After serving in the US Army, he taught at the University Maryland, became an Episcopal priest in his native Baltimore, and wrote a series of mystery novels.
While working at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, he received a graduate degree in theology.
Throughout his life, Ramsay held many jobs, including as a tow man, a line supervisor at the BWI airport of Baltimore, insurance salesman, instructor at a community college, a substitute teacher and host of the "Prognosis" feature on the evening news for WMAR, an ABC affiliate in Baltimore.
[2] It became the first in the Ike Schwarz Mystery series, which was centered around a small town Virginia sheriff.
[1] On August 23, 2017, Ramsay died in Arizona from an aggressive recurrence of kidney cancer.