Our friend and brother, Malcolm Fidel Ratcliff, unexpectedly made his transcendence to the afterlife on November 2, 2020.

He began his journey with us on April 24, 1979.  He attended Nathaniel Q. Henderson elementary school and graduated at the top of his sixth grade class.  He then went on to Sidney Lanier Middle School and Mirabeu B. Lamar High School.  To the great pride of his family he then enrolled at Texas Southern University in the Fall of 1997.  There he pursued higher education and forged lifelong friendships and bonds of brotherhood in his fraternity Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia and the mighty TSU Ocean of Soul Marching Band.  

He held various jobs, but his great passion and love has always been music.  During his childhood, he participating the the fledgling musical styling of Ska with the local band The Mod Squad.  A former student of Asa McClellan and Conrad Johson, as an adult, he went on to become a member of the Conrad Johnson Orchestra.  He also was a member of the Kashmere Reunion Stage Band and performed with Da Combination Live Band.  He was a founding member of Texas Brass Band.  His greatest ambition was to be a teacher and educator.  He fulfilled this dream having influenced the lives of many of his students during his time at Deady and Attucks Middle Schools and Bruce Elementary School in the Houston Independent School District.  

A child at heart, Malcolm remained an avid lifelong video game enthusiast.  He made so many friends through the medium and did everything from solve puzzles to saving the universe as "Sikoeye".  
He is preceded in death by his grandfathers Collis Elmo Ratcliff and Orbie Curtis Cowling, grandmothers Helen Lois Ratcliff and Arlee Jones Cowling, and his beloved mother Orbie Sue Ratcliff.  He is survived by his grandmother Velma Cowling, his father Curtis Lamar Ratcliff, his brother Kylon Keith Ratcliff, and his sister Daima Fanaka Ratcliff and a host of family and friends spanning the galaxy.  He was so deeply loved and will be tremendously missed by all those that knew him.