The many passions of Ralph Kincaid

GCEDC president, real estate agent gets emotionally involved

MOSES LAKE — Ralph Kincaid's idea of the perfect day depends on the time of year.

In June or July, for example, Kincaid's perfect day would take place at a golfing destination with his wife or friends, getting up early and having a nice dinner.

In October, it would involve waking up on the Grande Ronde River and having morning coffee at a camp site only accessible by boat after two hours of catching steelhead, with mountain sheep butting heads 50 yards away, a herd of elk bedded down 100 yards away, river otters swimming by and a bald eagle flying overhead.

Or, on a morning like Dec. 19, when it was snowing, Kincaid says he'd be out in a duck blind at 7:30 a.m. with his dog and a couple friends, coming back later to a duck dinner or taking the boat out to hunt chukars.

The word "passion" comes up a lot in speaking with Kincaid, from his love of hunting, golfing and fishing to being close to family and his love of technology.

"I spent a lot of years in business, and I have learned how to control emotions," said the Moses Lake real estate agent and this year's president of the Grant County Economic Development Council.

"I never get angry, I don't take things in business or in the community personally. As a result of that, I appear to be on a very even keel all the time, but I have great passion for many things. I get emotionally involved."

Of his love for technology, Kincaid said a a gourmet dinner on his boat with wife and friends is likely to include everything from high-tech lighting to electric salt and pepper grinders.

"But everything in miniature, so there's not a lot to carry," he said with a smile. "Some of my friends call me 'The Gadget Man.' I've got more gadgets for everything, whether it's my camp gear or my outdoors gear."

Another passion of Kincaid's is maintaining his reputation. He credits his parents with his belief that his word and reputation are of great importance. Absolute honesty and professionalism in all dealings, personal or business, are what he lives by, and personal mission statements on every wall of the Windermere/K-2 Realty office reflect that, and are probably as much as what he is about as an individual as it is about company philosophy.

"Nothing would hurt me more than somebody to ever question my ethics or my honesty," he said.

Kincaid has long-standing roots in the Columbia Basin area, noting that his family settled one of the first farms in the Columbia Basin Project. Ralph met his wife of 41 years, Lois, at Pasco High School, and the two were high school sweethearts.

They have two children, Jay, who recently moved to Kirkland, and Dawn, who lives in Minneapolis, Minn., with his three grandchildren, "which is way too far away," Ralph said.

Even when he was living in California, Kincaid would often return to the area — he considers the Northwest everything from San Francisco north — to indulge in his passions.

Ralph and Lois moved to Moses Lake about 14 years ago, returning to the area after 15 years in the San Francisco bay area, looking for a place to be.

Ralph had spent a lot of time visiting his parents in Moses Lake, and bought a house on the lake with the intention of fixing it up and selling it.

"The longer I was here, the more I kept calling Lois and saying, 'You know, it's really nice to be back in a small town, with the slower pace,'" Ralph recalled. "So we ended up moving up here."

Ralph had been involved in launching a high-tech company in the bay area and was looking for the next stage of life.

"I thought it might be semi-retirement, but it didn't turn out that way," he said, noting that his father had a real estate company in Moses Lake for 25 years. He and Lois decided to get their real estate licenses, operating as independents out of their house for four or five years before getting a larger office in town, Windermere/K-2 Realty.

"I think it's challenging because it's whatever you want it to be," he said of real estate. "It's not the same thing every day, there's no limit on what you can do. It's a great second career."

Upon arriving in Moses Lake, Kincaid sought to involve himself with the GCEDC, because of their mission statement to bring new jobs to the area.

"Creating jobs in this community helps it grow in a very healthy way," he said. "People ask me all the time, 'When are we going to get some shopping? When are we going to get a Target? When are we going to get a men's clothing store? And the answer is, when we have sufficient growth for those kinds of businesses to survive, and it comes from jobs."

Kincaid serves this year as the council's president, and thinks quite a bit of progress has been made toward the organization's goals, reaching the point where the GCEDC has to figure out which of its goals are most important.

"We can't do everything, and we have a limited amount of resources in terms of money and staff, so we've got to make sure we're working on the right things," he said, adding that a recent strategic planning retreat set up the organization's major objectives. "I'm proud of what we've done so far. It's not over yet. I think we're going to have some good results in the next 12 months."

GCEDC executive director Terry Brewer credits Kincaid with keeping him on his toes.

"He's very motivated to make good things happen," Brewer said. "He's an organized, hard-working leader."

Kincaid will hand over the presidency in February.

"It went so much faster than I thought it would," he said. "When they first ask for the commitment, it sounds like a long time. Then when you're actually doing it, it goes by so fast, it seems like you can't get done everything you wanted to get done."

Kincaid said another passion of his is his involvement with Vision 2020. From the time he arrived in the community, he said, he kept asking city leaders why things cannot be done. Returning to a small community from a larger one can make one see what's possible, he said.

"I think the revitalization of the downtown, which looks imminent in 2006 in terms of getting things done, it's all about just improving the quality of life," he said. "Helping the community have an area, a central core that they're proud of that would be a place to go, hang out, take your visitors when they come and say, 'Let's go down and stroll around.' If we do it right, it's going to show a lot of pride in our community."

Susan Alsted, who sold the Windermere office to Kincaid, credits the remodeled beauty of several downtown buildings to him.

"Since Ralph has moved to Moses Lake, I see how involved he is with the city," she said. "I like how he really believes in Moses Lake and Vision 2020. He puts in a lot of his time to help promote Moses Lake and beautifying the downtown area. It seems like he has a real insight for the growth of the city."