Friend. Handyman. Father. At 91 years young, Ray had a lifetime of stories and wisdom. As a young kid growing up during the Great Depression, he shared the proper way to sneak into a U of M football game. The secret was not to wear old clothes and risk crawling under the fence like other kids, but to wear your Sunday best, locate a bewildered couple with tickets in hand, and slip by security claiming the couple as your ticket-holding parents. He went hang-gliding in the 1970s in Golden Colorado, timing the launch of flight to the smell of beer from the Coors’ factory below. He was versed in car mechanics, home construction, and always quick with a joke or smile. He learned new skills throughout his life from card tricks to playing the organ to wine making. Ray served the country in WW2 as a cook on Governors’ Island, New York. There he met Marge Quattrone, a jitterbug who served the war effort in the defense plants, and whose initial rejections of Ray only served to further his interest in her. They wed in 1948 and the marriage would span 65 years. The couple moved to Michigan in the 1950s raising two boys, Raymond and Leon. Ray worked with the Monahan’s on what would later become Domino’s, and ran a tow-truck service for Ann Arbor. He built a home in Dexter in 1974, and generously shared his handyman knowledge and humor with family, friends, and neighbors. He was well-loved, becoming the adopted grandparent of the family next door. He is preceded in death by two brothers Bill and Leon, wife Marge, and son Leon. He is survived by a brother Herbert and sister Eunice, nieces and nephews, adopted grandkids, and his lifelong friend and son Raymond of Hollywood, Florida.
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