Raymond
Raymond William Marshall
d. May 23, 2020
Ray (16) met Mary (15) at their Shaw High School hall lockers, became "steadies" five months later and married at the start of Ray's junior college year---Ray (19) Mary (18).Ray's mom died earlier that year and they built a home for Ray's dad and younger brother.They met the challenges, had a good social life and both Ray and Mary worked to make ends meet.
Ray graduated from Case Institute of Technology (now Case Western Reserve University) BSEE with honors in 1953 and Syracuse University Graduate School MBA in 1964.He was a member of Eta Kappa Nu and Tau Beta Pi honorary fraternities and Phi Delta Theta social fraternity.
Ray's first job was with Sandia Corporation Albuquerque, NM which developed atomic war heads. His position was flight test engineer with many trips to White Sands. After only 6 months, his college deferments ended and with draft on the horizon Ray enlisted into the Navy.
Ray entered OCS Class 16, Newport, RI, while Mary returned home to Cleveland. Now a Lieutenant, he and Mary moved to CA and his duty stations led to US Naval Postgraduate School Monterey and Brown Field, Chula Vista during the last period of the Korean War. He was the operations Aerology Officer with many collateral duties including permanent trial counsel for special court martials. Ray and Mary were together throughout.Sharon was born at Fort Ord Army Hospital and Carol at the Naval Hospital, Coronado Island.Ray loved the Navy but Electrical Engineering was his first calling.He left active duty, with a Well Done, in 1957.
Rather than return to Sandia, Ray joined GE's Defense Systems Department in Syracuse, NY.Over a period of 11 years, he was a project engineer on the Atlas project, Sonar systems and lastly a liaison project engineer between Syracuse, Phoenix and Bethesda on GE's ground floor entry into large scale time sharing systems. Kathleen, Tom and Dan were born in Syracuse.
The family moved to Potomac, MD in 1967.Ray moved up the management ladder in engineering and operations positions, all directed at making the GE Information System a worldwide enterprise and industry leader.Ray constantly traveled throughout the world to make the network super reliable for international companies. Many network features, such as "The Cloud", were already implemented worldwide in the GE system. He was a 30-year employee of General Electric Company retiring in 1988.
A vacation home on Lake Gaston in Southern Virginia was expanded in 1990 and became the retirement home for Ray and Mary.By that time, the children were all married, building their own families with 11 grandchildren. He and Mary joined a growing parish, now St. James, in Henderson, NC, 40 minutes to the south.They decided to be very active in the Diocese of Raleigh, St. James and home community.They both were 5 years on the Board of Directors of Catholic Charities. Ray became Grand Knight and Financial Secretary of the Knights of Columbus; a member and financial analyst of the St. James Finance Council; the designer and implementer of the church cemetery; twice president of the homeowners' association; special support for the Piedmont Deanery; continuing member of the church choir and the KOC chorale and a dependable leadership donor to the church and diocese.
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