Passing of Ray Lucas

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Shane
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Passing of Ray Lucas

Post by Shane »

A giant of the hobby has been lost. Ray Lucas passed five days ago. It has taken me a few days to process his passing.

In the early 1990s I had just finished University and had a few articles under my name in TFH, FAMA, and AFM (US "shiny" magazines). I was invited to speak at the Northeast Council convention in Connecticut. It was my first national speaking opportunity and the first ever catfish focused convention. I was giving a talk with the "giants" of the hobby: Lee Finley, Ginny Eckstein, and Wayne Leibel. As a new university graduate, I turned up in slacks, tie and jacket to give my presentation. I ended up laying in the hallway of the hotel with Lee and Wayne plastered and talking fish until the wee hours of the morning.

I met a very nice man named Ray Lucas who said he loved my presentation and was very kind with his time.

Two weeks after the convention two giant boxes showed up at my house. They were full of filters, nets, fish food, and python products. The return address was Ray Lucas. I called him (remember I am broke at this point in my life) and said Ray I can never repay you for this. He just said, "Keep doing what your doing." I have tried to abide by his request for 30 years.

-Shane
Last edited by Shane on 03 Mar 2023, 01:20, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Passing of Ray Lucas

Post by aquaholic »

Nice story, thank you for sharing. Shows he was a kind thoughtful gentleman and a lovely way to honour and remember him.
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Re: Passing of Ray Lucas

Post by Viktor Jarikov »

The world likely still exists because of the kind and selfless acts like what Ray did. Lord, bless his soul!
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Re: Passing of Ray Lucas

Post by Jools »

I think I'd like to add to this. I also first met Ray at an American fish convention, the PVAS catcon in 2004. Here are some "classic" Ray pics by Dave Snell from then.
Vendor Room DSC_4936.JPG
Vendor room - Kingfish DSC_4690.JPG
Vendor room - Kingfish and bady DSC_4728.JPG
Fishroom Judging DSC_4909.jpg
Two stories I remember about Ray.

After fish and family, he was nuts about classic American cars. At catcon, next door, there was a classic American car rally going on - the poor guy didn't know where to be! I think he had a great weekend.

Second story about Ray was when he visited me in Edinburgh. It was 2009 I think as he was speaking at the CSG convention. He said that the Fraser department store in Edinburgh was owned by a distant relative and wanted to visit it and indeed Scotland. Even in tourist-jaded Edinburgh, Ray's All-American characteristics shone out and we had a lot of laughs, especially in the joke shop at the bottom of Victoria Street (widely regarded as the source material for Diagon Alley - the street, not Ray in a wizard hat :-) ). Even writing that out now makes me smile. Happily I was able to buy him a pint in Edinburgh's old town, but he would just plain not let me pay for lunch. After he left, I found a $100 bill with a note saying to use it to help run this website.

Everyone was a friend of Ray's, I am glad to be amongst them.

Jools
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