MILT THOMAS

If you know Ralph Oko, you are captivated by his smile and easy going manner. You can even hear it on his WAXE radio show, Treasure Coast Collectibles. What you may not know, is how Oko ended up in Vero Beach after uncertain beginnings.

“My father left Germany in 1934. He worked in a factory and when the Nazis took over, a friend told him not to come in the next day. So he and some friends rode their bikes to Switzerland that night.

“He eventually moved to Palestine and joined the kibbutz movement up in Galilee. There he made friends with Teddy Kollek, who would become a famous mayor of Jerusalem.

“I came along in 1945. My birth certificate is written in Hebrew, Arabic and English. I was raised in Binyamina, in the Haifa region and a town originally known for growing citrus. Maybe that is why I ended up here in Indian River County.”

He says that with his characteristic grin and upbeat delivery. Oko’s schoolmate was Ehud Olmert, who would succeed Teddy Kollek as mayor of Jerusalem.

But the family moved from Israel to the U.S. in 1956. “It was because of my ear,” says Oko, expecting a reaction. “I was born with a deformed ear and at the time medical technology to repair it did not exist in Israel. So we moved to America so I could get it fixed.”

At the age of 11, Oko and his family started life in Brooklyn. “It was December and within a month we were living in Chicago. In June I had surgery on my ear and could hear for the first time.”

From there Oko grew up on Chicago’s south shore, went to college at the University of Illinois but finished at Drake in Des Moines, Iowa. By then he was already doing collectibles. “I collected everything – coins, stamps, comic books, match boxes, soda bottle tops. I made money to get through college by going to coin and stamp shows, buying from one dealer and selling to another, pocketing the difference.”

Whatever work he did from that point on, he always supplemented it with his collectibles, which is what he is known for today. Oko’s career path eventually led him to South Florida in 1981. There he earned a distinction far from collectibles. “I helped redesign Florida license plates. They used to indicate county (Indian River was ‘32,’ Dade was ‘1,’ Duval was ‘2’) as well as rental and lease car designations. These tags were very conspicuous and tipped off criminals that someone was from out of town or a tourist. As president of the Dade County Auto Tag Association, I led the charge to change tag designations. State Representative Elaine Bloom from North Miami Beach was lead sponsor of our bill and single handedly led us to victory. The State of Florida began issuing Sunshine State tags after five years of effort.”

Oko has a framed photo of Elaine Bloom and him with the very first Florida Sunshine State license plate delivered to Dade County.

He says everyone has a story. “Everything you have lived through, the people you’ve met, they all have a story to tell. On my radio show I like to ask guests, ‘who are you?’

Later in life, well situated in this country, Oko would ask his father that same question. “He told me life in Palestine under British occupation was not great either. He worked in construction before we came to the U.S. So I asked him, if you had it to do over, would you have gone to Palestine or to America? He answered without hesitation, Palestine, because he felt he had meaning to his life helping to build something from nothing.”

Oko came to Vero Beach in 2010. “Networking opened up a new life for me. Seacoast Bank suggested I start doing road shows, where I would go to one of their branches and set up a private room to display and evaluate collectibles for their customers. That grew and Susan Harris got me involved with non-profits to help them raise funds.”

Like many other collectors, Oko became interested in Highwayman art and his latest passion is buying and selling their works.

As to his unusual family name, Oko says, “It has been traced back to 1847 in Russia, but nothing before that. My grandparents came from Russia and their parents as well. There are many Okos around, one is a Buick dealer in Libertyville, Illinois, Sidney Oko. Others live in Canada, Israel and Africa, but all of them were disbursed from Germany as refugees.”

If you haven’t met Ralph Oko yet, you are in for a pleasant smile, a warm greeting and if you are willing to listen, some great stories.