ST. LOUIS – Ralph Middlecamp was elected national president of the U.S. Society of St. Vincent de Paul. He will be the 13th national president of the U.S. Society and will serve a six-year term.

Middlecamp has a 30-year history with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. He previously served as the executive director of the Society’s Madison, Wis. Council for 18 years. Under Middlecamp’s leadership, the Society developed local housing programs, built a central customer-choice food pantry and service center, opened Wisconsin’s first charitable pharmacy not connected to a health care network, grown the Society’s base of Madison-area members and volunteers, and added six more thrift stores that sell and give away donated goods to support the organization’s mission of helping neighbors in need.

“I am deeply honored to have been elected to serve at the national level an organization that I love and to which I have devoted 30 years of my life,” Middlecamp said. “As national president, I will work to promote continued growth in friendship, service and spirituality at all levels of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.”

Ralph Middlecamp is the new national president of the U.S. Society of St. Vincent de Paul. (Photo: Society of St. Vincent de Paul)

Among his many leadership roles, Middlecamp has served on the Society’s Stores Committee, the Communication Committee and the presenting team of the Society’s national leadership development program, Invitation for Renewal.

A native of Wisconsin Rapids, Middlecamp received his B.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was an organizer and former board member of the Community Meal Program and Luke House in Madison. Having received his Eagle Scout award in 1965, Ralph remained active in the Boy Scouts for many years. For the past 10 years he has served on the board of directors of the land conservation organization, the Baraboo Range Preservation Association.

Ralph is married to Dr. Cathy Hurt Middlecamp, who is on the faculty of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Society of St. Vincent de Paul

One of the largest charitable organizations in the world, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul (www.svdpusa.org) is an international, nonprofit, Catholic lay organization of about 800,000 men and women who voluntarily join together to grow spiritually by offering person-to-person service to the needy and suffering in 150 countries on five continents. With the U.S. headquarters in St. Louis, Mo., membership in the United States totals nearly 100,000 in 4,400 communities.

SVdP offers a variety of programs and services, including home visits, housing assistance, disaster relief, education and mentoring, food pantries, dining halls, clothing, assistance with transportation, prescription medication, and rent and utility costs. The Society also works to provide care for the sick, the incarcerated and the elderly. Over the past year, SVdP provided over $1.2 billion in tangible and in-kind services to those in need, made more than 1.7 million personal visits (homes, hospitals, prisons and eldercare facilities) and helped more than 20.9 million people regardless of race, religion or national origin.