Thursday, March 9, 2017
Aside from being a life long friend, Ray was one of the best Photojournalists on the planet. He was an artist, a wonderful story teller and a magician all wrapped up into one. His camera was an extension of himself, he used that tool to share a new(s) story about people everyday. Sometimes, it was a tough story, one of those heart breakers that had to be told. Sometimes it was a "slice of life" story, like the award winning piece he did about "The Can Man" who collected cans and bottles from the side of the road. He put a microphone on the nearly 80-year old bike rider, and let The Can Man tell his own story as he conducted his business, filling his side baskets with the cast offs he cashed in for a dime apiece.
The Can Man would collect enough money in the summertime, to allow him to go to Florida every year in the Winter to see his daughter. To this day, it's still one of the best things ever seen on television.
His method and story telling style were so unique, the TV station consultants took his "Can Man" story with them across the country to teach other TV folks just how " it's" supposed to be done.
Ray and I spent many years together in a TV 5 News vehicle as a team. He loved covering breaking news... we spent several days together in the live truck covering the explosion and fire of the gasoline tanker Jupiter one Sunday morning on the Saginaw River... it was loaded with several thousand gallons of fuel and burned for days sending a huge plume of black smoke many miles into the air. Ray was the photographer then went up in a small plane to take pictures of the spectacle. His video was seen around the world!
Sometimes Ray would come by the house on our days off and we would spend a few hours making a little racket with our guitars. Ray was many things to me, but most of all, he was my brother.
