center is deeply grateful for the many years of support we received from Ralph in the form of both membership on our Board of Advisors and his many financial gifts, including the establishment of the Moor-Shapiro Families Undergraduate Scholarship Fund which supports UCLA students focusing on Japanese studies.

For the full obituary, published in the UCLA Newsroom, can be found here.