Raymond E. Velez

Heaven was rejoicing when Raymond (Chaplain Ray) Velez, Sr., 73 years old, arrived to be with his Savior and Lord on January 29, 2018, from his home in Colton, California.

Ray was born in Puerto Rico to Victor and Emilia on November 27, 1944.

Ray and his mother moved to the Bronx, New York where he was a gang leader until the early 1960's, when he went into Teen Challenge to escape a murder charge. That is where his life changed forever and where he surrendered his life to Jesus Christ. Chaplain Ray, throughout his career served multiple cities as a Police Chaplain.

Coming to California in the 70's, he had his own T.V. program in the city of Pomona and Spanish radio in Corona. He was a highly requested speaker in schools, churches and civil organizations, bringing his real life experiences as a past gang leader.

He has run rehabilitation homes for men and supervised homes for high risk children. He also had skills in crisis, marriage, drug intervention counseling, along with gang prevention in some of the roughest areas.

Over the past eight years, he was honored by the City of San Bernardino for his volunteer work with the San Bernardino Chaplain Corps. He loved to bring men back to life at he The Rock Church and Outreach Center. If you needed a prayer, Chaplain Ray was right there for you.

A Father to the Fatherless, a wise counselor and a strong leader. Chaplain Ray has also had the high honor of developing two non profit organizations, Teen Outreach and Chaplains Word and Prayer Ministry. There would be pages and pages of accomplishments if we were to list them all.

The most important thing Chaplain Ray wanted you to know is he loved God and loved all of you.

Visitation for Raymond will be held Friday, February 23, 2018, 5 - 9 pm, and Funeral Service on Saturday, February 24, 2018, both at Montecito Valley View Chapel, 3520 E. Washington St., Colton, CA 92324.

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