nancy sigler passes away

It is with a heavy heart that we received the news from Larry Lee that Ralph Gillum passed away Sunday, 3/29/26. On March 25th Michigan Hall of Fame beagler, Ralph Gillum had suffered a stroke. On March 28th, Ralph Gillum’s son and caregiver, Greg Gillum updated that Ralph will remain in the same hospital and had been placed under hospice care. Hospice had changed his medications in order to help him remain comfortable. Our thoughts and prayers are with his son Greg, family and friends that God blesses them and grants them to have everything they need to get through this very difficult time. Ralph is now pain free, at peace, and with the love of his life, best friend, and lovely wife Mary again.

Ralph belonged to Border, Southern Michigan, and Red Cedar Beagle Clubs. He was President of Border and had definitely showed great leadership when he oversaw the sale of the club and worked out a three-way membership partnership with Red Cedar and Southern Michigan beagle clubs so that all of Border's assets stayed in the sport. Southern Michigan and Red Cedar are two anchor clubs in the Northern Association that are serving so beagling is able to continue. Many of us had great discussions with Ralph on numerous subjects which helped many beaglers throughout the years. He had been a past partner with Phil Byrne of Canadian Beagles and then became partners with his current friend, Larry Lee. Ralph, Larry and Max Scott spent countless hours running their hounds through the years, shared successes and failures not only with them, but anybody who asked for his input. Ralph helped several beaglers keep in business with dogs that didn't fit into his breeding program but needed to be campaigned and help beagling stay alive, as well as his fellow beaglers to be able to participate in our much-loved sport. Over 80+ field champions came to be with Ralph helping fellow beaglers that weren't able to breed or have breeding facilities. Ralph judged numerous trials including the National Brace Championship and continued to judge the occasional trial when health permitted.  

Ralph produced 3 National Beagling Breeders Hall of Fame Producing Dams: Gillum's Courtyard Black Lady (1992), Gillum's Courtyard Annie (2000), and Gillum's Courtyard Lilac in 2016 Lilac was also National Beagling Breeders Hall of Fame Producing Dam of the Year in 2016 and produced a total of 7 field champions. She followed in the footsteps of her dam, Gillum's Courtyard Petunia who was a producing dam in 2013. Ralph was inducted into the National Breeders Hall of Fame in 1994. Ralph had one of the longest producing bitchlines in our sport, as he was in his 25th generation after breeding over 85+ field champions. In 2018 Ralph Gillum was inducted into beagling's highest honor, the Beaglers Hall of Fame, sponsored by Hounds and Hunting. Ralph was a definite asset to brace beagling and left footprints in many of our hearts.

A fellow beagler, Larry Williams stated "Gonna miss him. He was very knowledgeable. The man was highly intelligent and studied genetics. I became friends with him and enjoyed the knowledge he imparted on me. We weren’t always after the same type of dog, but he was very influential in helping me realize how to get what I’m after. He taught me that the mainstream stud dog isn’t always what your line needs. Essentially just because a dog is producing doesn’t mean it’s producing what you want. Needless to say, the sport was better off when he was breeding. There have been a lot of beaglers especially in Michigan that benefited from his breeding."

Ralph had been a consistent positive voice for brace beagling as was evidenced in the numerous articles he had written over the years for Hounds and Hunting, Brace Beagle News and the bracebeagling.comwebsite when active. He also wrote two books, The Beagler's Breeder's Forum and Training the Traditional Brace Beagle. When interacting with his fellow beaglers, Ralph was usually listening unless he had something positive to say. Ralph continued to be very interested in having our sport stay as strong as possible and backed this up by contributing financially to clubs that needed and warranted help.  

Ralph will forever be in our hearts and live on through the many cherished memories. He was a true asset and a treasure that will be missed beyond measure. Our thoughts and prayers are with his son, Greg, family and friends to be granted all they need to get through their loss. Ralph would want us all to continue and promote the sport of beagling and tell us. 

God Bless and Memorial Service is scheduled for April 11th.