Ralph E. Christoffersen was born in Elgin, Illinois, in 1937. He earned a B.S. in mathematics from Cornell College, Mount Vernon, Iowa, in 1959, and his Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Indiana in 1963. He married Barbara Hibbard while at Indiana and had two children, Kirk Allen and Rachel Anne.

Christoffersen spent two years as a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellow, first in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Nottingham, England, followed by a position in the Department of Chemistry at Iowa State University. He joined the chemistry department at the University of Kansas in 1966 as an assistant professor, was promoted to associate professor in 1969, and full professor in 1972. He was appointed as assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of Kansas in 1974, Associate Vice Chancellor in 1976, and then Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs in 1979. Christoffersen became the tenth president at Colorado State University on March 17, 1981.

Unlike most previous presidents at Colorado State, Christoffersen's background emphasized the liberal arts rather than agriculture or land-grant higher education. He advocated for the humanities in a well-rounded education. In addition, as a scientist with more than eighty publications to his credit, Christoffersen felt that research should complement teaching at the university, since students would benefit significantly from the current research experience of their professors.

The onset of serious economic problems in Colorado during the early 1980s led to tighter education budgets and demands from state legislators for strict accountability. The Colorado Commission on Higher Education mandated a comprehensive accountability exercise for the state's colleges and universities, and retrenchment policies proposed by Christoffersen were highly unpopular with the CSU community. Lack of faculty support, divisiveness among members of the governing board, and discontent with Christoffersen's budgetary decisions led to his resignation in January 1983.

Historical information taken from the collection and Democracy's University: A History of Colorado State University, 1970-2003, by James E. Hansen II, pp. 112-118, 125-129.