Donald Craig Raney

In 1918, near the end of World War I, Don moved with his family from their North Dakota sugar beet farm to Morgan Hill, CA, where the family grew apricots and prunes.

Don earned a bachelor’s degree from San Jose State in 1937 and a Masters in chemistry from Stanford University one year later. He began his teaching career in 1939, at a high school in Nevada City, California. Don met his wife, Barbara Warren where he attended church.

He enlisted in the Navy after Pearl Harbor and moved to New York City with Barbara to take navigation classes at the Midshipmen’s School at Columbia University. For the next two and a half years, Don taught navigation at the Midshipmen’s School and then spent six months in Guam.

After being honorably discharged from the Navy in 1945, Don returned to California and taught chemistry for 32 years at the College of Sequoias in Visalia, the College of San Mateo and then the Canada College in Redwood City, where he worked as a full time professor and served as head of the physical science department.

Don retired in 1975 and moved to Santa Ynez, California. He accomplished two personal objectives, mission work and giving back to Westmont College in Santa Barbara, where his three children and a grandchild attended college.

After one and a half years teaching part time at Westmont, Don volunteered with Wycliffe (SLI), a Bible translation ministry. He and Barbara were sent to Ukarumpa in Papua, New Guinea in 1977, where Don taught physical science and math at a Wycliffe compound of about 800 people.

After teaching in Ukarumpa, Westmont College asked Don to return and he spent almost six more years assisting in chemistry labs at the college.

In 1979, Don and Barbara moved to Ventura.

Don is survived by his wife of 71 years, Barbara; three children and their spouses, Linda Anne Lindberg and her husband Bill of Santa Barbara, CA, Cynthia Margaret Kramer and her husband Norman of Santa Rosa, CA, and David Craig Raney and his wife Pamela, of Fox Island, WA; five grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.

A memorial service for Don will be held Saturday, November 16, 2013, 11:00 A.M. at Ventura Missionary Church, 500 High Point Drive, Ventura.

Arrangements are under the direction of the Ted Mayr Funeral Home, 3150 Loma Vista Road, Ventura