Robert Ramsay

Less than a year later, Samantha died in July 2017 in Switzerland, struck by lightning while mountain climbing in the Alps, near the summit of the Matterhorn. The couple was survived by their two sons, ages twelve and nine.

Ramsay died at age 42 in Moscow in 2016 after suffering a seizure, a complication related to previously diagnosed brain cancer. He had survived over 14½ years since the initial diagnosis.

The family moved back down to the Palouse at Moscow, where Samantha, a former Penn State and WSU volleyball player (setter), became an assistant professor of nutrition at the University of Idaho in 2010. While she completed her doctorate in education at UI, Ramsay earned a master's.

Following his senior season at Washington State, Ramsay was selected by the Boston Red Sox in the seventh round of the 1996 draft. The Red Sox traded him to the Mariners for Butch Huskey on July 26, 1999. After the 2000 season with Seattle, Ramsay spent 2001 at Triple-A Tacoma, then was diagnosed with brain cancer (glioblastoma multiforme) in early 2002. After surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiation treatment, he attempted a comeback in 2003 with the San Diego Padres organization, but it ended his baseball career.

During his junior year in 1995, WSU won the Pac-10 northern division, and Ramsay was the starter in the first game of the championship series against southern division winner USC at Los Angeles.

Born and raised in Vancouver, Washington, Ramsay graduated from its Mountain View High School in 1992. He then attended Washington State University in Pullman, where he played college baseball for the Cougars for four seasons, through 1996.

Robert Arthur Ramsay (December 3, 1973 – August 4, 2016) was a Major League Baseball pitcher. He pitched parts of two seasons, 1999 and 2000, for the Seattle Mariners, then battled brain cancer for nearly fifteen years.