Born the son of Swedish Immigrants in Los Angeles under the shadow of the looming War, Ralph William Carlson, affectionately known as Bill, grew up under the threat of a possible coastal attack from Japan, yet after the war, his childhood was filled with enchantment. The family moved to Hollywood with its cowboy-themed movie theater, historic Griffith Park, and the grand observatory that would later become the spot where he and his friends celebrated the birth of Rock and roll, these scenes were immortalized by movie icons like James Dean. His trip to Sweden at age nine would deeply impact him, as he nearly was swept overboard into the North Atlantic during the passage, and upon arrival discovered who he was, gleaning the strength of his father forged on an island in the icy blue Baltic and the warmth of family bonds nurtured on his mother's family farm in Blenkinge. His father's strength and his mother's genteel carefulness, translated into the stability that would prove foundational for his role in the completion of the International Space station, coping with the loss of the woman he loved to mental illness, and as the patriarch of a Swedish-American family.