Ralph Strangis ’60, Corporate Dealmaker, Dies at 82

Ralph Strangis ’60, whose legal acumen and dealmaking prowess put him at the center of many of the Twin Cities’ most consequential business mergers and public-private partnerships, died Aug. 15 at his home in Minneapolis. The cause was heart disease.

Born and raised in northeast Minneapolis, Strangis earned both his bachelor’s and J.D. degrees at the University of Minnesota, graduating from the Law School magna cum laude and Order of the Coif. In 1978, Strangis and his friend and Law School classmate Sam Kaplan ’60 formed the boutique business law firm Kaplan, Strangis and Kaplan, where Strangis was still working at the time of his death.

While best known as the legal architect for such high-profile deals as the Republic Airlines/Northwest Airlines merger, the TCF Financial initial public offering, and the building of Target Field in Minneapolis and Allianz Field in St. Paul, Strangis was not a person who sought the limelight for its own sake. As his son, Ralph Strangis Jr., told the Star Tribune, he was “a Northeast [Minneapolis] guy without extravagance. The watch he wore came from a drugstore. He didn’t wear jewelry or care about flashy cars. He liked to ride a bicycle, which he rode until six months ago, and he liked to fish and go to Dairy Queen. He was quietly generous to the causes he cared about and he took care of his family.”

Among those causes was the continuing excellence of the Law School; Strangis and his firm have long been generous donors, and Strangis served on both the Law School Board of Visitors and the Law Alumni Association Board of Directors. He also served such organizations as the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, and Catholic Eldercare, and sat on numerous corporate boards.

“In a career that spanned 50 years, Ralph Strangis used his gifts for relationship building and negotiation to foster agreements that benefited not just his clients, but the city and state he loved,” said Dean Garry W. Jenkins. “His achievements and his dedication to the common good place him among the most distinguished lawyer-leaders in Minnesota Law history.”