Ray was born March 31, 1939, in North Dakota, where he spent his childhood and teen years.
Ray started playing basketball when he was about six, using a waste basket as a hoop.
He went on to be an outstanding basketball player in high school, where he also participated in track and football.
Ray attended his first two years of college at Dickinson State University in his hometown of Dickinson, North Dakota. Then he transferred to NNC (now NNU), where he continued to play basketball and was also involved in music. Ray was preparing to be a teacher and coach when he was told that because of his stuttering, he would have to change majors because he would never be hired as a teacher.
Through Tom Leupp, former mayor of Nampa, Ray joined the faculty of Cascade College in Portland, Oregon, and started the basketball program, thus beginning his professional life as a college coach and teacher. Eventually Ray left Cascade College and worked with Campus Crusade’s Athletes in Action as one of their first basketball coaches.
In the early 70’s Ray started a counseling center in Spokane, Washington. Ray and his partner Fred Crowell taught seminars and counseled, and also started a basketball camp which is now known as Northwest Basketball Camp (NBC). Ray left Spokane to return to Nampa and coach basketball at his former alma mater, NNC. He went from Nampa to Birmingham, Alabama, to be an assistant coach at Samford University.
After a few years at Samford, Ray began work on his doctorate at the
University of Alabama and returned to counseling.
He was a Biblical psychotherapist in Birmingham for 23 years and continues to do phone counseling with former clients.
During Ray’s counseling work, he had two books published,
Self-Esteem, You’re Better than You Think and
Anger, Defusing the Bomb. The later book was published in several languages and is in the process of being rewritten.
Ray and Ann were involved in their church, Briarwood Presbyterian, where they taught Sunday school, sang in the choir, and began a successful work with divorced singles. Eventually they moved to a ranch outside Birmingham and raised Tennessee Walking Horses in addition to running their counseling practice.
In 1999 Ray and Ann moved to Dayton, Tennessee to work at Bryan College. Ray coached the girls’ basketball team, taught psychology classes and they both counseled students. Three months after the move, Ann died suddenly of a brain aneurysm. Ray continued at the college for a few more years after Ann’s death.
On Christmas of 2000 Ray married Theresa Keister a long time friend. They spent a short time in Tennessee, and then moved to Portland, Oregon. While there, they attended Portland First Church of the Nazarene where Ray taught Sunday school and provided leadership for the small group program.
In the summer of 2003 they moved to Nampa to be close to Theresa’s family. They have a combined family of five children and fourteen grandchildren ages ten and younger. They attend Nampa First Church of the Nazarene where Ray heads up the prayer team and works with small groups. Ray is a regular at athletic events and enjoys his front row seat at both the men’s and women’s basketball games at NNU.
In his spare time Ray enjoys golfing, reading, yodeling, landscaping, and any kind of project that gives him a sense of completion. He cackles at a great joke and is enjoying life and sporting his new convertible. And on the chance that there is a ping pong table open in the JSC, he might even give someone a chance to try and win a game!
Ray’s kind spirit and always encouraging view on life is a testament to why he was given this honor. His consistency and openness with the athlete’s helps all to see into his Christian walk, Christ-like character, and continual enrichment of others by developing significant relationships.
