Raymond Leonard Connell

Raymond Leonard Connell, age 93, of Henderson, Nevada passed away on Wednesday, February 26, 2025. Ray was born in Fall River, Massachusetts on June 30, 1931 to his parents Thomas Louis Connell, and Katherine Bouchard. Ray's parents were immigrants from Ireland. His father was a orphaned circus boy who was drafted in the US Army during WWII, and worked as a mechanic until his passing, and his mother was Canadian Fur Trapper who worked as a domestic servant who spent her married life as a housekeeper to her four children. Ray was the youngest of his siblings: Katherine, Thomas and Russel.

Ray enlisted into the US Air Force shortly after graduating from high school in 1948. He served in Air Sea Rescue in Korea and was also stationed in Iceland for a year. He ended his service as a medical orderly transporting wounded US soldiers in the large Constellation Planes from Tokyo, Japan to Los Angeles. Ray was honorably discharged and obtained the rank of Staff Sergeant.

Ray was the first in his family to graduate from college. He used the GI Bill to pay for Engineering School, however, like many returning veterans, he had to go to a special VA remedial school to retake a year and a half of classes to be accepted into college. He met his future wife, Barbara there and they began to date. Ray and Barbara had grown up since children as next door neighbors. She was 3 years younger than he; however, the years in the service before meeting her again caused them to not recognize each other and to get to know each other differently. Ray graduated from Durfee Technical College now University of Massachusetts Dartmouth with a degree in Engineering.

Shortly after graduation, Ray married Barbara and they moved to New London, Connecticut where he worked at Electric Boat. Then he moved to New Haven to work at Avco Lycoming on turbine engines and re-entry vehicles for the space program. Ray supervised a group of ex Nazi U2 Rocket Scientists who worked there since the Germans were farther ahead of the Americans in space technology in the initial years of the Space Race.

While in New Haven, Ray and Barbara were blessed with the birth of their oldest son, Len in 1960; and the birth of their daughter, Lisa in 1961. They lived in New Haven until 1965 when Ray accepted a job at Raytheon and the family moved back to their hometown of Fall River, Massachusetts; where they purchased their first home.

Ray worked as a trouble failure analysis specialist, helping a dozen nuclear submarines diagnose and repair failed and broken equipment while on their missions. This required a lot of travel throughout the world, particularly to Hawaii. Ray and Barbara’s unofficial, postponed honeymoon took place on a long business trip he took to Honolulu in 1966, where was allowed to take Barbara along.

In 1966, Barbara came up with a wild idea. A small island off the coast of Massachusetts had been hit by a major hurricane two years earlier. About 20 wrecked homes were being sold at a fire sale. $1350 for a beach front cottage. So the Connells bought one, a broken down shack, and spent the next nine summers living in it and gradually fixing it up to make it livable. While Ray commuted to Portsmouth, Rhode Island, Barbara achieved her dream of getting a college education too and began to take classes at the Bristol Community college, part of the first; handful of women to do so. She moved on to Southeastern Massachusetts University, now University of Massachusetts Dartmouth to earn a degree in history. She went on to Bridgewater College, the first teacher’s college in the US to earn a Masters in Education.

In 1974, the family uprooted to move across the country to Riverside, California. Massachusetts had voted for George McGovern in the 1972 election, the only state that did, so President Nixon canceled the bulk of their government contracts in return. So many military operations were closed that year and the aerospace firms that depended on those contracts were shuttered too.

In Riverside, Ray took a major pay cut and moved to a much more expensive area to join the Civil Service to do basically the same job he did at Raytheon but for the Government. He was based in Corona, California, and would economize on his travel pay to bring money home to help make ends meet. It was very lean times for the Connells for a while. Len and Lisa went to Ramona High School in Riverside. Lisa got married and Len graduated from UC Riverside. Barbara earned another Masters Degree in Historic

Preservation.

It was time for Ray and the Connell family to move again. Ray accepted a major promotion in Civil Service to move to Las Vegas to work at Nellis AFB for the rest of his career. He was an engineer associated with Range Group and the Red Flag War Games where the US Air Force trained pilots of allied nations in the newest techniques. Barbara became a reporter at the Las Vegas Sun for a Decade and then became a technical writer at EG&G. Ray’s last posting was at Creech AFB, once called Indian Springs AFB about 50 miles north of Las Vegas. He retired in 2004 and he and Barbara lived quietly in Henderson for the next 20 years.

In retirement, Ray and Barbara enjoyed traveling in Europe with friends and keeping up with family.

Since they were both the youngest in their families; the last five years of their lives were sad due to the passing of Rays two brothers and sister; and Barbara losing her five sisters and three brothers. Ray and Barbara spent the last six years of their lives with their son, Len as their live in caregiver; but lived long enough to celebrate their 66th wedding anniversary. Unfortunately, Ray lost the love of his life, ten days prior to his own passing. The couple are together again, but will truly be missed by their family and friends.

Ray was preceded in death by his parents, and his siblings: Katherine, Thomas and Russel. He is survived by his son, Len; his daughter, Lisa, and his four grandchildren: Jillian, Jennifer, James and Jackie; and three great grandchildren: Sophie, Dallas, and Scotty.

A memorial service with military honors for Raymond will be held Friday, May 9, 2025 beginning at 1:00 PM at Palm Mortuary Henderson, 800 South Boulder Highway, Henderson, NV 89015. Ray will be laid to rest privately at the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City, Nevada.