Former CNPA President Ralph Alldredge, owner and publisher of the Calaveras Enterprise in San Andreas, died Oct. 4, 2022, at his home on Whidbey Island, WA, The Enterprise reported. He was 79 and had battled cancer.
Alldredge had owned The Enterprise since 1998. He was CNPA president in 2011-12 and also was co-owner of Tank Town Media, publishers of newspapers in Tracy, Patterson and Chino.
“Ralph Alldredge was many things to many people,” said Will Fleet, his Tank Town co-owner. “To me, he was my long-time close friend, attorney and valued business partner. He approached every challenge, every issue, with integrity, warmth and decency. He had a razor wit and wicked sense of humor.
“Ralph was a highly successful Bay Area lawyer by trade. By a quirk of fate over 20 years ago, he became a newspaper publisher/owner in Calaveras County. He also was a beloved husband, father and grandfather. I miss him dearly.”
During his time as CNPA’s vice president, Alldredge represented CNPA on a statewide bench-bar-media committee to recommend several sweeping changes in court rules and policies to improve relations among judges, attorneys and news media.
Alldredge spoke of the value of CNPA membership in a 2011 president’s column in California Publisher:
“While the value of a trade association should be greatest when its members face the most difficult problems, that is when members may be least inclined to participate.
“The only hope for avoiding that paradox lies in developing a plan for association action that members can see as likely to make a real difference, and which they understand will depend upon their support for success.”
