Ralph Waldo Barnes (June 14, 1899 – November 17, 1940) was an American journalist from Oregon, best known as a foreign correspondent in Europe during the 1930s.

[2] He graduated from Salem High School in 1917, and that summer he began attending St. John's Military Academy in Delafield, Wisconsin.

[2] In the fall of 1918 he enrolled at Willamette University in Salem, but he had to interrupt his studies when his military reserve unit was called to Camp MacArthur in Waco, Texas for training.

[2] After earning his master's degree in economics from Harvard University, he returned to Salem and married his longtime sweetheart, Esther Barton Parounagian.

[1] On November 17, 1940, on his way to cover Mussolini's invasion of Greece, Barnes was killed along with three Royal Air Force crew members when his plane crashed in Yugoslavia.