Raymond A. Bogucki

Ray was raised in Minneapolis by his Polish immigrant parents, where he long claimed his older brother, Henry, stole his milk when he was a baby, and where he was best of friends with his younger sister, Angeline.

In 1942, Ray enlisted in the Army Air Corps and was trained as a fighter pilot. Instead of combat, he was assigned to Air Transport Command and flew C-46s as a “Hump Pilot” – transporting supplies across the Himalayas between India and China, usually at night.

The GI Bill enabled Ray to attend the University of Notre Dame, where he received a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1948. Upon starting his first job at Republic Steel in Chicago he also enrolled in night law school at DePaul University, later receiving his degree from the University of Minnesota School of Law.

Ray’s career as an attorney started at RCA in Camden, New Jersey, working on patents in the Bizmac computer department. In 1956, he moved to Los Angeles to become Senior Patent Attorney at Hughes Aircraft. He left Hughes in 1958 and spent the rest of his career in private practice, starting with the firm of Fraser and Bogucki and its later iterations, then joining Merchant and Gould to establish their Los Angeles office, and eventually continuing in solo practice, until his semi-retirement in 2015, at the age of 93.

It is impossible to do justice to Ray’s 62 years in patent law. His ability to craft patents with broad, strong, defensible claims that stood the test of time established his stellar reputation in intellectual property. Over the decades, he worked on a wide range of inventions - from oil drilling, precision optics and thermo control systems to a plasma pheresis system, early computer disk drives and optical fiber system automation.

Ray enjoyed the sometimes-eccentric company of inventors. He had a lifelong hunger for knowledge and loved developing an understanding of new technologies. He would enthusiastically describe inventions to you in the greatest detail – even if you didn’t want him to.

It was in the Hughes golf club in the Fifties that Ray met the love of his life, Betty. They were married in Texas in 1963 by Ray’s Polish immigrant uncle, Father Joe. Early on, Betty completed her PhD at UCLA, with Ray as her biggest supporter. For many years, Ray could be found traipsing breathlessly along with (or behind) Betty up in the High Sierras, eventually with two whining children in tow. While Ray was notorious for working long hours, when his son and daughter reached baseball playing age, he was happy to find time to help coach their teams. Over their nearly 50 years of marriage, Ray and Betty traveled to many far-flung places, and Ray was fortunate to visit his parents’ native villages and to meet his wonderful relatives in Poland.

In the category of enjoying life, which he very much did, Ray was a true gourmand – he appreciated and loved good food and long dinners, and had a curiosity about all kinds of cuisines. And all kinds of pastries. Bringing friends and family together over food was one of his great joys.

Ray was a true gentleman, treating everyone he met with respect and a genuine curiosity about their lives. His eyes were good and he loved to read books of humor, history and politics until his dying day.

Ray was famous for his playful, occasionally devilish, sense of humor, which he brought to everything he did and to every day of his life. Indeed, the world is a noticeably less cheerful place without Ray in it.

Ray was preceded in death by his wife Betty, his siblings and their spouses, his nephew Dave Stevenson, and his extraordinary caregiver Gloria Ortiz. His good nature, humor, and generosity will be missed by his survivors, devoted daughter Terese (Jim), of Oakland, loving son Robert (Janet) of Fairbanks, Alaska, innumerable nieces and nephews who loved him dearly, and countless friends.

Visitation will be at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park and Mortuary, 1218 Glendon Ave in Westwood on Thursday, January 20 from noon to 4 pm. A funeral Mass will be held Friday, January 21 at 2:30 p.m. at Our Lady of Malibu Catholic Church, 3625 Winter Canyon Road, Malibu, where Ray was a long-time parishioner. Burial will be at Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis at a future date.

Ray was a generous benefactor of many causes. In his later years, he was a great supporter of the work of Youth ALIVE!, an Oakland violence prevention organization. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Youth ALIVE!, 3300 Elm Street, Oakland CA 94609, or at youthalive.org, or to the charity of your choice.

If you are not able to join the funeral mass please copy and paste the Zoom link below to join us online.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89144153141?pwd=UFJReHM0MW1EVmg0NzdOdkZjUU9Udz09

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.pbwvmortuary.com for the Bogucki family.