Ray grew up on a family farm and worked the land throughout his formative years to help provide for his family. He went to grade school in Tours and graduated in 1945 from West High School, where he excelled on the football team.
After graduation Ray moved to Dallas where he met Agnes Kriska at a dance, and they married in 1949 in Ennis, Texas. They had one daughter, Diane, and three sons, Gary, Ron, and Steve. Agnes passed away in 1982. Ray married Helen Nors Petter in 1987.
Ray loved sports and officiated football and umpired baseball for 25 years. He also coached football and basketball. After retiring, Ray enjoyed playing golf several times a week.
Ray never met a stranger and always had a joke or two to tell. He probably told hundreds of jokes in his lifetime, but his family and friends might say that he just told the same jokes hundreds of times. Some of his favorites: He said his parents had to pay his ten siblings to be good, but he was always good for nothing. He had three sisters who were nuns, and he would say that is the reason he had such priestly ways. He was an excellent engineer and handyman, and he used to claim that he could fix anything but a broken heart and the crack of dawn.
Ray is survived by Helen, his devoted wife of 37 years, daughter Diane Wright, son and daughter-in-law Gary and Marsha Vrba, son and daughter-in-law Ron and Karen Vrba, son and daughter-in-law Steve and Barbie Vrba, stepdaughter and stepson-in-law Karen and Mark Marotta, and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
A celebration of Ray’s life will be held on April 24, 2024, at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church in Garland, Texas. Services will begin with a rosary at 10:00 a.m., followed by a mass of Christian burial. A dinner will be served after mass at Curran Hall. Burial will be at Calvary Hill Cemetery in Dallas at 2:00 p.m. Pallbearers will be David Huchingson, Matthew Vrba, Christopher Vrba, Joe Vrba, Laddie Gajdica, Harry Matus, and Larry Brennan.
