Raymond W. White

| January 7, 2022

Raymond W. White, 77, of Coshocton, Ohio passed away at Genesis Hospital in Zanesville on January 6, 2022 from an Intracerebral Hemorrhage. Ray was born to MaryBelle Briney White and Dr. Wade Johnson White on August 15, 1944 in Las Vegas, New Mexico. He grew up in New Mexico, and later in Coshocton, Ohio where he graduated from Coshocton High School, part of the Class of 1962. He met his high school sweetheart, Mary Lynn Crater, and married her on August 28, 1966. After high school, he attended Ohio State University, where he graduated from Dental School in 1969. He served in the United States Army and was stationed at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas.

In 1971, Ray attended a dental conference in Colorado, and a friend took him to the top of a snow-covered mountain and told him to find his own way down. Ray fell in love with skiing and moved his family to Montana, where he started his own dental practice, and enjoyed the great outdoors with his family and friends. He spent many years going on family pack trips into the Bob Marshall Wilderness area, skiing at Big Sky Ski Resort and other ski areas in Montana and Grand Targhee in Wyoming., fishing in Alaska, and hunting deer, antelope, elk, Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep, mountain goats, and pheasants. He had many hunting trips to Idaho and fishing trips to Alaska with his close friends Don Nordstrom, Tom Bitner, and Doug Hadnot.

He loved his two children, Robert and Brenda. He taught them how to fly fish on pack trips, raced model cars in Boy Scouts with Robert, and took them both hunting.  His daughter, Brenda, went antelope hunting one year in eastern Montana. That was the first year that they came home empty handed and the guys promptly named her L’il Jinx. He also enjoyed taking Robert fishing in Alaska with the guys.

In 1987, Ray sold his practice in Missoula, and took over a dental practice in Lewistown. While in Lewistown, he continued to enjoy skiing and hunting, but also took up golfing. Ray thoroughly enjoyed being a dentist, but was forced to retire early from dentistry because of tremors in his hand. In 2009, he and Mary moved back home to Coshocton. Although he left behind old friends, skiing, hunting and fishing, he found new friends and new past times here. One particular individual, Christa, became good friends with Ray & Mary and commonly referred to them as Mary Lynn and “The Ray White”.

Having to give up golf after a while, so that he didn’t rip his pacemaker out of his chest on his golf swing, he took up the card game of Golf. Anyone who would come visit usually ended up sitting around the kitchen table playing a round of Golf. He also enjoyed playing Hand and Foot with Mary, his sister-in-law Theda, and brother-in-law Gordon, when he was in town to visit. They would play cards when they didn’t have anything else to do. As you can imagine, they played a lot of card games.

Ray eventually became a grandfather, and thoroughly enjoyed the time spent with his grandkids. Last year when his grandson JJ came to visit he gave his grandfather the nickname Gramps! Every time JJ talked to him on the phone, it was always, Hi Gramps! Gramps thought that was a pretty cool name.

Ray was always willing to help out anyone: a neighbor, his sister-in-law, Central Christian Church. Anyone that needed help, he was right there ready to help out. He wanted to be an organ and tissue donor, when it came his time to go. He was unable to be an organ donor, but Lifeline of Ohio told us that he could still be a tissue donor and help individuals from hip replacement to skin graft to torn knee ligaments, those with cancer, burn victims and many more. Even though Ray is no longer with us, he will live on in those that he has helped with this donation.

Ray is survived by his wife of 55 years, his two children: Robert (Tina) of Grand Rapids, MN and Brenda (Jerry) Majdic of Riverton, WY, his grandkids Allison, Christian, JJ, Rebecca, and his newly acquired grandkids Josh and Jacob, and many nieces, nephews and cousins.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Dr. & Mrs. Wade White, and his brother David.

Visitation will be held at Miller Funeral Home, 639 Main Street, Coshocton on Friday, January 14, 2022 from 11 am – 1 pm, immediately followed by a funeral service at 1:00 pm. with burial to follow at South Lawn Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you make a donation to either Central Christian Church in Coshocton or Lifeline of Ohio. An online memorial is located at www.themillerfuneralhome.com

Category: Obituaries

About the Author ()

Article contributed to The Beacon.

Comments are closed.