The Rt Rev Ralph Vernon Matthews (3 April 1928 – 4 March 1983) was the 11th Anglican Bishop of Waiapu, New Zealand,[1] whose brief Episcopate spanned a four-year period during the third quarter of the 20th century.[2]
He was educated at Napier Boys' High School and the University of Auckland, and was ordained in 1956.[3] He embarked on his ecclesiastical career with a curacy in Hastings, New Zealand, after which he was Vicar of Waipukurau, then Taupō.[4] From 1976 to 1979 he was Archdeacon of Waiapu, before his consecration to the Episcopate as its Diocesan Bishop, which See he held until his untimely death.[5]