Archive: Around Town

I didn't know Ray Buckley very well, but I certainly knew he was a larger than life figure in Lansing.  He came here to be the Lansing Superintendent of Schools, and he fulfilled that role for 31 years.  When he retired in 1992 the Board Of Education decided to name the elementary school after him.  I knew Ray after his retirement, and I have two large impressions.  But all my memories of Ray, large and small, have to do with him serving the Lansing community.   Ray died November 2nd at age 86.

It appeared to me as if Ray had three deep loves.  His wife Dot, who was no slacker herself in serving the Lansing community, children, and the Town of Lansing.  He wasn't the kind of person who loved the things he loved silently.  He did something about it.

I walked into the middle school library one day to cover a science fair for the newspaper, and there was Ray, tutoring a youngster in math.  That is one of the big impressions I have.  Ray was involved with the schools in many ways after he retired, including monitoring school board and budget votes.  At least two superintendents, Mark Lewis and Steve Grimm told me more than once how much they valued Ray's council.  But that image of Ray helping a child just for the love of it is something I will never forget.

My other big impression was the myriad ways he found to give back to the community, whether it was via the Lansing Lions Club or through his church, or just something he decided to do.  I am told he volunteered to do taxes for people at no charge just to help out.  The image I carry is of Ray at the front table at every Lions Club event, be it a pancake breakfast or the iconic 4th of July Barbecue, selling tickets and greeting people.  He always had a smile and a kind word.

In these post-retirement roles he was soft spoken, and at the same time a force of nature.  As such there seemed to be a piece of Lansing missing when he moved to Pittsfield not long ago.  Not running into him around town from time to time was noticeable.  Some people are forces of good, not ostentatious like Superman, but equally getting the job done.

Ray once told me -- I am sure he told this to many people -- that when elementary school students were asked about the man their school was named for they would say, that it was some guy that was dead.  They thought.  Why would they name a school after someone unless he was dead?  Ray was amused by that, and noted wryly that it wasn't true.  In a way it's still not true because of the tangible legacy Ray left to this Town.

Look around.  The community center, pavilions in the town park, the ongoing good works of the Lions Club, the Lansing United Methodist Church and the schools that he shepherded for 31 years.  He was a part of all that and much more that we all take for granted.  If that isn't a living legacy I don't know what is.  It keeps that guy they named the school for alive in Lansing forever.

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