The eldest of five children, Ralph L. DeFalco III was born in Connecticut to Mary Ann Mueller and Ralph L. DeFalco Jr. The family moved to Chicago when DeFalco was an infant, returned to the East Coast and eventually settled in Oak Lawn, Illinois. DeFalco’s paternal grandparents emigrated from the Abruzzi and Napoli regions in Italy, and his maternal grandparents were born in Germany.

As first-generation Americans, his parents grew up in households where their parents learned and mastered English as a second language and were very proud of it. Family holidays were often a blend of cultures. “It was not unusual to have pasta and turkey for the holidays,” DeFalco says. “I think it’s fair to say that we assimilated very, very quickly as a family.”