Services for Ralph Balent, 63, Set for Today in South Laguna

Memorial services for Ralph Balent, a former executive of Rockwell International, will be held today at 10:30 a.m. at the United Methodist Church in South Laguna.

Balent, 63, a resident of Laguna Niguel, died April 4 of a brain hemorrhage while sailing aboard the Stella Solaris on a vacation trip with his wife, Elaine, to the Amazon River to view Halley’s comet. He had a lifelong interest in astronomy.

Balent, who worked for Rockwell for 32 years, was vice president and general manager of the Atomics International Division in Canoga Park.

He served as consultant to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and was elected by the U.S. Energy Research Development Administration as a member of the U.S. delegation of the U.S.S.R./U.S. Nuclear Information Exchange Agreement. Balent held five patents, including the basic patent of the U.S. space reactor system “Snap.”

After leaving Rockwell in 1981, Balent became the vice president of strategic planning and management at Pickard Lowe & Garrick Inc., an engineering consulting firm in Newport Beach. Balent worked on nuclear engineering management, technical program planning and strategic analysis there. He also did consulting work in the Soviet Union and the Far East.

In addition to his wife, Balent is survived by a son, John; a daughter, Elaine Balent Rose, and a grandson, Mathew. The family requests that memorial donations go to the Alzheimer’s Disease Foundation.