William Hudson Ray

My dad was born in Denver on June 6, 1934 to Carswell and Jessie Ray and was the baby of the family. He grew up in the Lincoln Park Projects - which is now part of the Metro campus. He went to West High School – and from all the stories my sisters and I heard he was a pretty good athlete. Basketball, tennis, golf – he could do it all.

He was in the Army during the Korean War and spent a good deal of time in Germany. His job title was "computer". I guess it had something to do with math calculations he had to do to correct the shots from the cannons.

My dad and mom met while she was working for Dr. Johnston. He went in for a sports injury if I recall correctly. They were married November 10, 1962 and just this past year we had the great pleasure of celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary at the Brown Palace with a family brunch. My sister Nancy came along in 1964, me in 1966 and then Beth in 1970.

I can't remember a lot of my dad's jobs. He worked for the Rent-it-Center, a music company where he delivered records to bars for jukeboxes, and was also a courier for various companies. He was always out driving around – which is why he would always seem to just show up places when you didn't expect it.

His favorite movie of all times was "Shane". If it was on TV, he wasn't moving. There was a time when Beth caught him watching it on two channels at once. There was about a half hour delay between the two – so he flipped between the channels so he didn't miss anything. I remember when he was working in the video warehouse and my husband Dave and I went to visit him. When we walked in – he walked us directly to a shelf and proudly proclaimed "this is where we keep Shane". We should have bought it for him right then and there but I can just hear him say "Why would I want it? I've already seen it". I also remember anytime you mentioned the name Jack Palance – dad immediately said, "He's the bad guy in Shane".

My dad was a big Bronco fan. We remember the stories of dad and his best friend Bob Lambert making a security guard open the stadium on a Saturday so they could try out seats and pick the best ones. This was in the 1960's so luckily Mile High was only one level. We made sure to buy those exact seats when they tore down Mile High. If he worked so hard to determine which ones he wanted – we sure as heck were going to make sure they stayed in the family. They are proudly displayed on my sister Nancy's patio. Each season we got to go to one game with dad – usually a cold one cause mom didn't want to. He would always buy us hot Dr. Pepper, with a slice of lemon. No Sunday in our house was complete without numerous fist slams on the arm of the chair and my dad angrily exclaiming "Jeez Louise, gosh darn Dan Reeves and that prevent defense crap". Of course – dad's version was much more colorful. His other favorite rant was "hand off right, hand off left, hand off right, punt".

Finally, he really enjoyed being a grandpa to Tyler, Taylor, Hannah and Jake. I think he liked watching the kid's sports and hearing about their school without the pressure of being the parent.

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