Ranald Vise was born in Johannesburg on the 1st of March 1944.  In 1946 his parents moved to a farm near Haenertsburg which was to become his home until he graduated with his first degree, B.Com with accounting and law majors, from the University of the Witwatersrand  in 1966.

Ranald attended boarding school at The Ridge in Johannesburg and Bishops in Cape Town where he matriculated in 1960. After school Ranald worked for a year as a learner official on the mines and then was an American Field Service exchange student for another year in the United States of America. In 1963 he started studies in metallurgical engineering at Wits University but changed to B. Com the following year.

Ranald entered into articles with the firm Bowman Gilfillan and Blacklock in Johannesburg in 1968 and studied LLB at Wits while doing his articles. Ranald completed his LLB in 1969 and was admitted as an attorney in 1970.  Ranald continued to work at Bowman Gilfillan and Blacklock as a professional assistant until the end of 1972 when he had to decide whether to stay on with Bowman Gilfillan and Blacklock as a partner or go back to the country. He decided in favour of the country and returned to Haenertsburg where he entered into practice with A M Theron of Tzaneen, which soon became A M Theron and Vise at the beginning of 1973.

 At the end of 1977 Ranald decided to move to Louis Trichardt to farm with his father-in-law, Cyril Thompson, on the farm Wallace Dale near Wylliespoort. Shortly after Ranald joined him, his father-in-law was killed in the then Rhodesia by insurgents while visiting a cattle farm there, of which he was the managing partner.

After a year on the farm Ranald decided to return to practice and joined Coxwell and Steyn in February 1979. He was admitted as a partner in 1980 and in 1986 became senior partner. Ranald qualified as a conveyancer in 1984 and has since then been in charge of the conveyancing department. He has also had extensive experience in certain aspects of commercial work, drafting of commercial contracts, sale agreements, leases, wills etc.

Over the years Ranald has been a keen participant in sailing dinghies, rowing, tennis, golf, hiking, scuba diving, polocrosse, natural horsemanship and endurance riding, and still takes part in horsemanship and endurance riding. He also has an interest in music and reads quite a bit.  

Ranald has participated in the community and is a Rotarian and Past President of Rotary. He was also chairman of Round Table in Tzaneen in 1975.  He was vice chairman of the Soutpansberg Primary school board and chairman of the Hostel Committee for several years, and also served for many years as vice-chairman of the Northern Province Circle Council of the Transvaal Law Society.