Career
He started twisting balloons in 1975, and in 1976 published his first book, Dewey"s New Balloon Animals. Since then he has published 30 books (16 on the subject of balloon twisting), numerous videos and DVDs, and dozens of magazine articles Dewey served in the United States Air Force before joining Shell Chemicals as a non-degreed engineer
He taught instrumentation at San Jacinto College in Houston, Texas, where he wrote several reference and training handbooks on instrumentation.
As a leader in balloon twisting and gospel entertainment, Dewey helped found several organizations: Joey to the World, a gospel clown convention. DewJam Balloon Convention.
And Kingdom Twisters. Joey to the World is one of the largest and oldest Gospel Clowning Conventions in the world, first staged in 1994 and held in Houston, Texas.
In 2003, he started presenting the Ralph Dewey Balloon Excellence Award, which has now become one of the highest honors in balloon-twisting.
Dewey is a staff writer for The Cross and the Clown magazine. He has also written for Christian Conjurer, Balloon Headquarters, Clowning Around, and other similar publications. Dewey is currently researching and writing a more comprehensive book on the history of balloon twisting.
David Grist was another pioneer in the balloon-twisting industry.
Shortly before the annual Twist & Shout Convention in 2005, he died after suffering a heart attack.
